WOMEN IN MUSIC AND DRAMA.
The prejudice which excluded women for centuries from the realms of science, interfered likewise with their participation in music and art. Up to the midst of the 19th Century almost all European conservatories and art academies were closed to female students. Previous to 1876 no women students of the violin were allowed at the High School in London, and for a long time they could not compete for prizes or receive diplomas. When Elizabeth Sterling presented her beautiful CXXX Psalm for five voices and orchestra to the university at Oxford for the degree of Mus. Bac., the degree, although the work was accepted and its merits acknowledged, could not be given for want of power to confer this degree upon a woman!
As the views of publishers of music and of conductors of orchestras were influenced by similar prejudices, nobody should wonder that women’s work in music has shown comparatively unsatisfactory results.
Yet, in spite of all these obstacles, there have been a number of women composers, whose works were appreciated by all their contemporaries. During the glorious time of the Renaissance Francesca Caccini, born in 1581 at Florence, was the pride of her city because of her magnificent church music and madrigals. Compositions of Vittoria Aleotti, a native of Argenta, were likewise much admired, especially her great opus, which was published at Venice, in 1593, under the flowery title “Ghirlanda dei Madrigali a 4 voci.” Maddalena Casulana of Brescia, produced also a number of fine madrigals, which were issued in two volumes in 1568 and 1583. Cornelia Calegari, of Bergamo, Barbara Strozzi, of Venice, belong also to the Italian composers of the Renaissance. Maria Teresa Agnesi, born during the 18th Century, produced a number of cantatas, and three operas, “Sophonisbe,” “Ciro in Armenia,” and “Nitocri,” which were the delight of all Italy.
In Austria at the same time appeared Maria Teresa Paradies, born at Vienna in 1759. Notwithstanding her blindness, dating from her fourth year, she had become a most remarkable pianist and composer, dictating her cantatas and several operettas. In 1784 she set out on a concert tour through Germany and England, everywhere exciting admiration by her rare endowments. She often moved her audiences to tears by a cantata, the words of which were written by the blind poet Pfeffel, in which her own fate was depicted. During the later part of her life she presided over an excellent musical institute in Vienna.
In another native of Vienna, Marianne Martinez, the qualities of many distinguished artists were combined. Not only did she sing beautifully, but she was likewise an excellent pianist; her compositions showed a vigor of conception together with extensive learning. She composed several cantatas, and a miserere, with orchestral accompaniment. Her oratorio “Isacca” was in 1788 produced by the Tonkuenstler Gesellschaft. Her salons, in which she gave weekly concerts, were the rendezvous of many musical celebrities.
Foremost among the women-composers of Germany was Clara Josephine Wieck-Schumann, the accomplished pianist and unexcelled interpreter of her husband’s, Robert Schumann’s, splendid works. She also produced a large number of songs of great merit, many of which have been published.
Francesca Lebrun, born 1756 at Mannheim, wrote several sonatas for piano, and trios for piano, violin and cello. Louise Reichard, of Berlin, Corona Schroeter, the famous artist of the 18th Century, Fanny Cecilia Hensel, born 1805 in Hamburg, and Josephine Lang, born 1815 in Munich, composed very beautiful songs. A “Suite for Pianoforte” (Op. 2) by Adele aus der Ohe has likewise received highest praise.
Among the women composers of France Elizabeth Claude Guerre, born at Paris in 1669; Edme Sophie Gail Garré, born in 1775, and Louise Bertin were the pioneers. Elizabeth Guerre’s opera “Cephale et Pœris” was performed at the Royal Academie. She also composed a Te Deum, and a number of cantatas.
The most successful composer of recent years was Cécile Louise Stephanie Chaminade, born at Paris in 1861. Her most ambitious compositions are “Les Amazones,” a lyric symphony with choruses; “La Sevillane”; “Callirhœ”; “Etude Symphonique,” and a large number of compositions for piano, many of which became very popular.
Of Augusta Mary Ann Holmes, likewise a native of Paris, the opera “Hero et Leandre” had great success.
Of the women composers of England M. Virginia Gabriel was very popular. She wrote the cantatas “Evangeline” and “Dreamland,” and the operettas “Grass Widows,” “Widows Bewitched” and “Who’s the Heir?” Leza Lehman was the author of the song cycle “In a Persian Garden,” and of “Nonsense Songs.” Clara Angela Macirone’s anthem “By the Waters of Babylon” has been sung in all the cathedrals of Great Britain.
Lady Helen Dufferin is known principally for her songs and ballads, which, both for comic humor and pathos, rank among the best in the English language. “The Irish Emigrant’s Lament” compares favorably with any English lyric. Charlotte Sainton Dolby, Elizabeth Mounsey and Harriet Abrams composed likewise numerous songs, and Kate Fanny Loder the operette “Fleur d’Epine.”
