WOMAN IN ARCHITECTURE

HE influence of woman upon the art of building has been greater, and has extended farther back in history, than perhaps most of us are aware. In fact, the sentiment which enters into art in all its ramifications is an irrefutable argument for that suggestion of grace and harmony which arises from admiring love and the feeling of protection which man entertains for woman. Even in very ancient times the habitations of almost barbarous peoples partook somewhat of that sentiment of beauty with which man would ever surround the woman of his choice, and doubtless the growth of grace and harmony of proportion, the delicacy of curves and lines, found in the most splendid structures of the world resolve themselves to the unconscious rendering of his thought into material, as he remembers the beauty of his beloved. The curve of the hip to the knee, is, in a perfect form, nothing less than that chaste line of beauty which enters into all good art,— the firm and rounded breast may well have suggested the dome. The column of the throat, the well-poised head, as its capital, and the graceful slope of the shoulders, all suggest lines of grace which we constantly see duplicated in architecture, sculpture and ceramics.

For actual designers and builders of ancient times, we may turn to Zenobia, Queen of the East, who built up the great city of Palmyra, and died B. C. 280. No less famous was Semiramis, Queen of Assyria, who built cities with the same virile grace with which she subdued armies. She flourished 1215 B. C. There was also Aspasia, the intimate friend of Pericles, and said to be more learned than most of the philosophers of Athens. During the whole time that Pericles was building and decorating the city she aided him by her counsels and exquisite taste. He himself paid a most glowing tribute to her influence.

Again, monumental architecture has been the outcome of grief and passion for the love of woman, she being still the inspiration, even when death has concealed her from the wistful eyes of her lover. The Appian way, leading from Rome, is bordered on both sides with the most exquisite monumental architecture,

raised over the forms of those noble, beautiful and worthy Roman matrons and maidens who have passed into an almost immortal memory in these records of grief in stone.

Many, also, are the queens and women of rank, whose piety and religious fervor have caused to be erected churches, chapels, monuments and homes for the indigent, hospitals and libraries, besides palaces, mansions and castles, in which work, although they may not have been recorded as the architect, there is no doubt that their brains planned, and their tongues suggested, even if their hands did not actually hold the trowel or brush. Witness the schools of the Empress Eugenie, the Albert Memorial of Victoria, and, in America, the superb residence of Mrs. Mark Hopkins.

The name of Queen Anne has latterly been associated with a revolution in style in architecture, effected largely under the influence of the literary sentiment of her time, while the architect who completed for the Duchess Margarite the Church of Brou, and the sculptor who carved the tomb therein, may be said to have been but the workmen who held the tools, under the direction of the famous lady. As much may be said of the wonderful "Little Trianon" of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, who in an almost childish fever of delight ordered first one thing and then another built, and watched them grow like magic beneath her critical eyes.

Of our present and immediate American women architects, we find Mrs. Louise Bethune, who has the honor of being the first recognized woman architect in this country and is now the only woman member of the American Institute of Architects. Eminently successful as a teacher of her art, she refused to compete for the construction of the Woman's Building at the Columbia Exposition, as the competition was not conducted on the principle of "equal pay for equal service," the remuneration offered being less than half that given for similar service to the men who designed the other buildings. Had this article been written a decade ago the statement could safely have been made that there were not a half dozen women architects in the country, but at this date their number

has so notably increased that the profession for women is no longer looked upon as novel, or in any way surprising, since those who have adopted it have quietly made such success as to stand well in the front ranks among their brothers in the art.

The planning of the household architecture of this country is one of those silent influences that have been designated "the power behind the throne.' It is rarely that a man who thinks enough of the comfort and well-being of his wife and family to invest his money in a new dwelling house will not listen to the suggestions and desires of the woman who is to spend the most of her time within its walls. If the first plan seems quite satisfactory to him, her quick eye will soon discern where it could be improved, and by frequent consultation, the original design is often so distinctly modified as to become practically a new idea. The various schemes for convenience and beauty which are originated by women, the filling of a nook or corner with a closet or the ornamentation of a hall or archway, the suggestion as to color and harmony, so often emanate from the mind of the wife, that one may compare the home-building to the feathering of the nest of a bird, with tiny soft plumes from her own warm breast.

Perhaps in all the occupations chosen by women for self-support, none is more elegant or refined than architecture. The magnificence of the models which are brought before the eye in beautiful drawings or other reproductions, the delicacy and yet strength of hand required in the copying and designing of lines and curves, the uplifting of the spirit into an atmosphere of calm and steadfast beauty, the poetry which accompanies the very rudiments of this superb art, are alike elevating and harmonizing, while the actual labor is of the most attractive kind. It is not to be wondered at that the successful women who have accumulated small fortunes in this profession should speak of it with enthusiasm, and it is a great encouragement to those who have a soul for art and natural talent for design.

