March is Women’s History Month and a fitting time to reflect on women’s valuable contributions to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

Reprinted here is Part 2 of “Woman’s Part at the World’s Fair” from the May 1893 issue of The Review of Reviews. “The Woman’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary” was written by Ellen M. Henrotin, Vice-President of the Woman’s Branch of the World’s Congress Auxiliary. Part 1 was posted earlier this month, and Parts 3 will follow later. Additional images have been added to the original article.

The World’s Congress Auxiliary (WCA) was divided into 20 departments and 224 general divisions. Speaker delivered nearly 6,000 addresses in 1,283 sessions. The WCA held its sessions in the new Art Institute of Chicago on Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago, separate from the fairgrounds in Jackson Park, served as the World’s Congress Auxiliary Building during the Fair.

Mrs. Henrotin’s overview of the substantial contributions by women to the WCA sessions suggests that its official motto of “Not Things, but Men; Not Matter, but Mind” lacked proper inclusion.

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WOMAN’S PART AT THE·WORLD’S FAIR.

II. THE WOMAN’S BRANCH OF THE WORLD’S CONGRESS AUXILIARY

By Mrs. Ellen M. Henrotin

The World’s Congress Auxiliary is organized to facilitate the holding of conventions and congresses during the Exposition of 1893. The Art Palace on the lake front will be the meeting place of the entire series. This building, now nearing completion, contains two large central auditoriums, each with a seating capacity of three thousand, and eight or ten smaller halls with a seating capacity of from 200 to 800. It will thus be possible for two series of congresses to run parallel, and this will in nowise interfere with their success, for each naturally appeals to a different audience. The Directory of the Columbian Exposition will give $200,000 towards this building on condition that during the summer of 1893 it will be placed at the disposal of the Congress Auxiliary. The smaller halls may also be used for round table conferences. Of a truth, the comfort and convenience of the choice between a large or small audience will be charmingly secured in a building which offers auditoriums of all sizes, which is situated in the heart of the city, facing the largest hotels, at the termini of all surface railroads, while back of it is the station of the Illinois Central going directly to the Columbian Exposition, with trains leaving every five minutes.

When the Congress Auxiliary was first organized women were unrepresented. Mrs. Potter Palmer, President of the Board of Lady Managers, addressed a communication to the Officers of the Auxiliary requesting a representation of the interests of women in the congresses. This was at once granted and it was explained that no committee had been at first appointed because the officers of the Auxiliary had anticipated such a request and preferred to defer action until the suggestion reached them from those having women’s interests in charge. The Woman’s Branch was thereupon appointed, with Mrs. Potter Palmer President and Mrs. Charles Henrotin Vice-President. It goes without saying that women have not applied for representation in every congress, but the large number in which we do find them is remarkable and makes a sure index of the trend of modem civilization.

THE CONGRESS OF REPRESENTATIVE WOMEN.

The first congress in the list is that of Representative Women. It will convene May 15, and will represent the progress of woman since the discovery of the continent in 1492. It is divided into the following departments: Education, Industry, Art and Literature, Philanthropy and Charity, Moral and Social Reforms, Religion, Civil Law and Government. In it women will discuss the relation of woman to all subjects; for instance, education will not be treated per se, but rather the relation of woman to education. Reports will be published on the status of woman in every congress, the object being to show her historical progress and present estate throughout the world. These reports will be invaluable to the student of sociology.

THE WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS CONSIDERED.

During the week of the Congress of Representative Women morning and evening sessions will be held in the two large auditoriums, and subjects of general interest will be presented. The titles of some of the papers to be delivered will be: The Civil and Social Evolution of Woman, The Administrative Ability of Woman, Woman the New Factor in Economics, Woman on the Stage, Woman in the Pulpit, The Ethics of Dress, Woman as a Financier, Woman in Municipal Government, The Political Future of Women, Woman’s War for Peace, Woman as a Social Leader, The Trades and Professions Underlying the Home, and others dealing with the work of preceding congresses, with the improving status of Eastern women, and with the all-important part that organization plays in her progress.

