Chapter XXXVII: Introduction (5)

The second class of material mentioned, i.e., photographic views
and models, was largely the work of experts, artists, and
craftsmen employed for the purpose. It would be impossible to
determine the relative proportion of men and women contributing,
although it is probable that the former were in excess. It
should be observed, however, that many very interesting devices
for teaching children, many suggestive modifications of
kindergarten material and exercises, and many excellent
photographs showing classes at work, were executed by women. The
great skill and admirable system attained by women teachers in
the preparation of material for teaching the sciences to
children were illustrated in a very graphic manner by the
exhibits of normal schools, such as those of Massachusetts and
the State Normal School of Rhode Island.

The third class of material named, i.e., that pertaining to
school administration--chiefly in the form of statistical charts
and reports--was the work of school superintendents and their
clerical force, in which branch of the school service
comparatively few women are engaged.

The mode of installation formed a striking feature in the case
of many of the systems of public schools exhibited at St. Louis.
The highest results were achieved where the plan of the exhibit
had been carefully worked out with full regard to aesthetic
effect and educational significance. In the formation of these
plans women had very largely participated, and in one instance,
namely, that of the Minnesota educational exhibit, the entire
installation was planned and carried to a successful completion
by a woman. This exhibit was ranked in the first class for the
unity of its plan, the completeness with which it set forth the
educational provision in every part of the State, and its
aesthetic finish. In judging of exhibits, the person who planned
and organized the exhibit was regarded as a collaborator, and to
Miss S.E. Sirwell, the collaborator in this instance, the
highest award allowable was adjudged by the jury of group 1, a
distinction which was conferred upon very few individuals.

The exhibit of the public school system of the city of St.
Louis, which was universally admired, owed its chief decorative
effect to the artistic skill of Miss M.R. Garesché, who composed
and executed a series of 16 transparent paintings representing a
history of education. These pictures formed a succession of
brilliant panels on the external side of the façade, and for
this unique work a gold medal was awarded to Miss Garesché.

Mention should also be made of a very interesting series of
paintings by Miss Florence Hedleston, of Oxford, Miss.,
representing all the wild flowers of that State, an exhibit
which excited much attention both for its artistic excellence
and its usefulness in teaching the native flora.

The exhibit of New York City afforded many striking examples of
the ingenuity and progressive spirit of women teachers. The
public school system of this city has had marked development on
what may be called the sociologic or philanthropic side, and in
this development, which was graphically illustrated in the
educational exhibit, women teachers have borne a very important
part. It is, however, impossible here to particularize as to
their work in this respect.

The external side of the New York City booth in the Education
Building was utilized for the exhibit of the Woman's School of
Design. The exhibit consisted of a remarkable collection of
original designs which, with one or two exceptions, were
purchased by manufacturing firms as they stood on the wall.
Although this work did not come within the scope of the jury of
group 1, I mention it here to emphasize the fact that the
exhibits of art schools in the Education Building showed very
remarkable progress on the part of women in the art of
designing.

This survey had been confined almost entirely to the exhibits of
the United States. It need hardly be said that in no foreign
country do women play so important a part in education, and on
account of the mode of installation it would have been
impossible to distinguish between their work and that of men in
the foreign exhibits. Mention may, however, be made of the fact
that the exhibits of French industrial schools for girls and of
the French lycées for girls, which were of a very high order,
were substantially the work of women. In the Swedish section
there was a very admirable exhibit of secondary schools for
girls and coeducational schools, which had been planned and
installed by Miss Mathilda Widegren. In the English section were
shown very remarkable specimens of art work in jewelry and
silver repoussé designed and executed by women students. As the
foreign exhibits specified did not come under the jury of group
1, I am unable to report the awards which they received.

The increasing recognition of the value of women's services is
indicated by the increase in the proportion of women called to
serve upon the exposition juries. The jury of group 1 included
three women, of whom two were foreigners, namely, Miss Elizabeth
Fischer, a teacher from Halle, Germany, and Miss Mathilda
Widegren, associate principal of a private school in Sweden.
These three members were all women of great experience in the
matters with respect to which they were called to judge, and
their abilities were most cordially and heartily recognized by
their colleagues. Indeed, in view of the place in education
which is now accorded to women in our own country and in the
leading countries of Europe, I should unhesitatingly say that it
is for the advantage of women and of society in general that
their work should not be separately exhibited, but should rather
form an integral part of a collective exhibit. This principle,
indeed, might not apply to certain specialties which have
heretofore been exclusively or almost exclusively practiced by
men, or which (like artistic needlework) have a particularly
feminine character.

ANNA TOLMAN SMITH,
_Member of the International Jury, Group 1,
Louisiana Purchase Exposition_.

BUREAU OF EDUCATION,
_Washington, D.C._

As chairman of the committee to report on the work of the jury, Miss Smith writes:

REPORT OF A COMMITTEE OF THE JURY OF GROUP 1.

The material presented for the consideration of the jury of
group No. 1 (elementary education) comprised on the part of the
United States the exhibit of public education as organized in 34
States and Territories, in 6 cities (presented as separate
units), and in 15 foreign countries. In number, extent, and
complexity these exhibits surpassed all previous collections of
the kind; the separate entries ran up into the thousands,
representing for the most part such important collections as the
exhibits of cities, counties, and groups of rural schools, all
deserving careful attention.

