The Woman's Building (Chicago)

Coordinates: 41°47′13.6″N 87°35′8.2″W / 41.787111°N 87.585611°W / 41.787111; -87.585611
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Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893

The Woman's Building was designed and built for the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 under the auspices of the Board of Lady Managers.[1] Of the twelve main buildings for the Exhibition, on June 30, 1892 The Woman's Building was the first to be completed.[2] It had exhibition space as well as an assembly room, a library, and a Hall of Honor. The History of the World's Fair states, "It will be a long time before such an aggregation of woman's work, as may now be seen in the Woman's Building, can be gathered from all parts of the world again."[3]

Building

Floor Plan and Ground Plan of the Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893

Fourteen women architects submitted designs for the Woman's Building. The Board of Architects selected Sophia Hayden's design.[4] The design was for a three-story building done in Italian Renaissance style with Corinthian columns.[5] The Hall of Honor was in total 70 feet in height and didn't have any pillars or supports obstructing the space.[6] Alice Rideout was chosen as the official sculptor for the Woman's Building. She created the exterior sculpture groups and the pediment.[7] Enid Yandell designed and created the caryatid that supported the roof garden. In addition, [8] Candace Wheeler supervised the interior decorations.[9]

Decor

Interior decoration included murals painted by Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low (Primitive Woman) and Mary Cassatt (Modern Woman). Cassatt was asked to paint a 58 x 12 foot mural for the north tympanum over the entrance to the Gallery of Honor, showcasing the advancement of women throughout history, called Modern Woman. Four panels in the Hall of Honor were painted by Lucia Fairchild Fuller, Amanda Brewster Sewell, Rosina Emmet Sherwood and Lydia Field Emmet.[10] The work by Rosina Emmet Sherwood, titled The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters, is a neo-classical setting with women draped in a toga bestowing women entering the hall with laurels as crowns.[6] Women in Arcadia, painted by Amanda Brewster Sewell, displays a warm summer with two women, one of which is half nude holding their hand out to a sheep and the other stands behind her plucking oranges from a tree.[6] The library ceiling mural was painted by Dora Wheeler Keith.[11] Regardless of the artists background, they all painted their murals in the 'new style' which had been developed in France.[11]

The British sculptor Ellen Mary Rope contributed a bas-relief, depicting ‘Hope, Charity, Faith and Heavenly Wisdom’, which found a later home in the dining room of the first Ladies' Residential Chambers in London, a project of cousins Rhoda and Agnes Garrett.[12]

Located in the Assembly Hall, were seven stained and leaded glass windows that were visible from both the inside as well as out. The most prominent of which was centered behind the stage. These were created by Elisabeth Parsons, Edith Blake Brown, and Ethel Isadore Brown, Massachusetts Mothering the Coming Woman of Liberty, Progress, and Light depicts two women both in classical garb, the one in the forefront holds a torch high above her head.[9]

Exhibits

Madeleine Lemaire's poster for The Art & Handicraft in the Woman's Building

The Woman's Building contained exhibits of works by women across a variety of fields from fine art, applied art, literature and music, to science, and home economics. There were also exhibits about women in American history and other cultures and places in the world.[13] Displays also included charts and graphs of women's advancement in the industrial workforce as well as philanthropic and political work.[14] The Smithsonian loaned an ethnological exhibit featuring crafts from several cultures including African, Native American, and Polynesian, titled "Woman's Work in Savagery". The Inventions Room and Science Exhibit featured more modern contributions, all of which except for one were of white woman.[14]

The library, located on the second floor and decorated with wood paneled bookshelves, leather couches, and artworks by female artists, boasted at least 8,000 books representing 24 different nations all of which were written by women.[15]

Annexed to the Woman's Building was the Children's Building, which exhibited American 19th century best practices for child-rearing and education.[16]

Legacy

Enid Yandell and Laura Hayes co-wrote a semi-autobiographical account of three women architects and their involvement in planning the fair. This novel was published in 1892 and titled Three Girls in a Flat (1892).[17]

The exhibits at the Woman's building inspired Danish noblewoman, Sophie Oxholm, to organize a women's exhibition in Copenhagen, eventually resulting in the 1895 Copenhagen Women's Exhibition.[18]

Buildings at world's fairs are often demolished when the event ends, and finding another home for them is rarely practical. (The exception was The Crystal Palace after the Great Exhibition of 1851.) The Woman's Building was destroyed as part of the general demolition after the Fair.[19] Sadly, after the exposition, Cassatt's mural and many other artworks by many women were placed in storage and subsequently lost.[20]