There exist also many splendid compositions by American women. When in 1893 the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago was dedicated, Mrs. H. A. Beach’s “Jubilate” was received with greatest enthusiasm. Also her “Gaelic Symphony” was played by many famous orchestras.
The “Dramatic Overture” (Op. 12) of Miss Margaret Ruthven Lang has been frequently performed by the famous Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Of the innumerable virtuosos, who interpreted works of the above-named composers and others, the American violinists Arma Senkrah and Maud Powell, the Italian Teresina Tua, the German Maria Soldat, and the South-American pianists Terese Careno and Giomar Novaez, not to forget the Hungarian Sophie Menter and the Russian Annette Essipoff have been the most eminent.
“Dem Mimen flicht die Nachwelt keine Kränze,” the great German poet Schiller has said in one of his poems, pointing out that, while the painter, sculptor, composer and writer transmit their works to remote generations, the glory won by the actor and singer exhales with their disappearance from the stage as quickly as does the fragrance of a delicate flower. The record of the performer’s and singer’s gift remains only as a tradition, as a legend.
So it is. The majority of those actors and singers, who in bygone times held large audiences spellbound, are forgotten. There are only few exceptions which in the history of dramatic art and music will remain. So for instance with the history of the English stage of the latter part of the 17th Century the names of two great actresses are inseparably connected: Gwynn and Elizabeth Barry. The former especially was the darling of the people, and much favored by King Charles II. During the following century Anne Oldfield, Mary Porter, Elizabeth Billington, Anne Spranger Barry, Hannah Pritchard, Mary Robinson, Jane Pope, Susanne Cibber, Frances Abington and Margaret Woffington were celebrated for their talent, charm, and elegance. Of Sarah Siddons, called “the Incomparable,” it has been reported that by means of her excellent art as well as by her beauty, dignity and personal distinction she reduced her audiences to an awe-struck reverence. Edmund Gosse, in an article devoted to the memory of Sarah Siddons says: “Under the effect she produced, women as well as men lost all command over themselves, and sobbed, moaned, and even howled with emotion. Young ladies used suddenly to shriek; men were carried out, gibbering, in hysterics.”
Of the many excellent English actresses of the 19th Century and of our present days Louise Nisbett, Mary Stirling, Elizabeth O’Neill, Helen Faucit, Lillian Neilson, Deborah Lacy, Frances Kemble, Adelaide Kemble-Sartoris, Charlotte Dolby, Ellen Terry, Gertrude and Rose Coghlan have to be mentioned. Also we must remember the great triumphs of Nellie Melba, a native of Australia, but at home on the stages and in the concert halls of Europe as well as of America.
The United States produced likewise a number of brilliant actresses and opera stars. Among the former were Clara Fisher, Mary Vincent, Laura Keene, Anna Gilbert, Anna and Cora Ritshie, not to forget Mary Ann Dyke-Duff, whom the elder Booth declared to be “the greatest actress in the world.” Furthermore, there was the classic Mary Anderson, who was followed later on by such eminent performers as Ida Conquest, Adelaide Phillips, Julia Marlowe, Leslie Carter, Maud Adams, and Ethel Barrymore.
Our United States have been also the native land of the famous opera stars Minni Hauck, Lillian Nordica, Emma Eames, Olive Fremstadt, Florence Macbeth, Mary Garden, Anna Case and Geraldine Farrar.
Germany and Austria too have produced numbers of accomplished actresses and singers who stood high in public esteem and thrilled vast audiences by splendid revelations of their art. The name of Charlotte Wolter is forever connected with the famous Burgtheater in Vienna as the greatest tragedienne in the history of that famous institution. To the many actresses, whose fame is not limited to their native countries but has extended to America as well, belong the following stars of the 19th Century: Marie Seebach, Ottilie Genee, Kathie Schratt, Hedwig Niemann-Rabe, Fanny Janauschek, Magda Irschik, Anna Haverland, Marie Geistinger, Agnes Sorma, Helene Odilon, Francisca Ellmenreich, Fanny Eysolt, Irene Triebsch and Else Lehmann.
As stars in grand opera and concert singers the most famous of the former century have been Henriette Sontag, Pauline Lucca, Marie Schroeder-Hanfstängl, Teresa Tietiens, Etelka Gerster, Lilli Lehmann, Fanny Moran-Olden, Rosa Sucher, Amalie Materna, Marie Brema, Katharine Klaffsky and Marianne Brand. Our present generation has paid tribute to Milka Ternina, Marie Rappold, Alma Gluck, Elene Gerhard, Johanna Gadski, Julia Culp, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Melanie Kurt, Margarete Ober, and Frida Hempel.
With the history of the French drama the names of the great tragediennes Elizabeth Rachel and Sarah Bernhardt are inseparably connected, while in opera Madeline Arnould, Magdalene Marie Desgarcins, Louise Françoise Contat, Marie Felicite Malibran, Louise Angelique Bertin, Sophie Cruvelli, Emma Calvé, Lucienne Breval, Felia Litvinne and Desiré Artot have been stars of the first order.
