Candace Wheeler - Chicago World's Fair

Chicago World's Fair

The Chicago World's Fair, the World's Columbian Exposition, celebrated the city's rebirth from the effects of the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the 400th anniversary of the first voyage of Christopher Columbus. Organizing the fair was a massive undertaking and because it took place at a time when women were becoming more independent and taking a greater role in American society, a number of powerful women advocated for and won permission to build a Women's Building for the fair. The building was to be a celebration of the progress that women had made in the 400 years since Columbus's discovery of America. The Board of Women's Managers was led by the Chicago art collector Bertha Palmer, who worked closely with the curator Sarah Tyson Hallowell on the art for the women's building. Palmer and Wheeler had first met in 1882, when they worked together on the decoration of the Palmer mansion in Chicago. Because of her tremendous influence in the field of design and reputation as an advocate for women in the arts, Wheeler was selected to supervise the decoration of the women's building. While Hallowell thought it was a good idea to have applied art for women in the Women's Building, she felt that women painters and sculptors should not be segregated and should compete with the men for selection into the main art exhibits. While Wheeler had enormous respect for Hallowell. going so far as to say that her "judgement in art matters was as unquestioned as law," she wanted to have both applied and fine art by women exhibited in the Women's Building. While Wheeler's view won out, many of the leading women artists chose to have their art displayed alongside the men. She presided over exhibits of women's artistic works from Russia, Japan, Ceylon and many other nations. Wheeler also had an important role in New York's exhibits for the fair and was appointed Director of the Bureau of Applied Arts by the Board of Women's Managers of New York State. The State of New York wanted to emphasize its leading role in the field of design and decoration at the fair. In her formal role as interior designer for the Women's Building, she was known as Color Director. In her role as designer, she had to coordinate the placement of hundreds of donated items in the interior of the building. Sarah Hallowell and Bertha Palmer had commissioned two large murals Primitive Women and Modern Women from Mary Fairchild Macmonnies and Mary Cassatt respectively, for each end of the Women's Building, but Wheeler complemented these large works with smaller murals by her daughter, Dora Wheeler Keith, Rosina Emmet Sherwood and Lydia Field Emmett as well as two by Amanda Brewster Sewell and Lucia Fairchild. While there were many battles over the decoration of the Women's Building and tremendous hurdles that had to be overcome, Wheeler later looked back favorably on the fair and her role in it.