The examination of this material in the brief time allowed
(twenty days) was a severe task, and would have been impossible
but for the circumstance that, with two exceptions, the exhibits
were all placed in one building. For the first time in the
history of expositions the chief collective activity of
civilized peoples was honored by an edifice planned and erected
for itself alone. This concentration of the material under the
general direction of an experienced and able chief, thoroughly
familiar with the arrangements and of unfailing courtesy and
helpfulness, alone brought the work assigned the jury of group 1
within the bounds of possible achievement. Their efforts were
furthered also by the expert qualification of each and every
member of the group by the system and perfect harmony in which
they worked, and by the exceptional ability of their official
staff: Chairman, Dr. E.O. Lyte; vice-chairman, Mr. B. Buisson,
representing the French Government; secretary, Mr. Morales de
Los Rios, representing the Cuban Government.

The details of the group organization are shown by the minutes
of the secretary, which also present a full record of its daily
action and findings. It remains here only to speak of salient
features of this particular division of the exposition, whose
effects can not be indicated nor estimated by any system of
awards.

The installations of the various exhibits had been carefully
planned and were, as a rule, effective, and in many cases
extremely beautiful. The United States has made notable progress
in this respect since the Chicago Exposition of 1893, and even
since the Paris Exposition in 1900, and in the present
exposition several of our States and cities offer fine models of
the exhibitor's art. This is the case especially with Missouri
and St. Louis; the latter in particular has realized the double
purpose of challenging popular attention and satisfying critical
taste. The art of effective exposition, whether worked out with
noble simplicity or rich decorative accessories, requires on the
one hand intelligent selection and coordination of the material,
and on the other skill in the treatment of space and artistic
elements. No small part of the value of an educational exhibit
lies in its esthetic quality, since this reveals not less
clearly than the methods and results of school training the
inherent genius of a people. This International Exposition has
been rich in this quality, on account both of the number of
different nations participating and the care taken by each to
give distinctive character to its display. This is marked in the
exhibits of elementary education, which in nearly all European
countries forms a complete whole, distinct from other grades,
and having the definite purpose of maintaining an established
social order or national type through the intellectual, manual,
and artistic training of the masses. The presentation of
elementary education as an independent unit indeed well accords
with the conditions in nearly all countries excepting our own.
Elsewhere, as a rule, elementary education forms a complete
system, having its separate administration, purposes, and
ideals. In this respect the United States presents a notable
contrast to the chief countries of the Old World, and one
strikingly illustrated in this exposition. In our own country
education is conceived as an integral process steadily
developing from the kindergarten to the university. To this
conception corresponds the sequence of elementary and high
schools united under a common administration and by close
scholastic bonds. Hence a measure of violence is done both to
elementary and secondary education as here organized by the
endeavor to view them separately. On the other hand, a portion
of the elementary education of foreign countries, notably of
France and Germany, does not enter at all into the sum total of
the impressions recorded by the jury of either group, because of
the social distinctions that underlie in those countries the
classification of schools as elementary and secondary. These
anomalous conditions affect particularly the classification and
judgment of the various agencies for the training of teachers
(that is, normal schools, teachers' training colleges, and
auxiliary agencies, such as normal classes in academies or other
secondary schools, teachers' institutes, etc). In the chief
foreign countries professional schools of this kind are easily
classified by virtue of their administrative relations, but in
our own country the different orders of pedagogical training
merge into each other almost imperceptibly because they are all
based upon the same fundamental conception of the teaching
profession.

It is interesting to note in this connection that the exhibit of
Great Britain and Ireland has avoided all confusion by the
selection of the characteristic features of particular schools
or of processes that have worked well in certain communities or
pupil and class work of special significance. This mode of
exhibition accords perfectly with the private character of a
large proportion of the schools of all orders in England and
with the local independence throughout the Kingdom. It results
that this exhibit has greater emphasis upon typical and
essential things than any other in the collection. In this
respect it is most nearly approached by Massachusetts among our
own States.

The confusion arising from differences in classification already
referred to, which imply also more radical differences in
opinion and practice, has led one of the most acute minds among
our foreign colleagues to express the hope that one of the
permanent results of this exposition may be an effort toward
international unity, or at least agreement in respect to
classification and nomenclature. Undoubtedly such agreement
would promote the great purpose of international comparisons
which is to enable each nation to benefit by the experience of
every other.

In addition to the broad distinctions between national systems
as here indicated, there are also disclosed by the exhibits
striking differences in the spirit and methods of instruction.
In France the teaching is logical and analytical. The stress of
pedagogical training in that country is upon the treatment of
subjects, and the abiding effects of that training are seen in
the theses by teachers and by school inspectors (the latter all
men of professional training), which form a very interesting and
instructive part of the exhibit of that country. The analytical
principle is maintained in the manual training, which, as shown
by the examples presented, consists of a graded series of
exercises upon the elements that enter into simple
constructions. Germany adheres more closely to the authoritative
method of instruction, a fact plainly shown by the photographs
of classes in which every child seemed listening with breathless
attention to the word of the teacher. From the photographic
displays one would readily infer that in our own country the
emphasis of class exercises is upon the activity of the pupil;
in Germany, upon the personality of the teacher.

