Photos: Before it was for slackers, Home Economics fostered trailblazing female scientists

Home Economics was actually a serious, multidisciplinary field of research and applied science

An extension course on clothing making, circa 1915. (Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Dinner was eggs in tomato sauce, mashed potatoes and bread; for dessert — some sort of prune pudding. It wasn’t exactly a feast that Franklin D. Roosevelt might have expected now that he’d been president for almost an entire month, but it was cheap and nutritious, the sort of meal his wife Eleanor wanted Americans suffering through the Great Depression to adopt.\

The menu was created by a team of nutritionists led by Flora Rose, friend to Mrs. Roosevelt and co-director of the Home Economics program at Cornell University. Before it was a compulsory high school wasteland of flour-sack babies and Betty Crocker disasters, Home Economics was a serious, multidisciplinary field of research and applied science. The faculty were pioneers in nutrition, child development, industrial design, and social services.

Demonstration of home conveniences by Ruth Kellogg during Farmers Week, circa 1921. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

At the beginning of the 20th century, Home Economics was also a place where women could be professional scientists, even if the male-dominated world of academia didn’t want them intruding on their turf. As automated production paved the way for mass consumption it worked to liberate housewives from housework by maximizing efficiency at minimal cost, testing fabrics for durability, and food for nutritional value. Faculty at Cornell researched vitamin retention for frozen vegetables and the chemical strength of laundry detergents, then shared their knowledge through magazine articles and radio broadcasts. The university hosted an annual Farm and Home Week — the keynote often delivered by Eleanor Roosevelt before and during her time in the White House — and commissioned demonstration trains to travel exhibits on everything from food canning to how to use a vacuum cleaner.

Mistakes were made. Cornell infamously used orphans known as Domecon Babies as teaching aides in experimental shared homes. Fortified cereals and Depression cookbooks made for particularly grim meals. But what ultimately reduced the societal impact of Home Economics was change. Commercial industries and corporations began poaching the best and brightest early on, and as women integrated into the workforce, opportunities were created outside both the established programs and the walls of their kitchens.

Foods laboratory in Home Economics building with students preparing 100-calorie portions of foods, 1917. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Food drying demonstration in the Syracuse Thrift Kitchen. (Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Nursery in the Home Economics building, 1920. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Miss Ruth Kellogg demonstrating correct postures for various forms of housework. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Extension millinery class with Miss Hayden. (Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Demonstration of housekeeping equipment by Ruth Kellogg at Farmers Week, 1921. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Miss Blinn demonstrates how to make a fireless cooker at home, 1921. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

(Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Students studying the problems of women in industry at the Thomas-Morse Aircraft Corporation, Ithaca. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Various forms of preserved foods, 1918. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Left: Demonstration train car, 1919. | Right: Women looking at exhibits in a demonstration train. (Troy Photo/Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

Senior breakfast in the Home Economics auditorium, June 1919. (Div. Rare & Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library)

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