Italy gave birth to the famous actresses and singers Guilia Grisi, Marietta Alboni, Angelica Catalani, Adelaide Ristori, Eleonora Duse, L. Scalchi, Louisa Tetrazzina, and Amelia Galli-Curci.
Poland had her superb Helena Modjeska and Marcella Sembrich; Bohemia the marvelous Emmy Destinn.
Sweden treasures the memory of Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson as superlative artists. Jenny Lind was called “the Swedish Nightingale,” and was famous for her great charm as well as for her musical gifts. Her splendid tour in America under the management of P. T. Barnum in 1849 was one of the greatest artistic and financial triumphs ever achieved by one single artist.
A somewhat international position has been held by the famous Adelina Patti, born in 1843 at Madrid, as the daughter of a Sicilian tenor and the Spanish Signora Barilli. Taught singing by the Moravian Maurice Strakosch, she commanded an unusually high soprano of rich bell-like tone and remarkable evenness, and was equally at home in the tenderness of deep passion and the sprightly vivacity of comedy, and in oratorio. For these reasons she has been regarded as one of the greatest singers of all times. That her reputation was founded on her rare qualities, is best shown by the testimony of two of her fellow-artists, Marcella Sembrich and Lilli Lehmann. The former expressed her admiration in the words: “When one speaks of Patti one speaks of something that occurred only once in the history of the world.” The latter, famous in a totally different school of her art, wrote the following lines: “In Adelaine Patti everything was united—the splendid voice, paired with great talent for singing. All was absolutely good, correct and flawless, the voice like a bell that you seemed to hear long after the singing had ceased.”
WHAT WOMEN HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IN ART.
As is familiar to every student of the classic past the Greeks and Romans hailed a female deity, Pallas Athene, or Minerva, as the protectress of their arts and industries. She was believed to have invented spinning, weaving, embroidering, painting, and every other handicraft that has brought mankind comfort and happiness.
Of course this goddess had many eager women disciples. There was hardly any Greek or Roman woman without a thorough command of the above named crafts. Since the days of Homer, who praised Penelope, the beautiful wife of Ulysses, for her skill in tapestry-weaving, all women devoted themselves to useful arts. In Ephesus Pliny admired a picture of Diana, painted by Timarata, the gifted daughter of an able artist. He also praises Laya for her excellent miniature portraits on ivory, which were held in great favor by the rich ladies of Rome. The names of several other female artists are known, but unfortunately none of their works have come down to us.
Enthusiastic authors of the Middle Ages glorify Agnes, Abbess of Quedlinburg, for her great skill in illuminating manuscripts with figures, beautiful initial letters and elaborate border ornaments, which she enriched with all the splendor of color and gilding.
It was only natural, that the magnificent works of art, produced by Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Correggio, Tintoretto and other great masters of the Italian Renaissance, inspired the women who came in daily contact with these men; especially their daughters, many of whom inherited their fathers’ enthusiasm for beauty and art. Constantly witnessing the origin and progress of the products of their fathers’ genius, it could not fail that such women likewise devoted themselves to art. As did Lavinia Fontana, the daughter of Prospero Fontana of Bologna, whom Michael Angelo recommended to Pope Julius III., in whose service he remained for many years. Lavinia was born in Rome in 1552. Inspired by her father’s art, she too won great fame. The old patrician palaces of Rome, Bologna, and other Italian cities still contain many portraits of beautiful women and illustrious men, who once were among her sitters. She likewise painted various other works which show great care and delicacy.
Among her most admired works are a Venus, now in the Museum at Berlin; the Virgin lifting a veil from the sleeping infant Christ, now in the Escurial; and the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. Her masterpiece, however, is her own portrait, which shows her in all her radiant beauty.
Sofonisba Anguisciola, born in 1533 at Cremona, likewise ranks high among the foremost portrait painters of the 16th Century. On recommendation of the Duke of Alba, Philippe II., King of Spain, invited her to his court in Madrid, where she was received with extraordinary honors. Here she painted numerous portraits of the king as well as of the queen, the infantas and the members of the court. A few specimens of her art are still to be seen in the Escurial at Madrid and at Florence. Van Dyck acknowledged himself more benefited by her than by his study of all other masters.
Marietta Tintoretto, born in 1560, a daughter of the great Venetian artist Jacopo Robusti, commonly called Tintoretto, was one of the most appreciated portrait painters in the “Queen City of the Adriatic.” She was so favorably known for the beauty of her work and the exactness of resemblance that she was solicited by Emperor Maximilian as well as by Philippe II., King of Spain, to visit their courts. But her affectionate attachment to her father was so great that she declined these honors, and remained in Venice, where she died in 1590.