The importance of photographs in an educational exhibit was
never so manifest as in the present exposition. By this means
may be shown at a glance the equipment of schools and even the
actual conduct of class instruction, and the mind distracted by
the endless succession of written work, drawings, etc., is thus
reenforced by total impressions or images. This exposition
surpasses all others in the extent, effectiveness, and beauty of
the photographic displays and the value of the statistical
charts presented. So full and graphic were these statistical
summaries from all the principal countries that individual
mention would be invidious. The jury, however, will never forget
the display of charts and diagrams by Japan, since they revealed
in a universal language the status, organization, and wonderful
progress of education in that country, whose effect must
otherwise have been lost in the mysteries of an unknown tongue.

Those who recall the Centennial Exposition, at Philadelphia,
must be struck with the progress made by our States and cities
and even by the individual colleges toward uniform statistical
schemes. The impulse to this important result came undoubtedly
from the United States Bureau of Education, whose statistical
representation of education in this country, current and
retrospective, is one of the most valuable features of the
entire exposition. As this material, however, is placed in the
Government building, its consideration does not come within the
province of the regular juries.

By means of the two media--photographs and statistics--a very
complete representation of a school system is possible with
great economy of space and special regard to essential
particulars. The extensive exhibits of pupils' work from our own
schools show remarkable similarity in methods and results
throughout the country; this similarity extends even to the
rural schools, which, in the case of some particular districts,
present work well up to the average of neighboring cities. There
are also signs that the rage for "newness" has subsided; the
work shows closer sequence and more systematic treatment of
subjects than that exhibited at Paris. Correlation, for
instance, is not so promiscuously applied, but limited to
subjects whose relations are obvious, as geography and history,
etc.

The impulses toward nature as the inspiring motive in art
instruction and toward social activities as factors in school
training have been felt in other countries than our own. Germany
has replaced the conventional art instruction by a system based
upon the study of natural forms, growths, and coloring, and
Belgium presents a remarkable object lesson in the use of local
products and industries in a progressive scheme of practical
instruction. The skill with which Sweden has reduced domestic
art and sloyd[1] to pedagogic form was already well known in
this country, but it has excited new interest by its
presentation here in one of the most admirably systematized and
suggestive exhibits in the collection.

[Footnote 1: a system of manual training in woodwork, having
originated in Sweden. (note added when transcribed to etext)]

School architecture forms an impressive feature of many of the
exhibits. Germany has made a very full presentation under this
head by means of photographs, plans, and complete models.
Argentina has an unrivaled collection of photographs, showing
palatial school buildings of noble design and well-planned
interiors. In this connection may be mentioned a device of a
portable schoolhouse for use in congested city districts pending
the erection of permanent buildings. The models shown were from
St. Louis and Milwaukee.

The great movements now in progress in our country, as indicated
by the exhibits, are, in the States at large, the improvements
of the rural schools, particularly by the consolidation of small
schools and the grading of the resulting central school, as
graphically shown by Indiana, and the creation of township or
county schools, as in Pennsylvania and Kansas.

In cities the most important movements relate to the physical
development of the young and the use of the school machinery for
the benefit of persons beyond the limit of school age by means
of evening schools, or outside the appointed school hours by
means of vacation schools and recreation centers. The most
extensive work along these lines is going on in New York City,
and formed one of the most instructive features of the exhibit
of this great metropolis.

A beginning of continuation schools for the people is seen also
in the county agricultural school included in the Wisconsin
exhibit. Schools of this type form a prominent feature of the
German exhibit and constitute for us at this time the most
important lesson of that comprehensive exposition. Apart from
the educational lessons, which possibly only appeal to
specialists, this exposition marks distinct steps in the
realization of the chief end of educational exhibits, namely,
the increase of popular interest in ideal purposes through their
effective symbolic representation.

ANNA TOLMAN SMITH,
_Chairman of time Committee_.

GROUP 2, MISS ANNIE G. MACDOUGAL, CHICAGO, ILL., JUROR.

Under the group heading "Secondary Education," the two classes
into which it was divided represented: High schools and
academies; manual training high schools; commercial high
schools. Training and certification of teachers. (Legislation,
organization, statistics. Buildings: Plans and models.
Supervision, management, methods of instruction, results
obtained.)

Miss MacDougal's report is as follows:

Study of the world's work, as displayed at the St. Louis
Exposition, revealed the truth that to-day there is no clear
line of demarcation between the work of men and of women. The
product of woman's brain or of her hand was there placed side by
side with the similar work of man, to be judged upon its merits,
not by a standard suggested by limitation and apology. Such a
cataloguing was the surest evidence of woman's industrial
progress. Her part in art, literature, music--the decorative
side of life--has long been granted; what she is capable of
doing in the practical business enterprises of modern society is
just beginning to be revealed.

My opportunity for observing this phase of woman's work was
largely confined to the educational exhibits, where I had the
pleasure of serving as a juror, by appointment of the board of
lady managers. Owing to the character of the exhibits in the
Department of Education, it was impossible to differentiate the
work of the men and the women teachers, excepting where the
exhibits showed the work of separate institutions for the sexes.
A comparison of that kind would be profitable only from a
pedagogical point of view and is of minor consideration in our
American system of education. Woman's place in the schoolroom is
defended by tradition, expediency, and merit; and instead of
surrendering in the face of foreign criticism their positions as
instructors, women teachers are to-day broadening their field of
labor by serving as instructors in many higher institutions
where a generation since they were not even admitted as
students. To-day, in high schools, academies, and colleges,
women not only share in the work of instruction, but fill
offices of administration as well.

