Challenging convention since 1925
In 2024-2025, Cornell Human Ecology is recognizing 100 years as a college with events and activities that celebrate our history and inspire excitement about where we’re going next.
(More than) 100 years of helping humans thrive
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.
1913. The first car used for home economics Extension trips. From left to right are: Claribel Nye, Martha Van Rensselaer, Natalie Thompson, Ruth Graham, Katherine Mills, Edna Alderman, and Mr. Sanford, a student chauffeur.
1916. Class of 1916 with staff at second senior breakfast. The staff are standing in the third row from the bottom, and they are, from left: Anna Hunn, Claribel Nye, Helen Canon, Bertha Titsworth, Beulah Blackmore, Frances Vinton, Annette Warner, Flora Rose, Martha Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Helen Binkerd Young, Helen Knowlton,___ Smith, Mary Henry, Winifred Moses and Lucille Brewer.
1944. Students building furniture in Mrs. Roman's home improvement course in the Summer Session.
1940. Home economics nursery school children at supervised outdoor play.
Unknown date. Mrs. Sylvia de la Paz in lab.
circa 1940s. Canning instruction.
1940. Student modeling a bathing suit at the Farm and Home Week fashion show in Bailey Hall.
1952. During Farm and Home Week, foreign graduate students who took part in discussions “Family Life in Other Lands.” From left: Mercedes Melchor of the Philippines; Muna Khoury, Lebanon; Leonarda Jurado, Philippines; Iris Brunet, Puerto Rico; Zahida Quraishi, Pakistan; Miss Jurado; Miss Quraishi and Miss Melchor wore native gowns for their talks.
Unknown date. Institutional Management students preparing and serving lunch to faculty and guests in the Green Room.
1968. Design class.
First steps
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.