To return to the historical story of the influence of women upon architecture, it may be said that never in the world has been builded so supreme and admira

ble a work of human hands, as one which was inspired by reverent love and grief for a woman,and it stands to-day the despair of all other artists, the acme of beauty, the gem of the world. I refer to that magnificent structure at Agra, the Taj Mahal, which was raised by the great Mogul of India, Shah Jehan, to his royal spouse and adored mate, Moomtaza. Built for a queen, it seems to immortalize in marble the exalted love of man for woman, and in a beauty which is universal in its ideality, it appeals to the spirit of the present century quite as keenly as to that in which its graceful columns rose to adorn the earth. One of our eloquent Americans thus expressed himself after gazing in awe upon its sculptured beauty. "There are four or five Taj Mahals! It has one appearance at sunrise, another at noon, another at sunset and another by moonlight. Indeed the silver trowel of the moon and the golden trowel of the sunlight and the leaden trowel of the storm build and rebuild the glory, so that it never seems twice alike. It has all moods, all complexions, all grandeurs. From the top of the Taj, which is 250 feet high, springs a spire thirty feet higher and that is of enamelled gold! What an anthem in eternal rhythm! Lyrics and elegies in marble! Sculptured hosannas! Masonry of supernatural hands! Mighty doxology in stone! I shall see nothing to equal it till I see the great white throne."

The greatest woman architect that the world has ever known and whose glory will ever stand first in the annals of great works produced by women, whether now or in ages to come, was Queen Artemisia of Caria. When Mausolus, the king, died, his widow seemed henceforth almost wholly absorbed in the memory of him. She built in his honor, at Halicarnassus, that magnificent monument or mausoleum, which was known as one of the

Trustees of the University, the President of the Baltimore City College, the President of Harvard University, and many well-known residents of Baltimore. Dr. Charles W. Eliot, in his congratulatory address, said: "The oldest university of America cordially congratulates the youngest, and welcomes it as a worthy ally;" he commended the new university on being "unsectarian;" adding that it was most appropriately so in a city named after the founder of a colony to which all Christian sects were welcomed, and in the State in which religious toleration was expressly declared in the name of the Government for the first time in the his

tory of the world. In the course of his remarks, Dr. Eliot reminded President Gilman that "to build an university needs not years only, but generations," and that "it was a service which would tax every power of the mind.”

Dr. Gilman, in his inaugural, said that the buildings should be, temporarily, in the heart of the city and, at length, on the site at Clifton (the home of Johns Hopkins, near Baltimore), adding that measures had been taken for the improvement of Clifton as an university site. The President further hinted that that site, beautiful in itself, and already well-planted, would become an academic grove, with temples of learning so appropriate, so true and so well built, that no other ornaments will be essential for beauty, and yet in that entire neighborhood no work of art will be out of place. In his first Report, President Gilman observed that: "The Trustees have not forgotten the importance of developing Clifton with reference to the purposes to which it will be devoted. In addition to the constant care of the grounds, much consideration has been given to the various requirements of the University, for public buildings, residences, botanical gardens, play-grounds, etc." It was manifestly the intention of Johns Hopkins that the University should be at Clifton, and such was the original purpose of the Trustees, as mentioned by President Gilman.

The traveller who has been abroad and visited Oxford, the nursing mother of so many illustrious Englishmen, must have been impressed, as he walked down High Street, with the noble display of college buildings (twenty-seven in all), many of them taken in at a glance. It

must ever be a matter of regret that the Johns Hopkins University, splendid as its work has been and will be, is deprived of one of the chief attractions of college life which belongs to an university town, such as for centuries have made Oxford and Cambridge in England, and Cambridge in America the homes of great universities. Such would have been the charm of the Johns Hopkins University had the intention of its founder been carried out, and the University been established at Clifton, instead of in the heart of a great city, with no campus, no grounds, no distinct college life, no peculiar social attractions, no brilliant gatherings, such as Max Müller has formed at Oxford, and which has made the seat of Harvard University the most cultured town in the United States. But it is useless to regret what cannot be changed; and wise to accept the inevitable.

