In the department in which I was a juror, namely, municipal government, a good deal of the work was inspired by women, and some of it prepared by women.  Women’s work in civic improvement is well to the front.  The work in the vacation schools, which was shown, in playgrounds, for clean streets, for smoke abatement, for better disposition of garbage, has in many cities been largely inspired by women.  In fact, I know of no department where the women of the leisure class are more actively interested and more efficient than in civic improvement work, and the results reached through the activities of the municipal leagues, through officials, have been most marked.  The Twin City municipal exhibit I myself designed and largely prepared and administered, and was the resident member of the municipal commission.

The nature of the exhibits in this department were charts and photographs, literature on civic improvement work for and by children in playgrounds, school gardens, etc.  Civic work of women’s clubs.  The civic improvement movement may be said to have had its inception and development since the Chicago Fair; hence the display at St. Louis showed a decided and marked advance over the work of a similar nature shown at Chicago, but, naturally, there were no exhibits from foreign women, municipal betterment work being new for both men and women, in the present understanding of the term.  The work shown, of course, relating as it does to the social life of cities, would prove helpful to those interested in the advancement and success of women’s work, but I saw no difference in appreciation shown in comparing the work of men and women, and the very nature of the work would not permit of its being separately exhibited, and it was not in all cases shown which had been performed or accomplished by women, which by men, although much of the work had been stimulated by women, but just how much they actually performed I can not say, and only two or three awards were given to women.

The board of lady managers was given recognition on each of the department juries, fifteen in number, namely, Education, Art, Liberal Arts, Manufactures, Machinery, Electricity, Transportation Exhibits, Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry, Mines and Metallurgy, Fish and Game, Anthropology, Social Economy, Physical Culture.

The department jurors report as follows: 

Department A, Education, Dr. Howard J. Rogers, Chief; Mrs. W.E.  Fischel,
St. Louis, Mo., Department Juror.

This department comprised 5 groups and 26 classes, the group headings being Elementary education, Secondary education, Higher education, Special education in fine arts, Special education in agriculture, Special education in commerce and industry, Education of defectives, and Special forms of education—­text-books—­School furniture, and School appliances.

Mrs. Fischel writes: