You are informed that, agreeable to an arrangement made nearly twelve months ago, the accounts of the board of lady managers will be paid direct by the Exposition Company.  It is desirable that your board should transmit all accounts direct to Mr. W.B.  Stevens, secretary of the Exposition Company, by whom all settlements will be made.

    Yours, very truly,

    Thos.  H. Carter,
    President.

    Mrs. Apolline M. Blair,
    President Board of Lady Managers, St. Louis, Mo.

This meeting adjourned subject to the call of the president.

The next meeting of the board of lady managers was called by the president, Mrs. Blair, at the Murray Hill Hotel, New York City, N.Y., February 16, 1903, at which time a letter was read that had been received by the president of the board from the Exposition Company, in which an offer was made to the board, for its exclusive use, of one of the permanent buildings to be erected for the Washington University (and subsequently to be used by it as a Hall of Physics), to be known during the exposition period as the “Building of the Board of Lady Managers.”  This structure appealed specially to the members of the board, from the fact that it had been endowed by a woman, Mrs. Eliza Eads How, of St. Louis, and the offer was accepted.  The building was finished about the middle of April, 1904, and thereafter remained the headquarters of the board during the term of the exposition.  While it was not perfectly adapted for a woman’s building, they made it as attractive as possible, and it served for their entertaining and occupancy far better than had been anticipated.  Upon motion, it was decided that the furnishing of the building for the board of lady managers be under the supervision of the president of the board.

On February 16, 1903, a communication was received from Mr. Corwin H. Spencer, first vice-president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company, stating that $3,000 had been appropriated by the executive committee of the Exposition Company for the use of the board of lady managers.

Although the members of the board were not only willing, but anxious, to settle upon some definite line of action, the vagueness of their powers outlined by the members of the Commission, together with the obstacle presented by the lack of funds, had caused them to be most conservative in action; without the positive assurance of financial aid they were not in a position to decide definitely upon a plan of future work.  This condition led to the appointment by the president, Mrs. Blair, of two committees, one known as the “committee to confer with the National Commission on matters pertaining to the board of lady managers,” and which consisted of Miss Lavinia H. Egan, chairman, Mrs. Finis P. Ernest, Mrs. Helen Boice-Hunsicker, and Mrs. William E. Andrews; and the second, known as a “committee on woman’s work,” consisting of Mrs. Mary Phelps Montgomery, chairman, Mrs. John M. Holcombe, Mrs. Daniel Manning, and Mrs. Edward L. Buchwalter.  Both of these committees were to confer with the National Commission and the latter committee with the local company.