Woman's success in a purely administrative or executive function
was what proved most interesting at St. Louis. Many of the State
exhibits of the public schools were in charge of women. In each
instance I found them well informed on questions of school
statistics and eager to be helpful to visitors. It seemed as
though these young women felt the distinction of serving in a
public capacity and had taken pains to prepare themselves for a
creditable performance. The most striking instance of
independent and original work was shown in the State exhibit
from Minnesota. This exhibit was under the sole charge of Miss
Susanne Sirwell, who planned it with the main purpose of
exploiting the complete system of manual training adopted in the
Minnesota schools. With this plan in view, Miss Sirwell
collected the specimens from various schools of the State,
supervised the erection of the booth, and installed the
displays. As a result, the Minnesota exhibit had a distinct
system and unity, was free from useless and cumbrous repetition,
its main idea was readily grasped, and it stood as a memorable
proof of one woman's artistic sense of proportion and adequacy.
It was original in conception; it had beauty of color, order,
and arrangement, and, as Miss Sirwell herself laughingly
boasted, it was one of the two or three exhibits in that huge
building which were ready and finished for public inspection on
the opening day of the fair.

GROUP 3, MISS MARY B. TEMPLE, KNOXVILLE, TENN., JUROR.

Under the group heading "Higher education" the five classes into
which it was divided represented: Colleges and universities,
scientific, technical, and engineering schools and institutions;
professional schools; libraries; museums. (Legislation,
organization, statistics, buildings, plans and models,
curriculums, regulations, methods, administration,
investigation, etc.)

Miss Temple reports as follows:

The Educational Department at the World's Fair in St. Louis
presented greater progress in woman's work since the Columbian
Exposition of 1893 than was shown by any other great division at
the exposition.

In regard to an approximate estimate of the proportional number
of exhibits by women in the five classes of group 3 (higher
education) of the Educational Department, I would say that only
in the cases of the several large female colleges which
installed exhibits at the fair were there special women's
exhibits distinct from those of men. In the United States
section valuable and important displays were made by Vassar,
Bryn Mawr, Woman's College of Baltimore, Smith, Wellesley, Mount
Holyoke, Pratt Institute (New York), Milwaukee-Downer College
(Milwaukee), and several lesser women's colleges, while in the
English section a wonderfully interesting showing of women's
activity in "higher education" was made by the Oxford
Association for the education of women, including Lady Margaret
Hall, Summerville College, St. Hugh Hall, St. Hilda's Hall; by
Girton College and Newham College, Cambridge University; by
Westfield College and the London School of Medicine for Women of
the London University; by Owen's College of the Victoria
University of Manchester; by University Hall of the University
of St. Andrew, and by Dublin Alexandra College.

In the German section no special exhibit of a woman's department
was made by any university or college. According to the German
system women's education is carried on side by side with men's.
Women acquiring a leaving certificate from a classical gymnasium
can matriculate on an equal footing with male students in the
universities of Heidelberg, Frieburg, Erlangen, Würzburg, and
Munich. In the other universities, except Münster, by permission
of the rector, or under the statutes, women are permitted to
hear lectures. In all the German universities there are in
attendance many women, either as matriculants or as hearers,
ranging from 10 to 200 women at each university.

In the universities of France, Belgium, and Japan a similar plan
of educating men and women together exists. But outside the
University of Paris, of Louvain and of Tokio, the number of
women attending the courses does not compare with the number in
attendance at the German, English, and American universities.
Among the lesser nations at the fair, as Italy, Brazil,
Argentina, Mexico, China, Canada, Sweden, Ceylon, and Cuba, the
exhibits so often appearing under the name of college work
scarcely represented work in higher education, except in the
line of art.

The very fact that at St. Louis women's work was nowhere
separated from men's, but was shown side by side with it, was in
itself a radical advance in the last eleven years. While this
applied to every department of the exposition, it applied with
greatest impressiveness to the Department of Higher Education,
for this in the past had been set apart as man's special
province, though, of course, down through the ages there have
been brilliant exceptional cases of women becoming profound
students and learned teachers, as Hypatia, Maria Agnesi, and
others.

In the five classes of group 3 (higher education) in the
Department of Education there was really less scope and a more
restricted field for women than in any other group of the
Educational Department. Of the five classes, to glance hastily
over them--i.e., class 7, colleges and universities; class 8,
scientific, technical, and engineering schools; class 9,
professional schools; class 10, libraries; class 11,
museums--only in class 7 and class 10 has woman gained for
herself any distinctly marked footing. In the other three
classes, the hold she has acquired, from the very nature of the
case, has been limited, but in every class of group 1
(elementary education), of group 2 (secondary education), of
group 4 (special education in fine arts), of group 6 (special
education in commerce and industry), of group 7 (education of
defectives), of group 8 (special forms of education, text-books,
etc.), she is the controlling force, and is very strong.

Inasmuch, however, as higher education has been considered less
naturally her field, the steady advance she is making in it is
the more noticeable and more striking, as shown at the World's
Fair of 1904. In replying to the question of an approximate
estimate of the proportionate number of exhibits by women in the
five classes of group 3, I may venture to say it was near 37 per
cent of the domestic and foreign exhibits, estimating the
percentage of work exhibited by men and women as probably
proportional to the respective number of each sex registered.
(See monographs on Education in United States. See monographs on
History and Origin of Public Education in Germany. List of
British Exhibits, Departments H and O.)

