The Woman's Building (Chicago)

File:Floor Plan and Ground Plan of the The Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893.jpeg

Throughout the construction process of the Women's Building, fourteen women architects submitted designs. The board of architects selected Sophia Hayden's design of an Italian Renaissance-style three-story building with Corinthian columns.{{Cite journal |last=Palm |first=Regina Megan |date=2010 |title=Women Muralists, Modern Woman and Feminine Spaces: Constructing Gender at the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40801929 |journal=Journal of Design History |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=123–143 |issn=0952-4649}} The hall honor was 70 ft in height with no additional pillars that would obstruct the view. Alice Rideout was chosen as the official sculptor for the Woman's Building. She created the exterior sculpture groups and the pediment.{{cite book |last1=Weimann |first1=Jeanne Madeline |url=https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/167 |title=The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893 |date=1981 |publisher=Academy Chicago |isbn=0915864673 |location=Chicago |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/167 167-175]}} Enid Yandell designed and created the caryatid that supported the roof garden. In addition,{{cite book |last1=Weimann |first1=Jeanne Madeline |url=https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/159 |title=The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893 |date=1981 |publisher=Academy Chicago |isbn=0915864673 |location=Chicago |pages=[https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/159 159]}} Candace Wheeler supervised the interior decorations.{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Public Arts & Architecture: 1893 Exposition |url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt5.html#wheelers |website=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893 |access-date=6 January 2019}}

Interior decoration included murals painted by Mary Fairchild MacMonnies Low (Primitive Woman) and Mary Cassatt (Modern Woman). Cassatt was asked to paint a 58-foot × 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.{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Maud Howe |url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/elliott/art/art.html |title=Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983 |date=1894 |publisher=Rand McNally & Company |location=Chicago and New York |pages=43–47}} 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.{{Cite journal |date=1894 |title=The Decoration of the Woman's Building at the Columbian Exposition |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25582672 |journal=The Decorator and Furnisher |volume=23 |issue=6 |pages=221–222 |issn=2150-6256}} 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. The library ceiling mural was painted by Dora Wheeler Keith.{{cite web |last1=Nichols |first1=K. L. |title=Women's Public Arts & Architecture: 1893 Exposition |url=http://arcadiasystems.org/academia/cassatt5.html#wheelers |access-date=6 January 2019 |website=Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893}} Regardless of the artists background, they all painted their murals in the 'new style' which had been developed in France.

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.{{cite web |title=Spirited Women of Gower Street: The Garretts and their Circle |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/articles/events/conference2011/crawford.pdf |access-date=12 July 2018}}

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.

File:Woman's Building Lemaire poster.png'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.{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Maud Howe |url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/elliott/art/art.html |title=Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983 |date=1894 |publisher=Rand McNally & Company |location=Chicago and New York |page=7}} Displays also included charts and graphs of women's advancement in the industrial workforce as well as philanthropic and political work.{{Cite journal |last=Gullett |first=Gayle |date=1994 |title="Our Great Opportunity": Organized Women Advance Women's Work at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40192854 |journal=Illinois Historical Journal |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=259–276 |issn=0748-8149}} 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.

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.{{Cite journal |last=Searing |first=Susan E. |date=2012 |title=Women in the White City: Lessons from the Woman's Building Library at the Chicago World's Fair |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41500877 |journal=American Libraries |volume=43 |issue=3/4 |pages=44–47 |issn=0002-9769}}Wadsworth, Sarah, and Wayne A. Wiegand. 2012. Right Here I See My Own Books : The Woman’s Building Library at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

Annexed to the Woman's Building was the Children's Building, which exhibited American 19th century best practices for child-rearing and education.{{cite book |last1=Elliott |first1=Maud Howe |title=Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition Chicago, 1983 |date=1894 |publisher=Rand McNally & Company |location=Chicago and New York |pages=189–194|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/elliott/art/art.html}}

The Woman's Pavilion at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia fought to raise money and protect land ownership at the fair. The resilience and persistence surprised male management members as they did not expect the women to be able to raise enough money for a separate building, which they did.{{Cite journal |last=Freedman |first=Estelle |date=1979 |title=Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3177511 |journal=Feminist Studies |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=512–529 |doi=10.2307/3177511 |issn=0046-3663|hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0005.311 |hdl-access=free }} This laid some groundwork so that by 1893 there was lesser backlash from the World Columbian Exposition management members. This allowed for the authorization of the creation of the Board of Lady Managers.

The Board of Lady Managers worked tirelessly to connect their individual enterprise with the entirety of the rest of the fair. They insisted on fair representation of female judges across exhibitions and equitable recognition of women's enterprise in all competitions.{{Cite journal |last=Freedman |first=Estelle |date=1979 |title=Separatism as Strategy: Female Institution Building and American Feminism, 1870-1930 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3177511 |journal=Feminist Studies |volume=5 |issue=3 |pages=512–529 |doi=10.2307/3177511 |issn=0046-3663|hdl=2027/spo.0499697.0005.311 |hdl-access=free }}

Although most women viewed this building as a chance to celebrate progress in women’s achievements, there was still some backlash. Some argued that having a separate building to show off strictly work done by women, it singles women out and suggests they are secondary to men.{{Cite web |title=Women’s History at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/women-s-history-at-the-1893-world-s-columbian-exposition.htm |access-date=2024-04-03 |website=www.nps.gov |language=en}} Along with protesters saying that the building suggested women were secondary to men, another major backlash they faced had to do with the actual architecture of the building. Some argued that the building was too plain and not as bold compared to the other buildings that were designed by men. Going along with these criticisms, people said that the design was too feminine and delicate.{{Cite web |last=Casey |date=2013-08-15 |title=The Woman’s Building at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 |url=https://mollybrown.org/the-womans-building-at-the-columbian-exposition-of-1893-4/ |access-date=2024-04-09 |website=Molly Brown House Museum |language=en-US}}

Enid Yandell and Laura Hayes co-wrote a semi-autobiographical account of three women architects and their involvement in planning the fair. Along with Yandell and Hayes, eight illustrators are credited with contributing to illustrations throughout the book. Jean Loughborough, Laura Hayes, and Enid Yandell lived together before the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and contributed to the construction of the Women's Building. This novel was written and published in 1892 and titled Three Girls in a Flat (1892).{{cite web|last1=Yandell|first1=Enid|last2=Hayes|first2=Laura|title=Three Girls in A Flat|url=http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/hayes/flat/flat.html|website=A Celebration of Women Writers|publisher=Penn Libraries|access-date=9 March 2017}}

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.{{cite web |title=Kvindernes Udstilling 1895 |url=https://www.emmagad.dk/udstillinger/1895-kvindernes-udstilling-iii.html |website=Emma Gad |access-date=27 August 2018 |language=da-DK |date=30 June 2012}}

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.{{cite book|last1=Weimann|first1=Jeanne Madeline|title=The Fair Women: the story of the Woman's Building World's Columbian Exposition Chicago 1893|date=1981|publisher=Academy Chicago|location=Chicago|isbn=0915864673|pages=[https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/593 593]|url=https://archive.org/details/fairwomen0000weim/page/593}} Sadly, after the exposition, Cassatt's mural and many other artworks by many women were placed in storage and subsequently lost.{{cite web |last1=Michalska |first1=Magda |title=Mary Cassatt’s Feminist Mural Which Has Gone Lost |url=http://www.dailyartmagazine.com/mary-cassatts-lost-mural/ |website=DailyArt Magazine |publisher=DailyArtMagazine.com |access-date=6 July 2018}}

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.{{cite web |title=Celebrating The Woman's Building on International Women's Day |url=https://www.otis.edu/news/celebrating-womans-building-international-womens-day |website=Otis College of Art and Design |publisher=Otis College of Art and Design |access-date=6 July 2018}}

Mary Fairchild MacMonnies - Primitive Woman - Decoration for the Woman's Building at the World's Columbian Exposition 1893.jpg|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.gif|The Woman's Building, World's Columbian Exposition, 1893

Woman'S Building — Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition — 45.jpg|Woman'S Building — Official Views Of The World's Columbian Exposition — 45

The World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893 (1893) (14594058918).jpg|Hide and Seek. Sculptural Group in front of the Woman's Building

The World's Columbian exposition, Chicago, 1893 (1893) (14594062299).jpg|Part of the French Exhibit at the Woman's Building

View from Balcony of Woman's Building, William Henry Jackson, 1893.jpg|View from Balcony of Woman's Building, William Henry Jackson, 1893

Dora Keith Library NY at WCE opp. p.168.jpg|Library Ceiling Mural by Dora Wheeler Keith

Sherwood Republic Welcomes Elliott p.39.jpg|mural The Republic's Welcome to Her Daughters by Rosina Emmet Sherwood

• List of women artists exhibited at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
• White Rabbits (sculptors), a group of women who created statues for the Horticultural Building
• World's Congress of Representative Women, a week-long convention for the voicing of women's concerns, held at the Fair in May 1893
• Women's Building (disambiguation), other structures with a similar name

{{Reflist|30em}}

• Digitized version of [https://archive.org/details/worldscolumbiane14worl World's Columbian Exposition, 1893: Official catalogue: pt. XIV, woman's building] by World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.)
• Digitized version of [http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/elliott/art/art.html Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893]
• [https://ian.macky.net/expo1893/ Scans of illustrations from 'Art and Handicraft in the Woman's Building of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893']
• [https://digital.lib.umd.edu/worldsfairs/record?pid=umd:997 The Women's Pavilion] by Anna Burrows
• [http://columbus.gl.iit.edu/bookfair/ch11.html The Book of the Fair:Chapter the Eleventh: Woman's Department]
• [https://archive.org/details/officialmanualof00worl Official manual of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Commission : the minutes of the Board from the date of its organization, November 19, 1890, to the close of its second session, September 9, 1891, including the act of Congress and information in regard to the action of the World's Columbian Commission and of the Chicago directory of the Columbian Exposition], by World's Columbian Exposition (1891)

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Category:1890s architecture in the United States

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Woman's Building

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