The 17th Century likewise produced a number of excellent women artists. Bologna, the birth-place of so many famous men and women, was also the native town of Elizabeth Sirani, who, born in 1638 to Gian Andrea Sirani, a painter of some reputation, attracted attention to her attempts at drawing when scarcely more than an infant. Her rare talents developed as she grew older. Before she had attained her eighteenth year, she had finished several paintings, which were greatly admired and given places of honor in various churches. Her most admired work, a Lord’s Supper, grand in conception, is in the church of the Certosini, and is considered one of the best examples of the Bolognesian School of art. Unfortunately this promising woman died suddenly when only twenty-seven years of age.
Rosalba Carriera, a Venetian, born in 1675, became famous over all Europe for her admirable miniature- and crayon- or pastel-portraits, which, through her, became the fashion of the 18th Century.
Among the Dutch artists of the 17th Century Maria van Osterwyck and Rachel Ruisch excelled in painting flowers and fruits. Elisabeth Cheron, a French woman, born in Paris in 1648, was famous for her miniatures and historical subjects.
England too had some fine women artists: Mary Beale, born 1632 in Suffolk, and Anne Killigrew, born in London. Both are known for excellent portraits of notable persons. The National Portrait Gallery in London contains for instance Mary Beale’s portraits of King Charles II., of the Duke of Norfolk, and of Cowley.
MARIE S. LeBRUN WITH HER DAUGHTER.
After her own painting.
The 18th Century produced two women artists, who were among the leaders of their time: Angelica Kauffmann and Marie LeBrun. Angelica Kauffmann, the daughter of an artist, was born in 1740 at Coire in Switzerland, from where she went later on to Italy, to study the great masters. In 1765 she came to London. Here she painted many excellent portraits as well as numerous classic and allegorical subjects. In 1781 she returned to Italy. Here she was always much feted and admired for her talents as well as for her personal charm. Goethe, who met Angelica Kauffmann in Rome, admired her works very much. “No living painter,” so he wrote in a letter, “excels her in dignity or in the delicate taste with which she handles the pencil.” And Raphael Mengs, one of the most brilliant artists of the Rococo, praised her in the following words: “As an artist Angelica Kauffmann is the pride of the female sex in all times and all nations. Nothing is wanting; composition, coloring, fancy, all are here.” When she died in November, 1807, she was honored by a splendid funeral under the direction of Canova. The entire Academy of St. Luke at Rome with numerous ecclesiastics and virtuosi followed her funeral train and, as at the burial of Raphael, two of her latest paintings were carried behind her coffin in the procession.
Of Madame LeBrun, who was born in 1755 in France, it has been said that “a more ideal artist never lived.” The well-known portrait of herself and her daughter has been termed “the tenderest of all pictures.” She also painted several portraits of the unfortunate Queen Marie Antoinette. The Louvre has one of her best paintings: “Peace bringing back Abundance.”
Madame LeBrun was one of the most prolific artists of all times. In her autobiography, entitled “Souvenirs,” she states that she finished six hundred and sixty-two portraits, fifteen large compositions, and two hundred landscapes, the latter sketched during her travels in Switzerland and England.
During the 18th Century Germany was the scene of the greatest activity of women artists. France held the second place and Italy the third, thus reversing the conditions of preceding centuries. Flanders and Antwerp too were famous for women artists, some of whom went to other countries where they were recognized for their talent and attainments.
The most famous woman artist of the 19th Century was Rosa Bonheur, born in 1832 at Bordeaux, the daughter of Raymond Bonheur, an artist of merit. From him she received her first instructions. In 1841 she began exhibiting in the Paris Salon, with several small animal paintings, indicating the direction in which she was to attain her future eminence. Her great success in painting animals was due to her conscientious study of living subjects. One of her masterpieces, “Plowing with Oxen,” ranks among the gems of the Luxembourg. Another excellent painting, “The Horse Fair,” was the chief attraction of the Paris Salon in 1853, and later on became the property of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art. Of all animal paintings ever executed, this one is perhaps the most animated, and the best in composition as well as in color. Another canvass, “Horses Threshing Corn,” shows the same merits. Containing ten horses in full life size, it is the largest animal picture ever produced.
THE HORSE FAIR.
After the painting by Rosa Bonheur in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Another painting, “The Monarch of the Glen,” received much praise at the World’s Columbian Exposition.
In just appreciation of her genius Rosa Bonheur was proposed in 1853 for the Cross of the Legion of Honor, but because of her sex the decoration was withheld until 1865.—
One of the four daughters of an early German pioneer of California, who distinguished themselves in different lines of activity, Anne Elizabeth Klumpke followed in the footsteps of Rosa Bonheur, of whom she became a close friend, and who, in appreciation of her great talent, bequeathed to her her beautiful chateau as well as her entire fortune.
