I’m surprised the history of the Cornell College of Human Ecology isn’t promulgated more than it is currently. Education is often the key to progress and success in this world; Ezra knew it when he started an institution with a mandate to teach anyone in any study. Therefore, the College of Home Economics (as the College of Human Ecology was called originally) was the realization of Cornell’s message. The story of Martha van Rensselaer and Flora Rose is the epitome of this University’s purpose, and should be used as a great example of how women took up their rightful place in the world of college education.

For the first Rose Cafe of the Spring Semester Eileen Keating, the University Records Manager and the archivist for
the College of Human Ecology, gave a talk on how the college was founded. In the early 1900s the Agriculture College at Cornell was developing ways to help farmers be more productive in their work. It soon became apparent that farmers’ wives could receive the same type of help, however a woman was needed to run the new Home Ecology Department. Martha van Rensselaer was called in to fill this role and she soon brought on Flora Rose to help make the department function successfully. They started a bulletin to learn about women’s needs on the farm and quickly began offering classes on how to ease the workload that farmers’ wives felt on a daily basis. These early classes were some of the first offered to women at Cornell University, and importantly started something which was of great importance to the women’s suffrage and women’s rights movement. Women could now begin to get higher education, and use that knowledge to better themselves and others. The Home Economics Department eventually grew into a school within the Agriculture College, and finally a College in its own right in 1925. Martha van Rensselaer and Flora Rose persevered in opening up the opportunity of higher education for women at a time when this was severely limited. This is an amazing success story which for some reason is mostly forgotten here on campus.

I suppose that for some people when they hear “Home Economics” they relive bad memories of high school classes. However, I think it is important to realize that Martha van Rensselaer’s work in creating the College of Home Economics was just the first step in the door toward women’s equality in higher education. Everything, including social movements, must start somewhere. Cornell should be proud of Martha van Rensselaer’s and Flora Rose’s contributions to American history.