Women's History Month
[Images: Woman's Building exterior, Court of Honor, Woman's Building interior, (Inset) Sophia Hayden, World's
Columbian Exposition of 1893, columbus.gl.iit.edu /Artwork: designslinger]
March is Women's History Month, and to celebrate I'm going to write a post or two over
the next few weeks honoring women in the world of art and design. Today, I wanted to recognize a young woman who designed a building constructed for the express purpose of showcasing the works of women through history, from around the world world. If you were thinking Julia Morgan, you'd be wrong. This story is about Sophia Hayden, who designed the Woman's Building at the Chicago World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and about the woman who saw to it that the building got built.
Chicago had a powerful, socially connected, dynamo named Bertha Honore Palmer. Her
husband Potter, was one of the richest men in the country, and Bertha's father was a real estate mogul and prominent in the city's social circles. When Chicago won the prize as the Fair's host city, Bertha was made the President of the Board of Lady Managers, and being somewhat of a feminist of her time, made sure that there would be a building devoted to the women's achievements. She also planned on overseeing the construction of said building. But, the Lady Managers were to have no say in the choice of the architect who would design the project. That would be left to the men.
You do have to give the men some credit however, or at least to the leader of the team,
Daniel Burnham. Only women were allowed to enter the competition, and of the 14 finalists, the 23 year-old Hayden was chosen, who just happened to have the distinction of being the first woman to graduate with a degree in architecture from MIT. Her design was considered to be "that of the Italian Renaissance" with a large interior courtyard and Renaissance inspired details. Along with enough exhibition space for displaying artwork in the pavilion, (Mary Cassatt painted a mural, destroyed along with the building at the end of the Fair) the structure contained a library, assembly rooms, committee rooms, and administration offices, including one for the President, Mrs. Palmer.
Unfortunately, though Hayden may have won the competition, she lost many battles.
Her building was praised by some, but it was called, "a hen coop for petticoated hens, young and old," among other similar disparaging remarks. Her biggest battle though came in the person of Bertha Palmer herself. Shut out of the decision making process on the choice of architect, willful, strong-minded Bertha made sure she and her society friends would be making the decisions from now on. The Lady Managers chose to place Candace Wheeler in charge of the interior decoration of the building, which made Hayden want to withdraw her building's design altogether.
Mrs. Palmer wasn't the only one who gave Hayden a hard time. Apparently Sophia's
experience was so awful that she retired from architecture after seeing her building completed. Rumors flew that she had suffered a nervous breakdown, which would fit in with the era's view of the fragile nature of a woman's disposition. Bertha on the other hand thrived. She lorded over Chicago society for several more years from her mansion on Lake Shore Drive. When she died in 1918 at her estate in Florida, her body was brought back to Chicago where she would lie in state, in her castle by the lake.
More next week on another pioneering woman in the world of design, and the continuing
discussion about Victorian styles. Tomorrow, check back for some snippets with links to some interesting reading of the past week.
designslinger]
Posted by designslinger at 3/12/2009 5:00 AM 
Categories: Architecture, History, Apparel, Art, Decorative Arts
Tags: Women's History Month Sophia Hayden World's Columbian Exposition 1893 Mary Cassatt Bertha Palmer
Categories: Architecture, History, Apparel, Art, Decorative Arts
Tags: Women's History Month Sophia Hayden World's Columbian Exposition 1893 Mary Cassatt Bertha Palmer
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