Women at the 1893 World’s Fair: The Board of Lady Managers and the Fight for Representation

Chicago, the summer of 1893. The city had risen from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871 to become the second-largest in the nation, and it now played host to the World’s Columbian Exposition—a dazzling celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s voyage. For six months, from May to October, more than 27 million visitors—nearly half the entire population of the United States—streamed through the fairgrounds of the “White City,” its gleaming stucco buildings a testament to American ambition. Yet among the marvels of electricity, machinery, and the first Ferris wheel, one of the most debated spectacles was not industrial at all, but a body of women: the Board of Lady Managers, a federally created committee of women charged with overseeing women’s participation in the fair. Headed by the charismatic Chicago socialite and businesswoman Bertha Palmer, the board would not only erect a celebrated Woman’s Building but also ignite a fierce national argument about the proper role of women in public life—and, just as fiercely, about who counted as a woman in the American republic.

What Happened?

The World’s Columbian Exposition was authorized by Congress in 1890, and among its many commissions was the Board of Lady Managers (BLM), created by federal statute to represent the women of the United States. The board’s mandate was to ensure that women’s contributions were not overlooked in the fair’s planning. Bertha Palmer, a prominent Chicagoan and the wife of the hotel magnate Potter Palmer, was elected president of the board in 1891. Under her leadership, the BLM commissioned the Woman’s Building, designed by architect Sophia Brooks, and organized a series of events, including the World’s Congress of Women, held in May 1893. The Woman’s Building, with its own library, art gallery, and assembly hall, was a physical symbol of women’s collective achievement.

Yet the board’s vision was far from universal. It consisted almost entirely of white, wealthy women, and it systematically excluded African American women from any official role. When a group of black women, including the journalist Ida B. Wells, sought to be appointed as delegates or to have a separate exhibit, the board refused. Wells, along with Frederick Douglass and others, published a pamphlet titled The Slave of the Colored American is Not in the World’s Fair to expose the exclusion. The fair also held a “Colored American Day” in August, but many saw it as a token gesture. The BLM’s achievements and its racial boundaries shaped the fair’s legacy and the broader women’s movement of the era.

How It Was Seen at the Time

Contemporaries viewed the Board of Lady Managers with a mixture of admiration and anxiety. Many praised the women’s organizational skills and the Woman’s Building as proof that women could manage large public projects. One commentator, D. McDougall, wrote in 1893: “The Board builded better than it knew when it elected her to fill that office. And indeed Congress builded better than it knew when it created the Board of Lady Managers.” This sentiment reflected a widespread hope that women’s participation would elevate the fair and the nation. However, critics feared that women’s public role would undermine domesticity, and the very existence of the board was often described as an “experiment of women”—a phrase that captured both its novelty and its precariousness.

“The Board builded better than it knew when it elected her to fill that office. And indeed Congress builded better than it knew when it created the Board of Lady Managers.” — D. McDougall, 1893

Historical Snapshot

Different Perspectives

White Women’s Perspective

For many white women, the Board of Lady Managers was a triumphant assertion of women’s capacity for organization and leadership. The Woman’s Building was a source of pride; its exhibits showcased women’s work in art, science, and industry. Bertha Palmer and her colleagues argued that women had a unique moral and domestic sensibility that could improve public life. They saw the fair as a stepping stone to broader citizenship and, for many, to suffrage.

Black Women’s Perspective

African American women, however, saw the fair as a betrayal. They had petitioned the board for representation, but were refused. The publication of The Slave of the Colored American is Not in the World’s Fair (1893) was a direct protest, arguing that the fair’s celebration of progress ignored the continued oppression of African Americans. Black women like Ida B. Wells and Fannie Barrier Williams argued that the board’s exclusionary policies demonstrated that the women’s movement was not universal but was limited to white women. They boycotted the fair’s events and used the occasion to call for civil rights.

What People Feared

Many contemporaries feared that the Board of Lady Managers would be a radical departure from proper gender roles. Some worried that women would be “unsexed” by public office, that they would neglect their families, or that they would be overwhelmed by the pressures of managing a world’s fair. Others feared that the women’s building would be a “woman’s sphere” that would embarrass the fair or that the board would be a political tool. The board also faced internal fears—that it might be too radical or too conservative. These anxieties were reflected in newspaper editorials and private correspondence, though the fair’s success largely muted the critics.

Aftermath

The fair closed in October 1893, and the Woman’s Building was demolished along with the rest of the White City. Yet the Board of Lady Managers left a lasting legacy. It demonstrated that women could organize and manage large-scale public enterprises, and it inspired countless women’s clubs and suffrage organizations. The World’s Congress of Women, held in May 1893, brought together women from around the world and was a precursor to international women’s movements. However, the board’s racial exclusion also left a bitter legacy, prompting African American women to create their own organizations and to fight for recognition within the women’s movement. The fair thus became a contested memory: a triumph for white women, a site of exclusion for black women.

How Historians See It Today

Modern historians, such as Julie A. Bokser in her study of the rhetoric of the Lady Managers, argue that the BLM was a complex and contradictory project. On the one hand, it was a pioneering act of women’s public leadership, a “leaning in” in the late nineteenth century. On the other hand, it was built on a vision of womanhood that excluded African American women. Historians now emphasize that the board’s rhetoric of “woman’s sphere” was used both to empower white women and to marginalize black women. The fair is seen as a microcosm of the era’s tensions: the rise of the new woman, the persistence of racial segregation, and the limits of sisterhood. Contemporary scholarship also notes that the Woman’s Building was a space where women contested their roles, but not all women were equal in that contest.

Common Misconceptions

The Board of Lady Managers at the 1893 World’s Fair was a watershed moment in the history of women’s public participation. It showed that women could lead and manage national projects, and it gave a visible platform to the cause of women’s rights. Yet it also revealed the deep racial divisions that would continue to plague the women’s movement for decades. The primary sources—the letters, the speeches, the protests—tell us that the fight for representation was not a single struggle but a contested one, where the definition of “woman” itself was at stake. The echoes of that contest are still with us today.