Much of the decorative sculpture work at the 1893 World’s Fair was done by a group of female sculptors known as the White Rabbits.

The term comes from chief architect Daniel Burnham, who when asked, who they should get to help with the statues, reportedly replied, “Hire anyone, even white rabbits if they’ll work!” And thus did the group of young sculptors receive its name.

Working for $5 a day and $7.50 on Sundays, the White Rabbits turned small models sent to Chicago by artists around the country into full-scale sculptures, which were then installed on the ornate buildings of the fair. They worked out of a studio under the glass dome of the Horticulture Building for which Taft designed the sculpture. Other artisans involved with the fair reportedly came there to eat their lunch and gawk at the industrious Rabbits, according to one of them. “Scaffolding, iron armature, huge mounds of plaster, designs hanging from the walls, and every one rushing about in mad haste,” wrote Janet Scudder in her autobiography. “To see the White Rabbits at work was one of the sights of those days.”