The second half of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century produced a surprising abundance of women artists, some of whom gained the most coveted prizes and medals offered by the great annual exhibitions in Paris, London, Berlin, Munich and other centers of art. Clara Erskine Clemens in her book “Women in the Fine Arts” has compiled notes about several hundred of them, without enumerating them all. To mention a few of the most excellent, we name of the German artists Louise Parmentier Begas, Tina Blau, Dora Hitz, Lucia von Gelder, Herminie von Janda, Countess Marie Kalckreuth, Minna Stock, Toni Stadler, Frieda Ritter, Margarethe von Schack, Vilma Parlaghy, and Margarethe Waldau.
Italy names among its best modern painters Alceste Campriani, Ada Negri, Juana Romani, Erminia de Sanctis, and Clelia Bompiani.
The French extol the genius of Louise Labé, Marceline Desbordes-Valmore and Louise Ackermann.
Belgium and Holland number among their women artists Therese Schwartze, Adele Kindt and Henriette Ronner; Spain points with pride to the works of Fernanda Frances y Arribas, Adele Gines and Antonia de Banuelos. Denmark’s famous artist, Elizabet Jerichau Baumann, is remembered especially for her magnificent painting “Christian Martyrs in the Catacombs”; Switzerland has two portraitists of the first order, Louise Catherine Breslau and Aimée Rapin, while Russia produced in Marie Bashkirttseff an artist of rare ability.
Perhaps in no other country is the number of female artists so large as in England. We will name only a few of them. Laura Alma Tadema was the gifted daughter of the famous artist Laurenz Alma Tadema. Margaret Sarah Carpenter won wide reputation as a gifted portrait painter. Ethel Wright’s beautiful painting “The Song of the Ages” belongs to the best examples of English art. Clara Montalba is favorably known for her splendid scenes of Venice, and landscapes of the Adriatic coasts. Elizabeth Thompson demonstrated by many excellent sketches and pictures that women are not afraid to make a specialty of battle scenes.
Ambitious American women are likewise hard at work gaining honor and laurels in the various fields of art. The morning promises fair, as there are already many shining names upon the scroll. To begin with one of the middle of the last century, we mention Cornelia Adele Facett, whose chief work, “The Election Commission in Open Session,” contains 258 portraits of men and women, prominent in the political, literary, scientific and social circles of their time. It adorns the Senate Chamber in the Capitol at Washington.
The most brilliant woman artist of the United States is without question Cecilia Beaux, a Philadelphian, who, as a portrait painter, compares with the very best of any nation. Her portrait of a “Girl in White,” owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, verifies what a critic said about her: “Miss Beaux has approached the task of painting the society woman of to-day, not as one to whom this type is known only by exterior, but with a sympathy as complete as a similar tradition and artistic temperament will allow. Thus she starts with an advantage denied to all but a very few American portrait painters, and this explains the instinctive way in which she gives to her pictured subjects an air of natural ease and good breeding.”
Sadie Waters, born in St. Louis, produced a number of religious paintings, her best and largest showing the Madonna in a bower of roses.
Violet Oakley of New Jersey had a prominent part in decorating the new Capitol at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, one of the most elaborate and costly public buildings in America. The mural painting “The Romance of the Founding of the State” in the Governor’s room is her work.
Anna Mary Richards excelled as a marine painter. Her large canvass “The Wild Horses of the Sea” has been especially admired.
Anny Shaw, Grace Hudson, Lucie Fairchild Fuller, Mary Cassatt, and Matilde Lotz are among the latest women artists of America, favorably known for many creditable works.
Although comparatively few women have devoted themselves to sculpture, there are several among them well worth mentioning.
The first female sculptor of whom anything is known, was Sabina von Steinbach, a daughter of Erwin von Steinbach, the famous architect of the magnificent cathedral at Strassburg, in Alsace. After the southern portal of this minster had been erected, Sabina adorned it with the statues of the apostles, one of which, that of John, held in his hands a scroll with the following inscription:
Nothing further is known about this artist of the end of the 13th Century.
Properzia de Rossi was an Italian woman sculptor, born near the end of the 15th Century at Bologna or Modena. The first-named city cherishes still a number of her works, among them a fine marble statue of Count Guido de Pepoli, and several figures that adorn the three gates of the facade of St. Petroneus. Vasari in his biographies of celebrated artists calls her “a virtuous maiden, possessing every merit of her sex, together with science and learning all men may envy.” And when she died in 1530, the following epitaph was written in her praise:
In modern Germany Anna von Kahle, Marie Schlafhorst, Dora Beer, Helene Quitmann, Henny Geyer Spiegel and Lilly Finzelberg have done much excellent work.
In France several statues by Jeanne Hasse, a Parisian, have been purchased by the government and presented to various provincial museums.
In England Mary Thornycroft, daughter and pupil of John Francis, the sculptor, has won the praise of the severest critics.
In America Annie Whitney’s statue of “Lady Godiva” as well as her “Africa” and “Roma” have been much praised.
Helen Farnworth Mears is well known for her “Fountain of Life.” Vinnie Ream Hoxie modelled a life-size statue of Lincoln, which stands in the rotunda of the Capitol at Washington. A statue of Farragut in Farragut Square is by the same artist.
Another American woman sculptor of renown was Harriet Hosmer, born in 1830 in Watertown, Mass. Having received her first instruction in Boston and St. Louis, she went to Rome in 1852 where she became a pupil of Gibson. Of her various works, the best known are “Beatrice Cenci in Her Cell”; “Willo’-the-Wisp”; “The Sleeping and the Waking Faun”; and a colossal statue of “Zenobia, Queen of Palmyra, in Chains.” She exhibited a statue of Queen Isabella of Spain at the World’s Columbian Exposition. A statue of “Puck” was so spirited and original, that it was ordered more than thirty times, is also her work.
Emma Stebbins (1815–1882) produced a statue of Horace Mann for Boston, and a large fountain for Central Park, New York, the subject being “The Angel of the Waters.”
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has in its collections several works by Frances Grimes, Laura Gardin, Malvina Hoffman, and Evelyn Longman. Miss Hoffman’s best known work, “The Russian Bachanale,” showing two almost nude dancing figures in bronze, was in 1919 presented by an American connoisseur to the famous Gardens of the Luxembourg in Paris.
The United States of America produced also the first women architects. In 1881 Louise Bethune took the lead. Somewhat later the New York firm Hands & Gannon, both members of which were women, designed the plans for numerous schools, hospitals, and model homes for the working people. Elizabeth Holman in Philadelphia became favorably known for her excellent designs for theatres, hotels, and cottages. Mrs. Wagner in Pittsburgh made a specialty of university buildings, churches and chapels.
Miss Sophie G. Hayden of Boston, a graduate of the architectural school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was the architect of the beautiful Women’s Pavilion at the World’s Columbian Exposition. The task of adorning this building with sculptures, emblematic of woman’s great work in the world, was after an extremely vigorous contest awarded to Miss Alice Rideout, of San Francisco. Women architects likewise designed the imposing woman’s palaces at the expositions in St. Louis, Atlanta, and San Francisco. Since then the number of women in this line of activity has steadily increased. According to the Census of 1910 the United States had in that year 1037 women architects, designers and draftsmen.
Thus we find woman hard at work in all the various realms of art. And since her joy in beauty is supreme, we may well expect that her expression of the highest beauty, the spiritual, will in time favorably compare with that of her brother-artists.
GREAT MONUMENTS OF WOMAN’S PHILANTHROPY.
Woman and philanthropy have always been inseparably connected, for charity has been regarded in all ages as one of the noblest virtues of the gentle sex.
There is scarcely any country which does not cherish the memory of some women for great works of charity. Germany, for instance, has the lovely story of Elizabeth, the wife of Ludwig IV., landgrave of Thuringia, who reigned during the first half of the 13th Century. Feeling an aversion to worldly pleasures, and making the early Christians her example, Elizabeth devoted herself to works of benevolence. In these she was so liberal, that her husband became uneasy, fearing she might impoverish his estate by her alms-giving. He accordingly bade her to give less to the poor. But secretly she spent just as much. One day, while she was carrying a heavy load of bread in her basket, she was stopped by her husband, who inquired what she was hiding. “Roses, my Lord, roses!” she said, hoping that he would not investigate. But when he insisted on seeing them, she was forced to open her basket and, oh wonder! all the loaves of bread had turned into the most beautiful roses.—
America remembers Dorothea Dix as one of the most distinguished women it ever has produced. Compelled by declining health to go to Europe from 1834 to 1837, she had ample opportunity to study in Liverpool and other cities of England the terrible conditions of the poor, especially of the inmates of poor-houses and insane-asylums. As at that time similar institutions in America were just as bad, she gave after her return to the United States all her time, strength and influence to ameliorate suffering, and to persuade the public to furnish suitable asylums, also to improve the moral discipline of prisons and penitentiaries. For this purpose she visited every State east of the Rocky Mountains, seeking out intelligent and benevolent people, and trying to kindle in their hearts the same enthusiasm that filled her own.
Fearless in lifting her voice against abuses, she was so persistent in reiterating her protests and in pleading needed reforms, that attention had to be given her. The founding of many state hospitals and insane-asylums in the United States as well as in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland is due to her indefatigable work.
A similar case is that of Margaret Fuller, the famous author. Warmly espousing the cause of reform in many directions and making herself the champion of truth and human rights at any cost, she visited prisons and charitable institutions and talked freely with the female inmates. It was on the common ground of womanhood that she approached these degraded of her own sex, true to her unalterable faith in awakening whatever divine spark might be there. She was surprised herself at the results—the touching traits and the possibilities that still survived in beings so forlorn and degraded. Many of them expressed a wish to see her alone, in order to confide to her the secrets of their ruined lives, and their ardent desire to enter a new course whereby they might regain respectability. Thus making herself the friend of the friendless, Margaret Fuller began what we call to-day “settlement work.”
