Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission Part 81

In group 58, Department of Manufactures, the proportional number of exhibits by women contained in these cla.s.ses was small--I would think about 10 per cent. Groups 58 and 59 exhibited laces, embroideries, tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, decorations for gowns, costumes, and wraps, drawn work and Tenneriffe. Art needlework was the most striking exhibit by women in that department. Women showed great advancement in each industry, without question. Very few exhibits were installed by foreign women; the foreign costumes were largely from the man tailor. The needlework in the Visayan Village of the Philippine exhibit was of a very high order, but no provision was made to grant awards upon this--the Philippine exhibit--and Miss Anna Woolf, of St. Louis, and I called the attention of the authorities to the deserving character of the exhibit and made a plea for awards to be made by the higher jurors, and they promised to do so. I do not know whether it was done or not, however, but there was no woman's work in the whole Louisiana Purchase Exposition more deserving or of higher grade than the needlework in that village exhibit. Enough can not be said of these little workers. The present age is one of superiority, in which women not only show their ability, but each year they are granted more, and more widespread becomes their ability to grasp all vocations and fill them most creditably.

I am confident there was no question of the interest shown by men in woman's work; in fact, I think it attracted more visitors, and the results would not have been better if their work had been separately exhibited.

The work shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was on a much greater and higher plane than ever has been exhibited before. Where women exhibited they received a greater number of awards in proportion. Miss Mary Williamson was an original designer of artistic needlework, showing exceptional talent, and was awarded a grand prix for her designs.

I attended the Paris Exposition of 1878, also the Centennial at Philadelphia, 1876; spent much time at the Columbian World's Fair in Chicago, and possess a diploma and gold medal for my artistic needlework exhibited at the Columbian Exposition.

Miss Margaret Summers, of Louisville, Ky., was also a juror in the above-combined groups 58 and 59, and writes:

In group 59 the costumes made by men were about twice as many as those made by women, though the handsomest of the exhibits was the work of a woman, Caroline, of Chicago.

All the work done by women showed a great improvement over that exhibited at the Chicago Exposition, not only in the cut and design, but in the artistic finish and the care given to every detail.

The hand work was a special feature of all the garments for women in the lingerie, gowns, and manteaux.

The most intricate designs were executed in a manner betokening the true artist, and none but those educated in the art of combining colors and in designing could have obtained the results seen at St. Louis.

The tendency in all garments for women, however, was toward the ornate rather than the simple, and with but few exceptions every gown, every wrap, and all the lingerie was most elaborate. But the hand of the true artist was shown in these garments in that they were beautiful and in good taste in spite of their elaborateness.

It would have been advantageous if the women's work had been arranged separate from the men's, because they would have attracted more attention as a woman's exhibit per se and would therefore have called greater attention to the progress women have made in these lines. In other words, the separate exhibit would have served better for a comparative study of woman's advancement in the past ten years.

There was a greater variety of woman's work than was shown at the Chicago Exposition, and that in itself showed an advancement. The greater scope gave evidence of a broadening influence, and the women showed themselves proficient in all they undertook.

As compared with the work of men, I should say that the women's exhibit had every right to be placed side by side with the men's, just as was done.

In Group 58 was eventually placed the wonderful piece of embroidery of the "Sistine Madonna," the work of Miss Ripberger, of Berlin. The linen upon which the life-like figures were wrought was probably 6 by 8 feet in size, and in order to reproduce the colors the silk had been matched with the colors in the original painting. The reproduction of Raphael's wonderful work was a marvel of artistic ability and patience, and was exquisitely executed. It justly deserved the grand prix accorded it.

Department H, agriculture, Mr. Frederic W. Taylor, chief, comprised 27 groups and 137 cla.s.ses, the board of lady managers being represented in but five groups.

Group 78, Mrs. W.H. Felton, of Cartersville, Ga., Juror.

Under the heading of "Farm equipment--Methods of improving lands," the three cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Specimens of various systems of farming. Plans and models of farm buildings; general arrangement; stables, sheepfolds, barns, pigsties, breeding grounds; special arrangements for breeding and fattening cattle; granaries and silos; furniture for stables, barns, kennels, etc. Material and appliances used in agricultural engineering, reclaiming of marshes, drainage, irrigation.

