The Woman's Building
With over 200 buildings on the fairgrounds, one that adds to the many firsts at the fair is the Woman's Building. Women played a major role in the fair and their building was a testament of that. This building was designed by the first female architect to graduate from MIT and was the first of the main twelve buildings at the fair to be completed.
There were exhibits featuring Women in all different fields including fine art, American History, literature, music, and science. This building was an incredibly popular building to visit because of all the different exhibits that took place in a singular building. The Roof Garden Cafe began serving 2,000 visitors a day, which was ten times as many as it had served on Opening Day.
However, after the fair the Woman's Building was demolished with all the other Fair Buildings and much of the history and art was placed in storage and lost to history.
Sophia Hayden- Architect
Sophia Hayden was the first female to graduate from the four-year architecture program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Hayden graduated with honors in 1880. However, she struggled to find work as an architect because she was a woman, but she began teaching mechanical drawing at Eliot School of Fine and Applied Arts. In 1893 at the age of 21, Hayden won first prize out of the 13 female architects competing to design the Woman's Building at the fair. This was America's most prominent design competition for women, and she won $1,000, compared to the male first prize winnings of $10,000.
Hayden based her design off her previous thesis, "Renaissance Museum of Fine Arts," and in the Beaux-Art architectural style. Due to her design principles and disagreements with the construction committee, Hayden was fired by Bertha Palmer during the construction of the building. She was present at the opening celebration and had the continued support of other architects, but she retired from architecture shortly after the destruction of the Woman's Building.
Bertha Palmer
Bertha Palmer was a prominent woman in Chicago Society. Her husband was Potter Palmer, a millionaire retailer and real estate man. She is best known for her work with the Chicago World's Fair and the Woman’s building as well as her work with the 'Chicago Women's club' and her work as president of the 'Board of Lady Managers."
As the president of the Board of Lady Managers, Palmer oversaw the Woman's Building. When Sophia Hayden would not back down from her design principles, Palmer fired her and hired Candace Wheeler, who would follow Palmer's design choices over her own, to finish the building that Hayden started. As president, Palmer chose the themes for the murals and worked with Congress to get a commemorative 'Board of Lady Managers, 1893' quarter made.