What I have said of wood engraving is, perhaps, not less true of copper and steel engraving.
PHOTOGRAPHERS.
Photography now employs many thousands in the country, and there is no part of the business which may not be as successfully performed by a woman as by a man. Already a very considerable percentage of the operators and colorers are women.
SCHOOLS OF DESIGN.
Schools of design have long existed in Europe. There are quite a number of them in Paris, some of them of prodigious proportions, and about a third of them are for women. There are schools of design scattered throughout the cities of the United States.
The object of these schools is to give a knowledge of some of the industrial branches of the fine arts. In some of these schools drawing is taught with marked thoroughness.
Designing for paper hangings, calico, wood engraving; designs for carpets, silks, ribbons, furniture, laces, plated ware, silver, jewelry, etc., are beginning to receive much attention.
Just think of the absurdity of employing men to design calicos. As a woman has a keener instinct for delicate forms, and beautiful, harmonious combinations of colors, so it is certain that she would succeed best in designing for calicos and similar fabrics.
These schools of design are to open an unlimited field for the remunerative employment of women. As our civilization is widened and refined, this field will rapidly enlarge.
Already, if there were some thousands of women educated,—and they may be educated, generally without expense to themselves,—they could find immediate and well-paid employment in the industrial prosecution of various branches of the fine arts.