Eleanor Roosevelt and her connection to the College of Human Ecology

The College of Human Ecology and the Roosevelt Connection

Exhibit created in January 2016

Please see double spread in next few pages

By 1929, the College, formerly known as the New York State College of Home Economics, had grown significantly and its facilities were no longer adequate for the growing institution. That year the College requested one million dollars in funding for construction of a new building; however, the state only gave four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. As a result Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose, co-directors of the College and first full-time women professors at Cornell, turned to Eleanor Roosevelt, who used her connections to obtain additional funding for the school.

Cornell’s College of Human Ecology offers an environment where leading researchers collaborate across disciplines to address the most pressing challenges facing our society today.

Basic and applied scientists work together to better understand how humans relate to the natural, social and built environments and develop solutions that improve the lives of people. Students can participate in the faculty research through lab internships and outreach opportunities.

Reflecting on the College’s history shapes the way we view the present and provides a vision for our future.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Flora Rose, 1938.

Cornell’s College of Human Ecology

Martha Van Rensselaer Hall

Flora Rose wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt soon after the dedication of Marth Van Rensselaer Hall in 1933 about the “big and important” role home economics played in women’s education. She added...

“No person whom I have known has appreciated this more than you. I never come into this great new Martha Van Rensselaer Hall without a feeling that it is the product of the interests and genius of two women, Eleanor Roosevelt and Martha Van Rensselaer. I know it would not have come into existence without your interest.”

1933 2015

The College of Human Ecology and the Roosevelt Connection

At the dawn of the 20th century the work had begun and it was only a matter of time before a woman’s reading course was introduced, curricula developed, departments formed, and a school of home economics created that 115 years later would be called the New York State College of Human Ecology.

Home economics was a progressive field, multidisciplinary, with an emphasis on science applied to the real world of the home, families and communities.

It provided a critical pathway into higher education for American women, and leadership positions in public education, the academy, government and industry. As wife of the governor of New York (from 1928-1932) and then as First Lady (from 1933-1945), Eleanor Roosevelt brought national attention to the home economics movement and in turn greater financial support for home economics programs and increased publicity for the New York State College of Home Economics. She helped lobby for state money to construct a building at Cornell.

The College of Human Ecology and the Roosevelt Connection

In 1920, Carrie Chapman Catt founded the League of Women Voters, six months before the ratification of the 19th amendment. Martha Van Rensselaer (second from the left) attended a 1920s meeting at Eleanor Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park. In 1923 the League named Van Rensselaer as one of America’s 12 most influential women.

It provided a critical pathway into higher education for American women, and leadership positions in public education, the academy, government and industry. As wife of the governor of New York (from 1928-1932) and then as First Lady (from 1933-1945), Eleanor Roosevelt brought national attention to the home economics movement and in turn greater financial support for home economics programs and increased publicity for the New York State College of Home Economics. She helped lobby for state money to construct a building at Cornell.

From 1928 to 1940, she journeyed to Ithaca annually for Farm and Home Week, a campus event where thousands of New Yorkers gathered for faculty advice on agricultural and domestic matters. Through her work for the College of Home Economics, Eleanor became good friends with co-directors Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose. Together their shared passion for using the home economics movement as a vehicle for social reform for women resulted in the formation of the New York State College of Human Ecology.

During her 1937 visit to Cornell’s Farm and Home Week, Eleanor Roosevelt models the gown which she wore at President Roosevelt’s second inaugural ball. The gown remains in Cornell’s Costume and Textile Collection.

Beth Garrett, Cornell University’s President, Alan Mathios, Dean of the College of Human Ecology, and Barbara Lifton, New York State Assemblywoman, view the partner’s desk commissioned by Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose and designed and built by Val-Kill Industries, a furniture factory in Hyde Park, New York. With support from Franklin D. Roosevelt, Eleanor and two friends launched the enterprise in the 1920s, selling handcrafted colonial-style furniture.

In 1934 while on campus Eleanor Roosevelt remarked “I feel I have a right to take pride and particular interest in the College of Home Economics. To me, it is the most important part of the university, for it concerns the homes of the people of this country.”

Eleanor Roosevelt’s enthusiastic support ensured that the field of home economics would hold an enduring place in the academy and embody scientific research in child-rearing, nutrition, product design, consumer economics, clothing and textiles and other key aspects of American life.

Flora Rose, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Cornell’s President Edmund Ezra Day at 1940 Farm and Home Week.

Home Economics began as part of the Extension Service in 1900 with the arrival of Martha Van Rensselaer and the establishment of the Farmers’ Wives Reading Course. Van Rensselaer is seated in the backseat of the first extension car in 1913. Home economics extension trips started like this before the home bureaus were organized.