When the Johns Hopkins University opened, on the 3d of October, 1876, eighty-nine students were enrolled. The number has been steadily increasing, year after year, during the twenty-one years of the existence of the University, until it reached 596 in the year 1896. Of this number, 123 were from Maryland; the remainder came from every part of the United States, and a sprinkling from Europe and the Orient. Up to 1896, 3, 142 students have been instructed at the University. Of these, 800 have been engaged as instructors, either at the parent university, or in other universities and colleges. This single fact shows the high character of the education acquired at Johns Hopkins.

From the beginning, Dr. Gilman and the Trustees of the University have endeavored to engage the foremost professors for the various departments. The result has been that the several chairs have been acceptably filled by some of the leading educationists of the time. In addition to the regular academic staff of 106 professors and associates, distinguished lecturers, at home and abroad, have been invited from time to time to deliver special courses during each scholastic year. Among these eminent men were James Russell Lowell, Dr. John S. Billings (recently appointed Chief Librarian of New York), James Bryce, Edward A. Freeman, Matthew Arnold, Dean Stanley, Canon Farrar, Sidney Lanier, James A. Harrison, Woodrow Wilson,

James Schouler, Sir Archibald Geikie (the celebrated Geologist), Andrew D. White (formerly President of Cornell University), Alexander Graham Bell (of telephone fame), Frederic Brunetière, and many others.

The college courses are divided into seven groups: Classical, Mathematicalphysical, Chemical-biological, Physicalchemical, Latin-mathematical, Historical-political, and Modern languages; and these are sub-divided into appropriate seminaries, the whole forming a complete university curriculum. In addition to the seven courses just enumerated, special mention should be made of the Medical School, which was opened in 1893, and promises to become an important department of the University. It already numbers 125 students, with a staff of 38 professors and associates. The students enjoy the privilege of attending the clinics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

One of the most interesting and valuable departments of the University is that of History and Politics, under the direction of Dr. Herbert B. Adams, Professor of American and International History. This department occupies seven rooms on the third floor of McCoy Hall. Its most precious possession is a library of 18,000 books, and 50,000 pamphlets, including the Bluntschli Library, belonging to the late Professor Bluntschli, of Heidelberg. This valuable collection was purchased by German citizens of Baltimore, and presented to the University in 1881. In this department the student devotes his time to historical investigation, and is encouraged in his studies by the portrait busts of eminent historians and statesmen which line the walls of the library. Next to this department is one devoted to the study of European history. This is also well supplied with appropriate books, and embellished with portraits of great men. The department of Southern History is an interesting room on the same floor, in which are collected books and material relating to the history and literature of the Southern States, including Colonial and Revolutionary manuscripts, pamphlets and books about the Civil War, documents, autographs, etc. From the walls look down such distinguished Southern statesmen, scholars and soldiers as the Calverts, John C. Calhoun, Wil

liam Wirt, John P. Kennedy, Chief Justice Taney, Jefferson Davis, and Robert E. Lee.

A few words may be said here of the general Library of the University, which occupies the upper floor of McCoy Hall. The number of bound volumes in the main library, and in the various seminaries and laboratories, is 80,000, which have been carefully collected by the advice of the leading instructors of the University. The books are admirably supplemented by 1,200 periodicals, comprising all the leading literary and scientific publications of the world, in all languages. Important new books are added as soon as published, and thus the collection is always kept up to date. It should be mentioned that, in the main library, as well as in the special libraries and laboratories of the University, are found students representing all classes and conditions of life. It should also be remembered that, in the republic of letters, as in the American Republic, all men are equal. In both, men of the humblest birth have reached the highest stations. Homer, the blind beggar, has filled the throne of poetry for nearly 3,000 years; Æsop, the slave, enchanted courts by his wit; Socrates, the son of a stonecutter, drew the noblest youths of Athens to his feet by his wisdom; Petrarch, by his divine gift of poetry, became the companion of princes and cardinals. When Lorenzo the Magnificent escaped from the fatigues of business to his favorite retreat on the Arno, the sharers of his studious retirement were not the young patricians of Florence, but the accomplished poet, Politiano, the mirthful Pulci, the learned Scala, the thrice-gifted Michael Angelo, whose early genius Lorenzo had discovered and encouraged. Some of these raised themselves, by their supreme talents, far above the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune.

Indifference to literature, and neglect of literary men, form the “unfinished window" of our otherwise almost perfect republic. Let us never forget that great as Athens was in her Miltiades, Aristides, and Themistocles, she was more glorious in her Socrates, Plato and Sophocles. Let us never forget that Rome, when at the height of her power and splendor, most generously encouraged and richly rewarded her literary men. As our Government is modelled upon Rome, so let us imitate her appreciation of genius.