In the matter of prison reform the name of Elizabeth Guerney Fry (1780–1845) will likewise be remembered as one of the first women promoters in this line of charity. An accidental visit to Newgate Prison in London disclosed to her the horrible conditions prevailing in this ill-reputed dungeon. Like most prisons at the time it was dark, damp, and cold in winter. The prisoners were usually half-starved, and clad in rags; often loaded with chains, and oftener yet pestered by vermin and rats. The ward, into which Miss Fry penetrated, although strongly dissuaded by the officials, was like a den of wild beasts. It was filled with a hundred and sixty women and children, gambling, fighting, swearing, yelling, dancing. It justly deserved its name of “hell above ground.” The general disorder and abject misery of the women confined there so impressed Miss Fry, that she took immediate and effectual means to relieve them. The first step in the great public work of her life was the forming of “The Association for the Improvement of the Female Prisoners in Newgate,” in April, 1817. Its aim was the establishment of what is now regarded as “prison discipline,” such as entire separation of the sexes, classification of criminals, female supervision for the women, and adequate provision for their religious and secular instruction, as also for their useful employment. Disregarding sarcastic critics, who protested against the “ultra-humanitarianism which sought to make jails too comfortable and tended to pamper criminals,” Miss Fry pursued her way and finally brought about the passing of Acts (1823–24), in which it was laid down that over and above safe custody it was essential to preserve health, improve morals, and enforce useful labor in all prisons. Not content with these results, Miss Fry likewise inspected during the time from 1818 to 1841 the principal prisons of Scotland, Ireland, France, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Southern Germany, and Denmark, everywhere conferring personally with the leading prison officials. By keeping up a constant correspondence with them she had the satisfaction of hearing from almost every quarter of Europe that the authorities were giving an ever increasing consideration to her suggestions.—
Following the example set by Miss Fry, women in many countries aided in forming societies for the improvement of prison-discipline. They also established reformatories for women and juvenile delinquents. For instance Mrs. Abbey Hopper Gibbons assisted in founding the “Women’s Prison Association of New York” in 1844 and the “Isaac T. Hopper Home.” Its objects were: “First, the improvement of the condition of the prisoners, whether detained on trial or finally convicted, or as witnesses; secondly, the support and encouragement of reformed convicts after their discharge, by affording them an opportunity of obtaining an honest livelihood, and sustaining them in their efforts to reform.”
The association employs an executive secretary who visits all the places where women are detained in the State or City of New York, keeps track of the housing conditions and studies the treatment of the prisoners. On the basis of this exact knowledge, the Association has proposed various reforms; for example the establishment of Bedford Reformatory was largely due to the efforts of this society, and the appointment of police matrons in the city station houses. Through the instrumentality of Mrs. Hopper Gibbons the “New York State Reformatory for Women and Girls” was established by the Legislature.
Through the efforts of Linda Gilbert various prisons throughout the country were provided with libraries. She also secured the incorporation of the “Gilbert Library and Prisoners’ Aid Society” under the laws of the State of New York. Furthermore she procured employment for thousands of ex-convicts, and aided others in establishing in business in a small way.—
To enumerate what women have contributed to culture as founders and patronesses of infant homes, foundling and orphan asylums, industrial schools and homes for boys and girls, of refuges for unfortunate women, invalids and the aged, of hospitals for destitute children and for people afflicted with tuberculosis, cancer, and incurable diseases, is a task impossible for the limited space of this book. Besides, all information is fragmentary and far too insufficient to give a true idea of the vast sums and immense amount of time, labor, and effort, devoted by women to these works of charity. Constantly on the lookout to alleviate sorrow and provide comfort, they have not forgotten even those lonely men, who do duty in remote light houses and life-saving stations. It was through the efforts of women that these involuntary hermits, who often do not come in touch with other human beings for several months, are regularly provided with interesting books and entertaining games.
Mrs. Matilde Ziegler of New York has taken a special interest in the blind. Mrs. Ziegler, at an expense of $20,000 a year, founded a monthly magazine for the blind, which has a printing press of double the capacity of any printing plant for the blind in any other country. Blind girls do all the work connected with this magazine.
Georgia Trader in Cincinnati established school classes for the blind and a library with over 25,000 volumes, from which books in raised type are sent to the blind all over the country, free of any charge. She also founded a working-home for blind girls, where they are profitably employed in weaving rugs, and in various artistic work and handicraft.