SPEAKERS AND REPRESENTATIVES FROM EVERY LAND.

Many foreign societies and associations will be represented by delegates from abroad, among them being Mme. Isabelle Bogelot, Treasurer of the International Council of Women; Mrs. Fredriksen, of Denmark; Dr. Marie Popelin, of Belgium; Contessa de Gubernatis, of Italy, and Signorita Esmeralda Cervantes, of Spain. The last day of the congress will be Sunday, May 21, on the morning of which a religious service will be held, conducted by women ordained as ministers. In this service every denomination which has admitted women to the ministry will be represented, and the evening session is to close with a sacred concert in which the lines of sex will again be drawn, both as to composers and performers.

Sixty-three organizations will be represented in the Congress of Representative Women and many hundreds of societies and associations. During the week thirty or forty organizations will hold business meetings, and some of the principal speakers will be Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Madame Modjeska, Julia Marlowe, Rev. Anna H. Shaw, Dr. Mary Putnam Jacobi, Rev. Caroline J. Bartlett, Emily de Morsier, Miss Frances Willard and many other prominent women; both American and foreign.

THE JOURNALIST, MEDICAL AND OTHER CONGRESSES.

The series of congresses which follows will be participated in by both men and women, and the committee have carefully refrained from selecting women to speak simply because they are women, but have only placed them on the programmes when they were representative, and could fairly compete with the men who were invited to address the assemblages.

The Public Press Congress, convening May 22, follows that of Representative Women, and one of the evening meetings is reserved for Woman Journalists, while on the programme of the other evening sessions of this congress many women have been invited to deliver addresses. The Woman Journalists will hold three sessions of their own, and most of the prominent writers of the country have promised either to deliver addresses or to add to the interest of the meetings by being present.

The Medical Congresses will convene May 29. The committees having them in charge act as a joint committee and arrange their programme in common. The Temperance Congress will convene June 5, under the auspices of Archbishop Ireland and Miss Frances Willard, and will be addressed by many temperance orators of great note. The International Congress of Charities, Correction and Philanthropy will be held June 12 to 18, and has been divided into seven sections, among them being the Public Treatment of Pauperism, the Care of Neglected, Abandoned and Dependent Children, the Prevention and Repression of Crime and the Punishment and Reformation of Criminals.

WOMAN AS A BUSINESS FACTOR.

In the Section of Commerce and Finance, women have hut small representation, but several papers will be compiled from statistics of building, loan and real estate associations, insurance companies and national banks, which will show the enormous amount of property controlled by women in the financial institutions of the country, in the management of which they are mostly content to vote by proxy. Could women once realize their financial power their sense of responsibility would be aroused and they would give to the subject that attention which it merits.

MUSIC, LITERATURE AND EDUCATION.

In the Congress of Music convening July 8 several of the world’s noted woman musicians have promised to be present and participate in the meetings, among them being Mme. Viardot, Mme. Marchesi and Mme. Albani Guy. In the Literary Congresses convening July 10 the following subdivisions have been adopted: Library, Historical, Authors’, Children’s Literature and Philology and Archeology. Mrs. Elisabeth V. Reed, Chairman of the Archeological Society, has secured papers for this last Congress from the most famous scholars. The growing interest of women in this subject and their zeal as explorers renders it extremely important. Mme. Schliemann, one of the most notable instances of whole-souled devotion to a cause, will be present and will read a paper on her husband’s excavations in Mycenae. The date for Educational Congresses is July 17, and the first week will be devoted to the special subjects of Kindergarten Education; Manual and Artistic Education; Physical Culture; Domestic and Industrial Education; Instruction of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind; College and University Institutions and Psychology, Experimental and Rational. In the last week of July the General Congress will be held under the auspices of the National Educational Association, presided over by Prof. William T. Harris, Commissioner of Education. The participation of women in the Educational Congress is naturally very large. The branches of the Kindergarten, of Manual and Artistic Training and of Domestic Education are for the most part under their control.

THE LATER CONGRESSES.

