Final Report of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

by Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission

Among the social events occurring at the building of the board of lady managers, the following is a list of the more prominent ones held during the exposition period:

Dinner to the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission, April 30; reception tendered to Mrs. Francis, wife of the president of the Exposition Company, May 9; reception to officers of Army and Navy, present in and around St. Louis at that time, May 18; luncheon to General Federation of Women's Clubs, May 19; luncheon to Miss Roosevelt, May 31; tea to Musical Federation, June 2; dinner to Prince Pu Lun, the official representative to the exposition of the Empress An of China, June 10; reception to foreign representatives at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, June 17; reception to P.E.O.'s, June 18; reception to governors, and State and Territorial commissioners at the exposition, June 24; dinner to Governor Odell, of New York, and Mrs. Odell, June 28; visit of Cardinal Satolli, July 1; reception to Mrs. Charles Mercer Hall, July 12; reception to Civic Federation, July 12; reception to members of Interparliamentary Union, at which time the building was draped with the flags of all nations, and the national airs of the different countries represented were played by the orchestra, September 12; reception to Mrs. Sarah S. Platt Decker, president of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, September 19; reception to members of the Congress of Arts and Sciences, September 20; reception to members of the American Bar Association and Congress of Lawyers and Jurists, September 30; reception to the president, Mrs. Augustine Smythe, and officers and members of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, October 7; reception to the president, Mrs. Charles W. Fairbanks, and officers and members of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, October 11; reception to the governor of Connecticut and his staff, October 13; tea to hostesses of State and Territorial buildings, October 14; reception to the president, Mrs. Herbert Claiborne, and members National Society Colonial Dames of America, October 20; an informal dance, October 25; reception to meet the president and members of the Wednesday Club, of St. Louis, October 29; reception to meet the members of the Association of Collegiate Alumnae, November 3; reception to meet the president and members of the Woman's Club of St. Louis, November 7; informal dance, November 9; dinner to President Francis, November 12; reception to Forest Park University students, November 14; informal dance, November 18; reception to Prince Fushimi, the official representative to the exposition of the Mikado of Japan, November 22; dinner to Jefferson Guards, Thanksgiving Day, November 24; final reception of the board of lady managers on what was known as "Francis Day," in honor of the president of the exposition, when the board of lady managers kept informal "open house" and entertained all who called on this, the last day of the exposition, December 1.

The members of the board met their obligations with acceptable dignity, offering cordial hospitality to all the important bodies meeting within the exposition grounds. Their building was the social center around which gathered the national and international representatives of governments and organizations, until more than 25,000 persons received specific invitation to their official entertainments. And whether the hospitality was extended to His Eminence, the emissary of the Pope, or whether it was a reception to His Imperial Highness, the representative of the Mikado of Japan, or a dinner to the envoy of Empress An, of China, or to the governor of a State and his staff, or to the members of the National Commission, or the officials of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, all were welcomed with genuine cordiality, the board of lady managers never failing to remember their responsibility and that they were representing the nation and serving their country by thus doing their share in affording an opportunity for all nationalities to become acquainted with each other and with our social customs as demonstrated at the exposition.

Respectfully submitted.
M. MARGARETTA MANNING, Chairman.
FANNIE LOWERY PORTER,
BELLE L. EVEREST,
JOSEPHINE SULLIVAN,
SALENA V. ERNEST,
M.K. DE YOUNG,
KATHARINE PRATT HORTON,
HELEN BOICE-HUNSICKER,
AMELIA VON MAYHOFF,
Members of Committee.

The ninth meeting of the board was called September 20, 1904. This was a special meeting called for the purpose of reconfirming the departmental jurors as is set forth in the final report of the chairman of the committee on awards.

An exposition must of necessity prove educational. The director of exhibits of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition said "The opportunity afforded for study and comparison of the various productions of human genius and activity classified and shown in detail, the finished product beside the methods and processes by which articles are produced, the vast systems of machinery in operation, and the skilled artisans occupied in difficult and intricate employments or native industries, representing accurately and in detail the latest development of the various arts and manufactures, makes it possible for not only the student to acquire knowledge, but each exhibitor may learn something from every other exhibitor in his class which may be to his advantage, and which may lead to the improvement of that which he produces, whether it be in the domain of art or manufacture, at home or abroad. The measure of the value of an international exposition is determined by the number of important countries represented by exhibits, the characteristics and comprehensive nature of these exhibits, or the excellence in quality according to the standards of the countries from which they come. That an exposition affords the greatest opportunity that manufacturers and producers of a nation have to increase their export trade by displaying their samples and products before the eyes of foreign people whose markets they seek. Exhibitors are commercial and noncommercial." The commercial exhibitor has as his chief object the advertisement of his business and consequent increase in the sale of his goods by means of his display and the possible receipt of an award which may prove valuable in future exploitation of his products. The noncommercial exhibitor has but the moral satisfaction of receiving the tangible assurance of the excellence of his work as represented by the award.

Though woman's work enters into almost all manufactured articles, its proportion in some is very small, and at the Columbian Exposition, where it was estimated that women had a share in nearly 350 industries, it was finally agreed between the board of control and the board of lady managers that the best method upon which to base the proportion of women on the juries would be to give them representation according to the amount of work done by women on articles to be judged in each department of the classification. This was a very satisfactory arrangement to that board, inasmuch as the manufacturers exhibiting were asked on the application blanks furnished them when they applied for space: "Was the work upon this exhibit done wholly or in part by women?" An affirmative answer entitled the board of lady managers to membership on the jury of awards, giving them a majority in any department where women were especially active, and a minority, or total exclusion, where she had contributed little or nothing to the department, which would seem a most equitable method.

The impossibility of ascertaining these facts greatly affected the right of representation of the board of lady managers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition on the juries of awards.

President Francis, in his address to the board on March 2, 1904, spoke on this subject as follows:

I wish to say again—I think I have made this statement to you before—that when we started the organization of the exposition the question of separate fields of exhibit of competition was suggested and advanced, but the stronger view was presented as we believed by the stronger women, that there should be no contest between individual members of the different sexes, but that the work of each should be shown—that if women had not arrived at that stage and made that advancement which permitted them to compete with men's work, they had advanced but little. Therefore we did not think of making any separate classification for the exhibitions of women's work—they came in under the same classification as men. On most of the lines of work upon which women have entered, they are holding their own, if not in every instance.