Women Building History

Résumé du livre

This handsomely illustrated book is a welcome addition to the history of women during AmericaÕs Gilded Age. Wanda M. Corn takes as her topic the grand neo-classical WomanÕs Building at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, a structure celebrating modern womanÕs progress in education, arts, and sciences. Looking closely at the paintings and sculptures women artists made to decorate the structure, including the murals by Mary Cassatt and Mary MacMonnies, Corn uncovers an unspoken but consensual program to visualize a history of the female sex and promote an expansion of modern womanÕs opportunities. Beautifully written, with informative sidebars by Annelise K. Madsen and artist biographies by Charlene G. Garfinkle, this volume illuminates the originality of the public images female artists created in 1893 and inserts them into the complex discourse of fin de si�cle womanÕs politics. The WomanÕs Building offered female artists an unprecedented opportunity to create public art and imagine an historical narrative that put women rather than men at its center.