In giving the nature of the exhibits by women in the department
of higher education we gladly state that they differed little
from the exhibits by men, as the requirements called for in the
circular of the department were identically the same for both.
It happened, however, possibly from being younger institutions
and having less to show in the way of literature, libraries,
histories, etc.; partly, also, from having a less liberal supply
of money; also partly from a smaller sense of ambition and
rivalry with other institutions, that the exhibits of Vassar,
Bryn Mawr, and the other women's colleges were smaller, less
costly, and less elaborate both in materials and in installation
than those of the men's colleges. The exhibits consisted largely
of photographs, diagrams of statistics, prospectuses, and
reports. In the case of the English women's colleges the showing
was quite on a par with those of the men's universities, as they
were in every case a part of the same. The American women's
colleges in addition showed charts, department work, special
work, histories, publications, and models of buildings and
grounds.

In the lesser foreign countries exhibits of art and needlework,
though sometimes questionably under the head of higher
education, were thus entered by the so-called colleges. And
while these could not be measured by the same standard as the
English and American women's college work it was, however,
valuable and instructive as showing the emancipation and
progress of women in lands where until within a few years her
opportunities have been most restricted and as presenting the
liberal spirit toward her which now animates the civilized
world. Especially in Japan and Mexico the women's displays were
novel and interesting.

I am glad to pay tribute to the department work of the Woman's
College, Baltimore, and to the advanced special work of Bryn
Mawr.

As to what advancement was shown in the progress of women, I
would emphatically answer that advancement was unmistakably
apparent in every line of women's educational work--advancement
not alone along old lines, but along new as well. One of the
greatest steps forward made by woman in the last eleven years,
since the Columbian Exposition, has been the throwing open to
her of the doors of nearly all of the old established men's
colleges, giving her in every country, in every State, and in
nearly every large town almost the same free and easy access to
learning enjoyed by her brothers. Coeducation and coeducational
institutions have rendered it possible for every woman desirous
of self-improvement to find the highest advantages immediately
at hand, only waiting for her to help herself.

Domestic science and household economics are new sciences
developed under the active interest of college women in the last
twenty-three years. Their real hold upon the public, however,
and their enlarged avenue for bettering the home, the food, the
health of the nation, and consequently its usefulness,
happiness, and prosperity has come within the last eleven years.

In all lines of art, from the fine arts of painting and
sculpture to the practical and useful work of design in its
multifold forms, women's advance is almost phenomenal. In the
sciences of astronomy, medicine, physics, and psychology she has
been far from inactive during the last half decade. In teaching,
in all its branches from kindergarten and primary work through
all the grades of intrauniversity training to specialization in
various lines, she has achieved her most striking success. In
the future her usefulness will be more and more increased in
this her beloved profession. The number of women teachers is
rapidly increasing, while the number of men is decreasing, and
more and more women's college graduates are employed in the
various chairs of colleges and universities.

While the educational exhibits at St. Louis gave, in a general
way, a complete presentation of women's part in the progress of
the world, there was far less shown of the work of foreign women
than was desired in order to make a really satisfactory and just
comparative estimate of the relative advance of the women of our
own country and those abroad. In fact, the exhibits of foreign
women were too limited to allow of any comparison between the
two.

Women's work in art, in school organization and
management--exemplified in the control of the great women's
colleges--her achievements in teaching, in research (historical
and scientific), in medicine unmistakably show that she is able
to do and is doing unusual and far more capable work than she
has ever done previously. Her pronounced success in serious
literature, as well as in lighter literature, would alone
demonstrate this.

The work of women at this exposition differed from that of the
past in having extended into many new lines, whereas in quality
it is greatly superior to anything they have ever before
accomplished. A few years ago the scientific and professional
woman was the exception, to-day she is the rule. Either working
alone or assisting some great man, woman is found everywhere. To
cite instances, I refer to the able assistance Mrs. Hedrick, a
Vassar alumna, gives to Professor Newcomb in his calculations on
the moon; to the brilliant aid rendered by the wealthy and
gifted young American girl of Leland Stanford and Johns Hopkins,
Dr. Annie G. Lyle, to the famous Dr. Theodore Escherich, of
Vienna University, in his important expert medical researches,
which have resulted in the famous scarlet-fever serum, the
discovery of Doctor Moser with the help of Doctor Lyle. As we
have said, women's work has not only grown in extent, but in
variety, in complexity, in greater thoroughness and ambition,
and especially in the greater appreciation it receives from the
world.

Woman's splendidly accomplished successes as seen at the World's
Fair give impulse to her efforts in every line. Assured of
sympathy, encouragement is imparted to other women to take up
science, teaching, the professions. Formerly almost
insurmountable obstacles were encountered by women. To-day the
open door to triumph, according to her ability, along almost
every line is hers. In primary education, in all university
training, in economic arts, in all sanitary studies, in
philanthropic work, and in much of the practical part of
medicine the Louisiana Purchase Exposition showed women's
efforts in a varied light of helpfulness and suggestion for the
future.

The juxtaposition of man's and woman's work was suggestive to
men, and at the same time will incite women to more and better
endeavors along new lines. It will enable her to acquire more
scientific ways and a better preparation for the business world.
It will teach her a saving of energy and greater self-reliance.