The congresses in August will be conducted more exclusively by men, but in Art the Woman’s Committee will make a creditable showing. Neither have women attained to eminence in Government, Law Reform and Political Science, but every effort will be made to secure papers from those who are students of these subjects. The Committee of Science and Philosophy for the Congress of this department, convening August 7, work jointly, and several women will make addresses. In the Scientific Congress, while many women are students, few have won for themselves any recognition for original research, but the few that have will be recognized. The Congresses to be held in September and October are deeply interesting to women. In the Labor Congress, convening September 1, the most noted labor leaders among women will speak, presenting the status of working women and children under present competitive industrial conditions.

WHAT WOULD THE CHURCH DO WITHOUT ITS WOMEN?

In the great Parliament of Religions and Missionary Congresses convening early in September, woman’s work is tremendous and her influence beyond estimate. Indeed, it is fair to say that were women to retire in a body from the churches the congregations remaining would be small. They have never aimed to rule the “church militant,” but they have swelled the list of the “noble army of martyrs” and thousands of heroic and gentle lives have been entirely given up to the carrying on of charitable ·and humane work. They are penetrating into the slums of the great cities, carrying in one hand a broom and in the other the “reason for the faith that is in them.” The Little Sisters of the Poor, the Gray Sisters, the Visiting Nurses, Deaconesses and the Salvation Army, are all striving in different ways to vanquish sin and banish suffering. The annals of the Church are glorious, but were women’s voices dumb in them the strain would not penetrate far beyond the walls of the churches. In the programme arranged by the Woman’s Committee of the Missionary Congresses we find among those who have promised their co-operation such names as Miss Charlotte M. Young, Mrs. Elizabeth Charles, Lady Henry Somerset, Mrs. Isabella Alden, Mrs. Alice Freeman Palmer, Mrs. Ballington Booth, Miss Amelia S. Quinton and Miss Edna Dean Proctor. In the Denominational Congresses which follow the Parliament of Religions a committee of women for each denomination will present the work in it. A session of the Roman Catholic Congress will be devoted to the work of woman in that church. The Lutheran women will hold several sessions and the Jewish women will make known what they have accomplished in connection with their religious organizations, showing the influence of Judaism on the home and on social and economic life. A meeting will be held of ordained woman ministers of all denominations and they will make addresses.

THE EMANCIPATED WOMAN IS A HOUSEWIFE, TOO.

Last but not least of the committees of women is that on Household Economics. The appointing by the Congress Auxiliary of this committee has led to the formation of the National Columbian Household Economic Association, and for the first time this great subject will receive the attention which is its due. This committee is assigned to three congresses–Education, Labor and Agriculture–besides a special one on housekeeping itself. Many foreign and American women have promised their co-operation. Prof. Lucy Salmon will speak on the Practical Application of Economics. Prof. Catherine Coman on the Effect of Competition on the Terms of Domestic Service, while Scientific and Sanitary knowledge involved in Household Economics will be discussed by Miss Marion Talbot, and the Sufferings of Little Children from Incompetent and Untrained Nurses and Uneducated Mothers by Mrs. Anna Howes Barns and Mrs. Helen Hitchcock Backus.

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS GREAT ENTHUSIASM.

The limited space which has been allowed me to present this exhaustive and world-embracing subject has forced me to touch but lightly upon the various departments of the Congresses and the part which women will take in them. The effect of association on woman is beginning to tell and the enthusiasm with which they respond to an invitation to be present at the Congresses, testifies to the enlarged views and deep interest which they are taking in economic, social, political and religious life. These international gatherings at Chicago in 1893 will reveal to the world at large what woman has accomplished. As Mrs. Potter Palmer said in her eloquent address at the dedication ceremonies, “Columbus discovered a new world, but the Columbian Exposition has discovered woman.”[1]

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NOTES

[1] Mrs. Henrotin does not provide Bertha Palmer’s exact quote. At the Dedication Day ceremony on October 21, 1892, she spoke: ”Even more important than the discovery of Columbus, which we are gathered together to celebrate, is the fact that the general government has just discovered women.”