Eighty years later, the Woman's Building had been almost lost to history. With the flourishing of second-wave feminism, women went searching for what had gone before. Feminist artist Judy Chicago and her team of students, in the midst of creating The Dinner Party, discovered a copy of the Woman's Building catalog in a second-hand bookstore. When the Los Angeles Woman's Building was opened in 1973, the founders decided to name the organization after the 1893 Woman's Building.[21]Since then, the Woman's Building Organization have also established a building in San Francisco. [22]

Gallery

  • Mary Fairchild MacMonnies - Primitive Woman - Decoration for the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition 1893
    Mary Fairchild MacMonnies - Primitive Woman - Decoration for the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition 1893
  • The Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893
    The Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893
  • Woman's Building — Official Views of the World's Columbian Exposition — 45
    Woman's Building — Official Views of the World's Columbian Exposition — 45
  • Hide and Seek. Sculptural Group in front of the Woman's Building
    Hide and Seek. Sculptural Group in front of the Woman's Building
  • Part of the French Exhibit at the Woman's Building
    Part of the French Exhibit at the Woman's Building
  • View from Balcony of Woman's Building, William Henry Jackson, 1893
    View from Balcony of Woman's Building, William Henry Jackson, 1893
  • Library Ceiling Mural by Dora Wheeler Keith
    Library Ceiling Mural by Dora Wheeler Keith
  • mural The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters by Rosina Emmet Sherwood
    mural The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters by Rosina Emmet Sherwood

See also

References

  1. ^ Corn, Wanda M.; with contributions by Charlene G.; Garfinkel, Charlene G.; Madsen, Annelise K. (2010). Women building history: public art of the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press. ISBN 0520241118.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  2. ^ Palm, Regina Megan (2010). "Women Muralists, Modern Woman and Feminine Spaces: Constructing Gender at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition". Journal of Design History. 23 (2): 123–143. ISSN 0952-4649.
  3. ^ Truman, Benjamin Cummings (1893). History of the World's Fair : being a complete description of the Columbian Exposition from its inception. Philadelphia, Pa.: H.W. Kelley. p. 192.
  4. ^ Ralph, Julian (1892). Chicago at the World's Fair. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers. p. 162.
  5. ^ Palm, Regina Megan (2010). "Women Muralists, Modern Woman and Feminine Spaces: Constructing Gender at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition". Journal of Design History. 23 (2): 123–143. ISSN 0952-4649.
  6. ^ a b c "The Decoration of the Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition". The Decorator and Furnisher. 23 (6): 221–222. 1894. ISSN 2150-6256.
  7. ^ Weimann, Jeanne Madeline (1981). The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893. Chicago: Academy Chicago. pp. 167-175. ISBN 0915864673.
  8. ^ Weimann, Jeanne Madeline (1981). The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893. Chicago: Academy Chicago. pp. 159. ISBN 0915864673.
  9. ^ a b Nichols, K. L. "Women's Public Arts & Architecture: 1893 Exposition". Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  10. ^ Elliott, Maud Howe (1894). Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983. Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company. p. 43-47.
  11. ^ a b Nichols, K. L. "Women's Public Arts & Architecture: 1893 Exposition". Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
  12. ^ "Spirited Women of Gower Street: The Garretts and their Circle" (PDF). Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  13. ^ Elliott, Maud Howe (1894). Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983. Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company. p. 7.
  14. ^ a b Gullett, Gayle (1994). ""Our Great Opportunity": Organized Women Advance Women's Work at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893". Illinois Historical Journal. 87 (4): 259–276. ISSN 0748-8149.
  15. ^ Searing, Susan E. (2012). "Women in the White City: Lessons from the Woman's Building Library at the Chicago World's Fair". American Libraries. 43 (3/4): 44–47. ISSN 0002-9769.
  16. ^ Elliott, Maud Howe (1894). Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983. Chicago and New York: Rand McNally & Company. p. 189-194.
  17. ^ Yandell, Enid; Hayes, Laura. "Three Girls in A Flat". A Celebration of Women Writers. Penn Libraries. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  18. ^ "Kvindernes Udstilling 1895". Emma Gad (in Danish). 30 June 2012. Retrieved 27 August 2018.
  19. ^ Weimann, Jeanne Madeline (1981). The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893. Chicago: Academy Chicago. pp. 593. ISBN 0915864673.
  20. ^ Michalska, Magda. "Mary Cassatt's Feminist Mural Which Has Gone Lost". DailyArt Magazine. DailyArtMagazine.com. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  21. ^ "Celebrating The Woman's Building on International Women's Day". Otis College of Art and Design. Otis College of Art and Design. Retrieved 6 July 2018.
  22. ^ "How the Women's Building Came To Be - FoundSF". www.foundsf.org. Retrieved 2024-03-27.

External links

41°47′13.6″N 87°35′8.2″W / 41.787111°N 87.585611°W / 41.787111; -87.585611