The incalculable advantage of women's work for the first time
having a place side by side with men's can not be overestimated.
It enabled women to see at a glance their own weaknesses, and at
the same time presented to the view of others their strong
points in the most telling manner. The jury of higher education
did not ask on examining an exhibit whether it was men's or
women's work. Each exhibit was judged entirely on its individual
merit as presented. And if the universities and great men's
colleges (and in many cases these included women's work)
received a higher grade of award than did the great women's
colleges, it was because, in the opinion of the jury, the
equipment of the former and the larger showing in the way of
actual work and appliances entitled them to the award, rather
than that it was the respective work of either men or women. But
I may say, to show the absolutely unbiased mind of the jury,
that women's work in many lines came in for even greater
appreciation than did that of the men.

By no means would the results have been better if their work had
been separately exhibited. A far greater importance was assumed
by women's work in the placing of it side by side with men's
work. Thus displayed, it received precisely equal attention and
a more liberal study undoubtedly than it would have done if
placed alone.

At Chicago and various other expositions it was relegated to a
far less desirable position by itself. The very fact of its
isolation in a building designated the Women's Building set it
apart as a different and inferior effort and created a prejudice
against it.

Women's work was far more varied at St. Louis and more
representative of different nations. The so-called strictly
feminine, viz, art and needlework, pottery, decoration,
libraries of books by women authors, attractive parlors,
displaying women's taste, which largely filled the charming
women's buildings at Chicago, at Atlanta, at the Tennessee
Centennial, at Omaha, and at Buffalo, were unquestionably showy
and striking displays. In St. Louis, on the contrary, women's
exhibits mingled with men's work in the serious and practical
enterprises of the day and appealed to the same audiences. Woman
appeared as she really is, the fellow-student, the
fellow-citizen, and partner of man in the affairs of life.

Manufacturers were not asked to state the percentage of woman's
work which entered into the manufacture of their special
exhibit, nor did I have any way of forming any estimate on this
point; neither were they shown in any manner that would indicate
in any way or enable the investigator to distinguish what part
had been performed by women.

Considering all kinds of work involved in the exhibits of the
Department of Education, whether installed by women alone or in
conjunction with men, the taste, completeness, ingenuity of the
same, the clerical work during the duration of the fair--in
other words, the whole connection of woman with carrying out the
administration of the Department of Education--it may be
considered that 50 per cent of the work was performed by women.
The German section was entirely under the supervision of men, as
were most, if not all, of the foreign exhibits. But women were
everywhere else omnipresent in charge of the Educational
Department.

In the awards to higher education I would say that upward of 20
per cent went to women exhibitors. (For percentages and other
suggestions I am indebted to Dr. J.J. Conway, St. Louis
University, also a member of jury of higher education.)

We point with pride to the discovery of radium by Madame Currie,
of Paris, as both a new, useful, and distinctive work of woman.
Columns might be written on this invention alone. The work of
Madame Currie was certainly original. Miss Annie E. Sullivan's
new methods of teaching the deaf-blind, as in the case of Helen
Keller, gives her the honor not only of prominence as an
educator of defectives, but also of inventing a very new and
valuable method of instruction. The methods of teaching
defectives are the wonder of educators, and will probably be
effective of marvelous results in the near future. The highest
praise must also be bestowed upon the work of Mrs. Shaw and Miss
Fisher, of Boston, and of Mrs. Putnam and Mary McCullough, as
the promoters of kindergarten work. Kindergarten work is
self-eloquent.

Credit is due woman for her conception of the idea of traveling
libraries, which have so effectively brought cheer and
recreation, and even reform, to many restricted lives. The
libraries of the Colonial Dames and everything along the line of
reading circles, literary clubs, etc., have had their inception
in the brains of women. Traveling libraries have been a boon to
many a small town. Though it is impossible to digress in woman's
work in the industries, the Newcomb Pottery, made at the Sophia
Newcomb College, Louisiana, should be mentioned, all of which is
done by women educated at that school of design.

I commend the ample and reliable literature on all these
subjects, as a better source of information on the merits of
these inventions that can be shown in this brief report. But
most of women's work in the educational section, the school
work, art work, etc., was an improvement along already existing
lines. But along household and economic lines women, during the
last ten years, have done original thinking and much
investigation. And the studies in sanitary chemistry, the
attainments as a scholar and scientist of Mrs. Ellen C.
Richards, Vassar, 1870, stand out conspicuously, having won for
her the respect of the world.

The question of the value of the product or process, as measured
by its usefulness or beneficent influence on mankind, is so vast
that a flood of answers sweep over one, embracing the whole
field of women's usefulness and the whole realm of education.
The usefulness of the discovery of radium has scarcely been
estimated as yet, nor has the beneficent influence of teaching
defectives, and of many of the household inventions been fully
enjoyed up to this time. The question involves much of the
scientific success of the future along both physical, mental,
moral, and educational lines, and, judging by the past, we feel
assured that many brilliant achievements will owe their origin
and accomplishment to women.

There was naturally nothing lacking in the merits of the
installation of any exhibit presented by women, nor in the taste
manifested in the placing of the same. The women's college
booths were always effectively arranged and sometimes made up
for the lack of range of exhibit by unusual artistic grouping
and tasteful placing of the displays.

