challenging convention since 1925

This year’s celebrations mark our centennial as a college – in February 1925, the governor of New York signed the legislation creating the New York State College of Home Economics at Cornell University. But our history begins much earlier. Before we were a college, we were a department, and then a school, in the College of Agriculture. In fact, you can trace our history all the way back to the founding of Cornell as New York’s land-grant university, with the commitment to combine classic liberal education with practical training and to extend that knowledge to improve the lives of everyday people.

In 1900, Martha Van Rensselaer arrived at Cornell to develop a correspondence course for rural homemakers. She sent the first bulletin in the Cornell Reading Course for Farmers’ Wives, titled “Saving Steps,” the next year. It was an immediate success. Van Rensselaer was soon sending five bulletins a year to thousands of homes across the state, answering hundreds of letters that came in response and visiting farm homes and study clubs to share research-based information on topics such as health and sanitation, child rearing, nutrition and household management.

This outreach program quickly expanded into an influential educational program. In 1907, nutrition researcher Flora Rose joined Van Rensselaer at Cornell to launch a new department, which, in 1925, ultimately grew into its own college. It trained students in cutting-edge science and developed scholars who advanced our knowledge in areas such as nutrition, child development, textiles, policy and design. The college was ahead of its time, providing access to education to those typically left behind and with a commitment to not just generating knowledge but extending it to address real-world needs. As the college evolved, from Home Economics to Human Ecology, it continued its innovative path, training students and generating new knowledge directly applicable to the most pressing issues of the day.