Furniture, Stained glass, and Mortuary monuments--with
numberless exhibits m various buildings all over the grounds, I
elected to serve in the class for "Fixed inner decoration." I
was aware that I had been appointed for Germany because of the
great interest I had taken in the movement for harmony in
household art inaugurated in Germany about ten years ago. This
movement admits of no division into "fixed inner decoration" and
"furniture," etc., but regards the arrangement and decoration of
spaces with a view to the effect of the "ensemble." Following
the lead of our distinguished chairman, Doctor Wuthesius, we
adhered to this idea in spite of the barbarous separation
ordered by the official instructions. Thus I was enabled to gain
an insight into what women were accomplishing in industrial art,
which would have been impossible had I permitted myself to look
only upon "fixed inner decoration."

The exhibits made by our own country in household art were
meager compared to those of several foreign countries, notably
Germany and Austria. Nor was it possible to gain information
from our exhibitors as full and as accurate as from some of the
foreigners. Here again the Germans were to the front with a
complete, reliable, and artistically finished catalogue, which
they freely distributed among the jurors. Only the Japanese were
as perfectly equipped in the matter of literature on their
exhibits and as lavish of information to the jurors as the
Germans.

I have no doubt that American women are as extensively employed
in industrial art as the women of Europe, but, excepting in
pottery, their forward stride was not made to appear pronounced
at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Woman's work as a maker of
laces was not so exhibited as to make it readily distinguishable
from men's, although it must have entered largely into the
exhibits made, which, however, as I have just said, did not
adequately represent the United States, many of the best and
most renowned eastern firms having chosen to absent themselves.

Nor were foreign women, always the Germans and Austrians
excepted, frequent or prominent in the showing made. In the two
countries mentioned women have been undoubtedly taken up as
factors which hereafter are to count in the arts and crafts. We
found German women in a pe