Jane Addams in 1889 opened in Chicago a social settlement, known as “Hull House.” Wonderful work in sociology is done there. Many thousands of men, women and children are instructed in all kinds of handicraft, and directed to places, where they can make an honest and profitable living. They have also access to an excellent library, comfortable club rooms, lecture-halls, kindergarten, play-grounds and other institutions.
Miss Addams is to-day recognized as one of the foremost women in her line of work, and by her example as well as through her public lectures and able books, has probably done more than anybody else for the extension of practical sociology.
Women have also taken charge of thousands of tired working-girls and sent them to the country for a short rest during the summer, thus enabling them to take up their lives of toil with renewed vigor and courage.
Similar organizations have established vacation schools to save children from the demoralization of the long summer idleness, and to secure for them fresh air vacations.
Moved by a sincere desire to improve the conditions of the despised and maltreated American Indians, Helen Hunt Jackson, Alice Fletcher, and Mary L. Bonney succeeded after indefatigable efforts in awakening interest among the legislators in their work. Miss Fletcher, in her valuable book “Indian Civilization and Education,” gave such ample proof of her special qualifications that she was appointed by President Cleveland in 1887 as a special agent of the Government, to allot lands to various Indian tribes. Mary L. Bonney devoted herself principally to educational work and, in 1881, was foremost in the task of organizing the “Indian Treaty-Keeping and Protective Association” by which the many unlawful encroachments of white settlers, and the oppression of the Red Men by government agents were stopped.
In their efforts to alleviate the hard lot of negro slaves, Lucretia Mott, Sarah and Angelica Grimke, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and many others, braved criticism, insults and social ostracism.
By organizing societies for the prevention of cruelty to children and animals, women have taken care of those who cannot speak for themselves. In many cities they have likewise provided drinking fountains for men and for animals.
All women members of the “National Association of the Audubon Societies,” that protect bird-life in America, bind themselves never to decorate their hats with plumes and feathers. They have also secured laws that forbid hunters to kill useful birds, and prevent milliners from buying or exhibiting feathers and stuffed skins of such birds.
As generous patronesses of education, science and art many women have set themselves lasting monuments.
Catherine L. Wolfe donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York not only her magnificent collection of paintings, but likewise a fund of $200,000 for its preservation and increase. A million dollars was also bequeathed by her to several educational institutions founded by her father and herself. She is also known as the founder of the New York Home for Incurables.
Mary Tileston Hemenway supported the so-called Hemenway Expeditions for the archæological exploration of certain regions of Arizona and New Mexico.
Jane Lathrop Stanford, wife of Leland Stanford, railway constructor, and U. S. Senator from California, founded in memory of her son the “Leland Stanford Jr. University” at Palo Alto, near San Francisco. At her own expense Mrs. Stanford established a museum, connected with the university, containing objects of art, and many things she had collected during her extensive travels. At her death the entire estate of the Stanfords, amounting to about $50,000,000, was left to endow this great university. Her San Francisco home, on Nob Hill, became an art gallery and museum.
Phœbe Hearst, wife of George Hearst, and mother of William Randolph Hearst, made large donations to the University of California. These included $800,000 for the erection and equipment of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building. She also made provision for twenty scholarships for women, and founded a number of free libraries in mining towns with which her husband had been associated. Mrs. Hearst was also actively interested in every kind of organization for the welfare of women. Furthermore she established and maintained two kindergarten schools in San Francisco, and three in Washington, one of which is for colored children. Her most important gift to the District of Columbia was the National Cathedral School for Girls, erected on a beautiful site on the outskirts of the city.
Margaret Olivia Sage, the widow of Russell Sage, donated between seventy-five and eighty million dollars for charitable and educational purposes. With ten millions she established in 1907 the “Sage Foundation for Social Betterment.” Its purpose is the improvement of social and living conditions in the United States. It does not attempt to relieve individual or family need, but tries to seek out and eliminate causes of this evil. It furthers education that more directly affects social and living conditions, such as industrial education, education in household arts, and the training of social workers. In the pursuit of these aims the Sage Foundation subsidized worthy activities and organizations; it has established investigational and propagandist departments of its own; invested its funds in activities with a social purpose; and published extensively books and pamphlets on social subjects. Since the work of the Russell Sage Foundation aids social advance for people of every nation, Mrs. Sage became one of the benefactors not only of this country, but of the world.
Among the many donations Mrs. Sage made to other institutions, were $600,000 to the Troy Female Seminary, which was one of the first schools in America for the higher education of girls; $1,600,000 to the Woman’s Hospital of New York; $1,600,000 to the Children’s Aid Society; $1,600,000 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art; $1,600,000 to the American Museum of Natural History; and $1,600,000 to Syracuse University.
The list here given mentions only a few of the innumerable philanthropic works of American women. Similar lists could be made for all other countries, but the material has never been properly collected. Besides, by far the greatest number of such benevolent acts have been performed without public knowledge. But wherever we go, we find women active, helpful, and persevering, always rejoicing in the accomplishment of good.