Several times I have referred to the progress in art displayed
by woman at St. Louis. This was evidenced not only in the
magnificent specimens of her brush and chisel in the Fine Arts
Museum in both the home and foreign art schools, but in the
prolific efforts of her skill in outside exposition sculpture,
where woman's work, side by side with man's, was pointed to with
exultation as one of the greatest triumphs of the twentieth
century exposition. We all recall how many of the most notable
pieces of statuary crowning the various great palaces were the
work of divinely endowed women. Such was the superb "Victory,"
surmounting Festival Hall, the conception of Mrs. Evylyn B.
Longman, while the spirit of "Missouri," which winged its flight
from the summit of the great Missouri Building, was executed by
Miss Carrie Wood, of St. Louis. To Miss Grace Lincoln Temple,
the beautiful decorations of the interior of the United States
Government Building were due. The two "Victory" statues on the
Grand Basin and the Daniel Boone statue were executed by Miss
Enid Yandell, by birth a Kentuckian, but now of New York. The
statues of James Monroe, James Madison, George Rogers Clark, on
Art Hill, were, respectively, done by Julia M. Bracken, Chicago;
Janet Scudder, Terre Haute, and Elsie Ward, Denver. The
reclining figures over the central door of the Liberal Arts
Building were by Edith B. Stephens, of New York, and the east
and north spandrels of the Machinery Building were done by Melva
Beatrice Wilson, New York.

Glancing at the portrait painting of Cecelia Beaux, the work of
Mary MacMonnies, of Margaret Fuller, of Mrs. Kenyon Cox, and of
Kate Carr, of Tennessee; of Virginia Demont-Breton, of France:
of Lady Tadema and Henrietta Rae, of Great Britain, we feel, as
well as see, the exalted place woman's genius has given her in
the art world of to-day. While in science we point with
gratification not only to Madame Currie, but to the astronomical
work of Miss Whitney, of Vassar; of Miss Agnes Clerke, of
Cambridge, England, and of Dorothea Klumpke, born in San
Francisco, but connected with the Paris Observatory and one of
the foremost astronomers of France. In archaeological works Miss
Elizabeth Stokes, of Alexandra College, Dublin; in research
work, Miss Skeel, of Westfield College, London; and in
mathematics, Sophia Kowalevski, of Stockholm, and Charlotte
Angus Scott, born in England and professor at Bryn Mawr, stand
out preeminent--adding even greater luster to the woman's page
of science, on which in the past the names of Caroline Herschel,
Mary Summerville, and Maria Mitchell were written in illumined
letters.

In medical works, especially in the United States, and more
particularly in the profession of surgery, women have scored for
themselves many glorious successes, though it is not possible
here to enter into an amplification of the subject.

In conclusion, I would say that the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition markedly showed the setting aside by women of former
traditions and her expansion into a new life, where, though by
no means giving up the ornamental and social, she has yet
demonstrated her rights to be recognized in the broader and more
useful fields of discovery, investigation, and invention in art,
science, and industry. She is everywhere the rival of man,
everywhere entering with enthusiasm his chosen paths, excepting
perhaps in naval and military operations, and as nurse and
ministering doctor she is even there.

As the World's Fair at St. Louis was a stupendous triumph of
modern times in manufactures, in economic and liberal arts, in
electricity, in history, in science, in architecture, in
agriculture and forestry, in landscape gardening, in machinery,
in archaeology, in education, in fine arts--in fact, along every
line of practical work as well as in the sciences and arts--so
woman's progress in every department was such as to gleam forth
from even the superb and marvelous splendor everywhere reflected
as worthy of her highest ambition and as suggestive of untold
and signal possibilities for the future.

GROUP 4, MRS. E.H. THAYER, OF DENVER, COLO., JUROR.

Under the group heading "Special Education in Fine Arts," the
two classes into which it was divided represented: (Institutions
for teaching drawing, painting, and music. Art schools and
institutes. Schools and departments of music; conservatories of
music. Methods of instruction, results obtained. Legislation,
organization, general statistics.)

Mrs. Thayer writes as follows:

As a juror of this group I was associated with five jurors, all
men, holding positions as professors of schools of art, and they
agreed with me that the fine art work of the woman was equal to
the men students and in some schools of art it was far superior;
this was especially so in the study of the nude from the
academies of art in New York and Philadelphia.

The only school of art in which we found the work of woman
inferior to men was in Austria, excepting in the making of lace
and embroidery; but the studies in figure painting was inferior
to the same work done by woman in American schools. Yet the art
students' work from Austria, as a whole, was so fine we gave
that country the grand prize.

I was particularly pleased with the wall-paper designs made by
women students in a school of design in New York City. They were
most original and artistic. This school made a display of
several hundred designs, and we were told they were all sold for
large prices during the exposition to manufacturers of wall
paper.

The New York Night School of Art showed some remarkably good
work by girls who were employed during the day. The professor in
charge told us that the girls were so eager for instruction in
art that they would be waiting for the doors to open and would
work longer hours and make greater progress than the men.

GROUP 7, MISS HOPE FAIRFAX LOUGHBOROUGH, OF LITTLE ROCK, ARK., JUROR.

Under the group heading "Education of defectives," the three
classes into which it was divided represented: Institutions for
the blind, publications for the blind; institutions for the deaf
and dumb; institutions for the feeble-minded. (Management,
methods, courses of study; results. Special appliances for
instruction. Legislation, organization, statistics. Buildings;
plans and models.)