Mrs. Felton says, in a letter accompanying her report:

In accordance with your official request, I have prepared a short resume of the work as juror in Group Jury No. 78. It was the central group--I mean, the leading group in the Department of Agriculture. There were no exhibits by women, because we pa.s.sed upon matters so immense that it was the work of States and foreign governments, rather than of individuals, that was noted.

Mrs. Felton's report is as follows:

I was selected as a juror for Group Jury No. 78, and entered upon the duties a.s.signed me on September 1, 1904.

Group Jury No. 78 organized, and after the chairman and vice-chairman were selected I was made secretary, which position I held until the minutes and report were handed in to the office of Hon. Fred. W. Taylor, chief of Department of Agriculture, on September 19.

As secretary, the work of the Group Jury No. 78 came immediately under my supervision, and I found the work exceedingly pleasant, and my colleagues (all the members were gentlemen except myself) were most agreeable, and we concluded our work without the least friction or antagonism to the close.

Group No. 78 was the first on the list in the general Department of Agriculture. It covered exhibits on main lines, other groups taking what I might term subdivisions.

We examined farm improvement as related to inventions and devices which were intended as fixtures to farm buildings. Group No. 79 was devoted to such exhibits as were movable.

To ill.u.s.trate: No. 78 collected data and awarded prizes on barn gates, doors, hay carriers, silos, windmills, pumps, etc., while No. 79 was concerned with thrashers, plows, and the various implements which are not sold with farm buildings as necessary fixtures.

Having lived an active life on a Georgia plantation for fifty years, all these matters were of exceeding interest to the secretary, although a woman.

Our jury made an exhaustive examination of the exhibits of irrigation models, with various reports and statistics, that were carried to St. Louis. Germany made the finest exhibit as to number and completeness, and I feel sure there never has been such a far-reaching display of irrigation methods in the United States before. I was intimately connected with the Columbian Exposition, as a lady manager from Georgia and chairman of the woman's executive committee in the Cotton States and International Exposition, and I feel I speak advisedly when I tell you that nothing I have ever seen compares with the agricultural exhibits of the St. Louis Exposition, as uncovered to my view in performing the duties of a juror, especially in regard to the greatest problem of the twentieth century, namely, in regard to irrigation and its future possibilities for our various States and Territories. You will understand, of course, women had no part in the various governmental works where land has been reclaimed and converted into the finest farming lands known to this era, but in the results which followed such reclamation the farmer's wife and daughter has been seen and felt everywhere, although no percentage of women's work was noted in the exhibits examined by Group Jury No. 78.

Germany, Italy, Belgium, and France were prominent, and the States of Utah, Montana, California, and Louisiana gave most satisfactory evidences of advanced progress by irrigation in farming methods.

In the Belgian exhibit we were shown the beautiful and remarkable flax grown in the irrigated districts, the material from which the finest lace, known as the Brussels product, is constructed. If the investigation had been pursued to the limit, every benefit, or profit, or financial opportunity resulting from the improvement of farms, abroad or at home, touches somewhere the lives of our farm women in comfort and happiness.

Our jury pa.s.sed upon the magnificent exhibit made by the State of Missouri in the Agricultural Palace--the finest State exhibit known to this continent--up to date in agriculture.

The construction of an elegant lay figure, made entirely of corn shucks and corn silks, representing a lady of style and fas.h.i.+on, was the handiwork of a woman and richly deserved the prize that was awarded.

Group No. 78 being confined to general lines, and covering the idea of farm improvement on an extended scale, grasping, as it were, the great and fundamental principles of modern agriculture, the work of the s.e.xes was not indicated by the exhibitors. The percentage of each was not required by instructions given to Group Jury No. 78.

It gives me great pleasure to thank you and the board of lady managers for kind attentions, and the opportunity for pleasure and instruction in this group jury work, and to a.s.sure you that it was my constant aim and purpose to prove to my colleagues and to Chief Taylor that your trust and confidence had not been misplaced in a.s.signing me to jury duty in so important a place.

