Historical Highlights in Family and Consumer Sciences Information gathered by Lucy Campanis Revised by Mikki Meadows EIU School of Family & Consumer Sciences

Dame Schools – –earliest schools for girls in the colonies needlework cooking reading, spelling and writing first admissions of women to coeducational academies Early History of Women’s Education and the Home Economics Movement

Domestic Economy –Count Rumford Application of science to household problems Troy Female Seminary –New York –Emma Willard –theory and practice of housewifery –combined liberal and practical studies

Catherine Beecher established a private girls’ school in Hartford, CT Mount Holyoke Female Seminary –Massachusetts –Mary Lyon –cooperative housekeeping plan –forerunner of home management laboratories

Oberlin Ohio College –First co-educational program –First to admit African-Americans Finishing Schools in New England - emphasized learning housewifery duties and becoming a lady

Treatise on Domestic Economy –first textbook on Home Economics –Catherine Beecher Antioch College admitted women (Horace Mann) Handbook of Household Science –scientific study of food, air, heat, and light from the standpoint of the homeworker –Edward Livingston Youmans

The Morrill Land-Grant Act passed –Higher education became available for the common individual –practical pursuits of living –programs for women were included –Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois

The American Woman’s Home or Principles of Domestic Science –Catherine Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe Winthrop School in Boston appointed first sewing teacher

New York Cooking School –instruction to working and moderate income families –women who wished to train others % of higher education institutions were coeducational “Domestic Science” was introduced in New York City public schools

Chicago World’s Fair –National Household Economics Association –The Rumford Kitchen (Ellen H. Richards) –Food exhibits by the U.S.D.A first school lunch established in Boston by Ellen H. Richards

Lake Placid Conferences began American Home Economics Association was formed

Lake Placid Conferences Initiated by Melvil Dewey, based on an interest in the field of household science First Annual Conference –selection of a name for this new field of education Home Economics –education of women for leadership –raising the standard of living for American families

Second Annual Conference –Home Economics and education Fourth Annual Conference proposed the following definition “Home economics in its most comprehensive sense is the study of the laws, conditions, principles, and ideals which are concerned on the one hand with man’s immediate physical environment and on the other hand with his nature as a social being, and is the study especially of the relation between those two factors.”

Sixth Annual Conference –discussion of the name of the field again occurred Tenth Annual Conference –American Home Economics Association formed

Later Highlights Home Economics, New Directions presented findings of an AHEA committee which reviewed the discipline –reinforced the emphasis on strengthening family life Accreditation of higher education programs was authorized

Eleventh Lake Placid Conference, “Lake Placid Re-visited,” discussed the definition, focus, role, name, and values of home economics Home Economics - New Directions II was developed to provide leadership in the field

Home Economics Defined –Marjorie Brown and Beatrice Paolucci –provide a definition and description of the field: “The mission of home economics is to enable families, both as individual units and generally as a social institution, to build and maintain systems of action which lead 1) to maturing in individual self-formation and 2) to enlightened, cooperative participation in the critique and formulation of social goals and means for accomplishing them. To fulfill this mission home economists engage in the provision of services (directly or indirectly) to families.” (p. 23)

Certification of home economists was endorsed at the annual meeting

Scottsdale Conference - proposed the name of the discipline be changed to Family and Consumer Sciences. What is the profession about? *Empowering Individuals *Strengthening Families *Enabling Communities