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.