REPORT m THE EXHIBIT OF THE NEW YORK 

 STATE WORKIMMAN'S MODEL HOME. 



By KATHAKINB BEMENT DAVIS, Rochester, Diebctor. 



Okigin of Exhibit. 



"When it became certain that women were to have an important part 

 in the management of the "World's Columbian Exposition, the thought 

 came to maiiy women whose chief interest lay in the household that 

 now would be the opportunity for gathering together all that art and 

 architepture had done for beautifying the home, or science and inven- 

 tion for perfecting its sanitation, increasing its conveniences and 

 improving its labor-saving devices. 



If sanitary appliances could have been taken from the Anthropologi- 

 cal Building, tapestries, art needle work and other beautiful household 

 decorations from the "Woman's Building, silver and china from the 

 Manufactures Building, electrical inventions from the Electricity 

 Building, food exhibits from the Agricultural Building, and all placed 

 under one great roof, women would have stood amazed at the stupen- 

 dous progress made in the last fifty years in beautifying: and improving 

 the home. 



It was the anticipation of this which caused Lucy M. Salmon, pro- 

 fessor of history at Yassar College, to turn her attention toward the 

 possibility of having exhibited at Chicago a model house wherein all 

 that could be gathered together of the best and most approved in plan, 

 furnishing and household management should show to the world an 

 ideal American home. It must always be a lasting regret to those 

 interested in all phases of domestic economy that this admirable plan 

 was not carried out as conceived, but the different women's boards to 

 whom the plan was presented found its execution for various reasons 

 impracticable. 



"while under discussion by the New York State Board of "Women 

 Managers the plan attracted the notice of Hon. John Boyd Thacher of 

 the Board of General Managers of New York State and chairman of 

 the Executive Committee on Awards. He was pleased with the idea, 

 saw its value, and finally determined upon a modification of the pro- 

 posed plan, which in his judgment would render it still more likely to 

 accomplish good. This modification was that the house shouid be a 

 worMngman's model home. The fact was recognized that in order to 

 attain to the highest conditions of living it is necessary not only that 

 the workingman earn a fair wage but that he and his be educated 

 sufficiently to distinguish between the necessary and the unnecessary, 

 the cheap and the shoddy ; that which is truly worth having from that 

 which gives only temporary pleasure. 



The exhibition of a home, where a practical illustration of right 

 principles could be given, would have great educational value to the 



