Museum Visit

So Monday my friend and I tried going to the St. Louis Art Museum, but they were closed so we went to the history museum exhibit about the World's Fair Instead!



The exhibit wasn't that big but it was pretty cool to learn more about the fair since it took place in St. Louis!

Now the fair took place in 1904 so they talk a lot about different cultures and inventions that became popularized by the World's Fair and parts of the exhibits you would've seen at the fair.  In regards to women being represented in the exhibit I was a little disappointed, surely women did something noteworthy at the World's Fair?

The exhibit really only focused on three things in regards to women which included their nationality, their appearance, and then their role in advertisements or art produced by men at the fair. In the defense of the museum, I did not listen to the audio that accompanied the exhibit so maybe there was more said about women there.

The exhibit was a little disappointing once I got home and looked up that there was a Board of Lady Managers that were in charge of women's interests and were given the ability to award prizes to exhibits that were partly or wholly produced by women! Some of the exhibits that were produced by women seem pretty stereotypical by our standards, but included innovations in domestic inventions and "intricate lace work". Now those don't exactly sound as cool as the waffle cone, but those were pretty cool accomplishments at the time. Intricate lace work could be easily compared to a detailed painting in complexity.

Overall the exhibit was pleasant, but I just felt saddened that women who did have exhibits accomplishments were now forgotten and instead the bonnets and dresses they wore seemed to have more importance than their creations.