Group 84, under the group heading "Vegetable food products--Agricultural seeds," was divided into eight cla.s.ses, which represented: Cereals--wheat, rye, barley, maize, millet, and other cereals in sheaves or in grain. Legumes and their seeds--beans, peas, lentils, etc. Tuber and roots and their seeds--potatoes, beets, carrots, turnips, radishes, etc.

Miscellaneous vegetables and their seeds--cabbages, peppers, artichokes, mushrooms, cresses, etc. Sugar-producing plants--beets, cane, sorghum, etc. Miscellaneous plants and their products--coffee, tea, cocoa, etc. Oil-producing plants and their products. Forage, growing, green, cured, or in silos; fodder for cattle; forage, gra.s.s, and field seeds.

Neither the princ.i.p.al nor alternate in this group were able to serve.

Group 89, Mrs. E.L. Lamb, Jackson, Miss., Juror.

Under the group heading "Preserved meat, fish, vegetables, and fruit," the eight cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Meat preserved by any process. Salted meats, canned meats. Meat and soup tablets. Meat extracts. Various pork products. Fish preserved by any process. Salt fish, fish in barrels, cod, herring, etc. Fish preserved in oil--tuny, sardines, anchovies.

Canned lobsters, canned oysters, canned shrimps. Vegetables preserved by various processes. Fruits dried or prepared, prunes, figs, raisins, dates. Fruits preserved without sugar.

Fruits, canned, in tins or in gla.s.s. Army and Navy commissary stores and equipment.

No report.

Group 88, Mrs. F.H. Pugh, Bellevue, Nebr., Juror.

Under the group heading "Bread and pastry," the two cla.s.ses into which it was divided represented: Breads with or without yeast, fancy breads, and breads in molds, compressed breads for travelers, military campaigns, etc. s.h.i.+p biscuits. Yeasts.

Baking powders. Pastry of various kinds peculiar to each country. Ginger bread and dry cakes for keeping.

Mrs. Pugh reports substantially as follows:

The nature of the exhibits in group 88 were angel food cake, pickles, bread, fruit cake, Purina Mills exhibit, the most striking exhibit being a California fruit cake, made by Mrs.

Rose E. Bailey, which weighed 81 pounds. The exhibits showed advancement in the science of good cooking, all the exhibits being installed by American women, no foreign women that I can recall partic.i.p.ating, and the display was more creditable than at the Chicago Exposition, in that the exhibitors showed more confidence in themselves and their work, more attention being given also to the purity and healthfulness of their food exhibits. Their work, as shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, would most certainly prove helpful or suggestive to those interested in the advancement and success of women's work by their exhibition of success already achieved, and the work of women, it is believed, was as well appreciated when placed by the side of that of men, and the results would not have been better had their work been separately exhibited. No manufacturers that I knew of, excepting the Purina Mills (Ralston) exhibition, were asked to state the percentage of woman's work that entered into the manufacture of their special exhibits, and only by one or two exhibits was it in a measure indicated in any way which part had been performed by woman, which by men; but, in my opinion, probably about one-tenth of the work was performed by women in this group. There were eight women exhibitors out of a total of sixty-three applications.

In the exhibits in this department daintier manipulation and more regard for purity of foods was shown than in the past, and in the construction of individual booths Mrs. Buchanan's pickles, Mrs. Gautz (Northwestern Yeast Company), and Mrs.

Haffner's Swansdown flour deserve special mention. The exhibits of the women did not show special development of original inventions, but were mainly improvements and greater skill in handling the products, the greatest labor-saving machine being Werner's domestic machinery; but it is presumed this is the invention of man only, and that while women took no part in constructing that their installations were a credit to the most wonderful of all expositions and were a great attraction to visitors.

I am frank to say that as I look back upon our work there, the women who made the greatest effort to add to the attractiveness of the Agricultural Palace did not receive all the awards they deserved, namely, Mrs. Rose E. Bailey, to whom was awarded a grand prize for the ingenuity of her exhibit, never heard of the award; Mrs. Bertha E. Haffner, representing Swansdown flour, should have had a grand prize for her cakes, since a grand prize was awarded Mrs. Gautz for bread. This was the consensus of opinion of jurors in group 88.