Miss Loughborough presents the following report:

The jury of group 7 in the Department of Education had under its
inspection the work of the blind, the deaf, and the
feeble-minded. In view of the fact that the exhibits were sent
by institutes and special schools, and were the result of the
cooperation of men and women teachers who selected the work of
both boys and girls to represent the school as a whole, it was
difficult to estimate with accuracy the proportional amount of
women's work. As nearly as it can be estimated, however,
two-fifths of the exhibits shown in the three classes of which
this group was composed were the work of women. With the
exception of a few special prizes the awards were given to
institutions and not to individuals, but about 21 per cent of
these were given for women's work. The work of the boys and
girls in the shops was generally shown distinctly, but were not
awarded separately, the whole idea being to show, not what the
boys or girls, the teachers or principals were doing
individually, but what results were being obtained in the
institutions from the best-known methods for special education,
both in class and industrial work, and particularly to show by
means of the model school--or living exhibit--some of the class
methods in operation.

The living exhibits were the most striking in classes 19 and 20.
They consisted of entire classes which were brought, one at a
time, from different State institutions. Each class remained at
the fair some weeks, were provided with accommodations on the
grounds, and had its recitations every day in a temporary
schoolroom in the Educational Building. This class room was
always surrounded by a crowd of eager lookers on, who watched
with the utmost attention the methods of instruction--so little
known to the public in general--by which the deaf and blind make
such wonderful progress. The work of instruction in the living
exhibits, although almost entirely planned by men, was executed
by women.

The awards for the living exhibits were given the institutions
from which the classes came, with one exception. This exception
was Lottie Sullivan, a deaf and blind girl from the Colorado
institution, who was awarded a gold medal for her aptitude and
the progress she had made. The jury thought at first that her
teacher, too, deserved special recognition for the results
obtained, but as it was found that the teacher in charge of
Lottie Sullivan at the fair had had her but a short time, and
that there was no one person responsible for her progress, it
was decided to make no award.

Of the special schools, not State institutions, which exhibited,
those conducted by women showed work on a par with that done in
the schools conducted by men, and received as liberal rewards.

Particularly creditable was the work done in the schools for the
feeble-minded.

In group 7 the exhibits were divided into three classes, 19, 20,
and 21, the work respectively of the blind, the deaf, and the
feeble-minded. In class 19 women showed basket work, raffia
work, modeling in clay, hammock weaving, crocheting, embroidery,
printing by means of Braille writing machines, and class work;
in class 20, sewing, embroidery, crocheting, painting, drawing,
modeling, and class work, and in class 21, basket making,
sewing, embroidery, crocheting, and class work.

There was but one foreign woman who made an exhibit. This was
Mademoiselle Mulot, a French woman, who had invented a writing
machine for blind children. She had brought a little blind
French boy with her, who was not installed as an exhibit, but
whom she brought before the jury to show the working of her
machine. This machine consisted of a small frame blocked off
into squares, in which the child was taught to write the letters
of the English alphabet. Mademoiselle Mulot's claim for award
was that with the machine generally in use it was necessary to
teach the child a language of dots and dashes which was not
legible by people in general. Although ingenious, Mademoiselle
Mulot's machine was not considered striking or new enough to
warrant an award.

There was no display within the jurisdiction of group 7 which
would seem to indicate any great advancement in the work of
women since the Chicago Exposition, though the methods of
instruction--many of them through the painstaking application of
women--have undergone marked improvement. The work of women as
shown by the exhibits in the education of defectives at the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, placed on equal terms of
comparison with that of men, was very creditable. There was
nothing particularly helpful or suggestive in the school work
being shown on equal terms of comparison with that of men, for
in this field women have always kept well abreast of men, and
their work has been appreciated equally with that of men.

Department B, art, Prof. Halsey C. Ives, chief, comprised six groups and eighteen classes, the board of lady managers being represented in four of the groups.

GROUP 9. MISS MARY SOLARI, MEMPHIS, TENN., JUROR.

Under the group heading "Paintings and Drawings," the two
classes into which it was divided represented. Paintings on
canvas, wood, metal, enamel, porcelain, faïence, and on various
preparations, by all direct methods, in oil, wax, tempera, and
other media; mural paintings; fresco painting on walls; drawings
and cartoons in water color, pastel, chalk, charcoal, pencil,
and other media, on any material; miniatures on ivory.

Miss Solari reports as follows:

WOMEN IN THE WORLD OF ART AT THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION.

The first feeling of a woman who looks back to the history of
art during the last ten years is one of pride, for she
recognizes that the exhibit made by women in the Fine Art
Department of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition is the best,
most complete, and important that has ever been made by women at
any previous exposition; that it is superior to that made at the
Chicago World's Fair in point of quality and character, and by
competent judges said to be better than that made in Paris in
1900.

As regards the St. Louis Exposition, that influence is
conspicuous which has brought about a development rather than
new foundations or new schools. In seeking subjects for the "new
thought" the "old masters" have not been lost sight of. "There
is nothing new under the sun," and as the musician draws from
the old masters his soul-inspiring theme, so the aspiring
painter studies the canvases of the past ages for his correct
guidance. And to the dispassionate observer these things prove
much with regard to the actual work being done by women artists,
and the new influences, if such they be, that have made
themselves felt during the last decade. Should we regard a work
of art as an independent entity, the result of what is called "a
separate creative act" on the part of the artist, with no
relation to its environment, we must perforce conclude prenatal
conditions in the painter which we are loath to admit. Hence we
have no reason to be ashamed of the old masters. Critics there
are who know how to judge of a picture, and critics who
constitutionally can not draw from a canvas a simple salient
good feature; they have not the knowledge of the difference
between bad and beautiful design and color, or the meaning of
harmony.