Ms. Keating, an archivist for the College of Human Ecology, gave an interesting talk about a certain aspect of Cornell history regarding Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer and the College of Home Economics. It was quite fascinating to learn how much they contributed to empowering women and expanding opportunities to farmer wives. It is evident that Cornell has been quite progressive in the role of women at the educational institute and New York at large; in comparison, many comparable universities didn’t even admit female students. Flora Rose was a pioneer in  academia for home economics. One of the more impactful things she did was send out a bulletin for Farmer wives on how to improve their QoL, tips for a more efficient household and more. I saw the pamphlet and it was quite impressive. The College of Home Economics was an impressive endeavor and really enriched the lives of women because it allowed for easy access to higher education in applied sciences, child rearing and more, especially with no tuition costs! Rose and Rensselaer had connections to many famous women, particularly Eleanor Roosevelt, budding from their interactions when FDR was governor of NY.  Rose even had a international role when she went to Belgium to organize food relief efforts there.

History is always important to know and it was certainly a treat to learn about the dorm that I am staying in. I was astounded when Ms. Keating mentioned just how large and extensive our record collections is at Cornell, especially from an international perspective. This fact was driven home when Prof. Blalock mentioned how he brought colleagues from Indonesia and was able to show them documents that were quite old and were something the Indonesians had never seen nor had back at their historical collections. I am now seriously interested in spending a day at these collections and learn about history! Aside from that, I am proud Cornell played a fundamental role in improving women education at a time when it wasn’t the norm. Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer were certainly quite influential and crucial to the development of the university!