Woman’s Building (Interiors)

[World’s Columbian Exposition Fairgrounds], Chicago, IL

1892-93 | Woman’s Building (Interiors) | Demolished at the conclusion of the fair

Minerva was a member of the Philadelphia Ladies’ Auxiliary Society, whose focus was on promoting women’s work for the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. Committees focused on the themes of education, public health, literature, science, and social economics (Sarah A. Stewart was in-charge of the education committee). The art committee was headed by Emily Sartain, who worked alongside Nichols and artists Gabrielle D. Clements and Alice Barber Stevens (Minerva and Alice both taught at the Philadelphia School of Design for Women during Emily Sartain’s tenure as principal). The committee coordinated the “furnishing [of] three apartments occupying about one-half of the first floor of the Pennsylvania State Building.” The largest room was to be finished in Bird’s-eye Maple – a wood native to the Commonwealth, with mural decorations by Clements, Margaret Leslie Bush-Brown, Jeanne Rongier, and Sarah P. Ball Dodson. A “carved Colonial mantelpiece,” presumably designed by Minerva and positioned in a prominent corner of the room, was adorned with a statue by Charles Grafly and decorative panels by Mary E. Slater.

While 27 architects – all male – were exhibited in the Pennsylvania Building, Minerva’s work was exhibited separately in the Woman’s Building alongside works by Sartain and others. In addition to four of Minerva’s architectural drawings (displayed in the Education Room), photographs of four of her buildings were exhibited, including the New Century Clubs in Philadelphia and Wilmington, the Campbell Sisters’ houses, and a “residence in Upsal” – presumably her Queen Anne design for Mary Potts.

— Researched and written by Bill Whitaker