Art and Handcraft in the Woman's Building
of the World's Columbian Exposition

IN THE WOMAN S BUILDING. 75 illustrator’s “ ingenuity and invention ” is called into play. It is not enough to have a pretty extensive knowledge of historic ornament; she must be able to extract from a book its central idea, and reduce this thought, if possible, to some tangible form permitting a conventional treatment. She must not outrage any true standards of design, yet she should be able to suggest to the BOOK COVER. Alice C. Morse. United States. casual observer, in a symbolic way, the contents of the volume. Women seem to have a remark- able faculty for designing. Their intuitive sense of decoration, their feeling for beauty of line and harmony of color, insures them a high degree of success. Another consideration is the necessity of rigid, exact treatment of details; uncertain or even, suggestive drawing is out of place in cover ornamentation. Mrs. Sarah W. Whitman of Boston and Mar- By PceTturv c?the ^aret N. Armstrong have taken a firm hold on (Copyrighted.) f[ie publishers, and won recognition from the public, by their appropriate, tasteful, well-studied book decoration.* The designs of Miss Sheldon, Miss Sinclair, and others are prom- ising. Forthose possessing the requisite endowment, the ever-widening prospect in cover designing is encouraging. Just now wood engraving is suffering a temporary eclipse. Its future is problematic, owing to the proccss-work so much in vogue, and so inimical to the interests of the engraver. It is lamentable to have to admit that there is the slightest question in regard to the future of the wood-cut. It seems impossible that this method of a sympathetic rendering of the artist’s idea by a well-trained hand and eye should be superseded by a purely mechanical means in reproduction. We detect, even now, however, book cover. 1 „ . i , i 1 j j. • i Boston symptoms of a reaction toward the old-time wood collection. engraving among" the publishers. There are rec- united states. ords of women engraving on wood in the time of Albrecht Dürer. Since the revival of the art in England, through the work of Thomas Bewick, we find mention of but one eminent woman engraver, Elizabeth Thompson, daughter of the famous * Miss Alice C. Morse, the writer of this paper, has made a wide reputation by her excellent and serious work in the designing of book covers.—Ed.