What was Eleanor Roosevelt's relationship with Cornell's College of Home Economics?
Eleanor Roosevelt played an integral role in the development of the College of Home Economics from the 1920s to the 1940s. As the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the governor of New York from 1928 to 1932, and later as First Lady, from 1933 to 1945, she employed her fame and influence in ways that resulted in greater financial support for home economics programs and increased publicity for the College. The home economics movement appealed to Roosevelt's interest in social reform for women, and she became one of its most prominent advocates. Additionally, Roosevelt's enthusiastic endorsements of home economics education programs brought national attention to the movement. As she said in a speech in 1934: "I feel I have a right to take pride and particular interest in what happens in the College of Home Economics. To me, it is the most important part of the university, for it concerns the homes of the people of this country."
Through their work for the College of Home Economics, Eleanor Roosevelt became close friends with co-directors Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose. Photographs and personal correspondence reveal their camaraderie.
In January 1925, Martha Van Rensselaer, co-director of the home economics program, invited Eleanor Roosevelt to serve on the Home Economics Council of Presidents, an association of women's educational organizations, which lobbied for the creation of a state college of home economics. Roosevelt was a strong addition to the Home Economics Council; she was a member of the New York State's Advisory Council of Women, which advised the governor and legislature on women's education. Additionally, Franklin Delano Roosevelt had been a state assemblyman from 1910 to 1913, and, as a result, Eleanor had become friends with many influential figures in New York State politics. With her support one month later, the New York State legislature passed a bill that made Cornell's School of Home Economics the New York State College of Home Economics.
By 1929, the College of Home Economics had grown significantly, and its facilities were no longer adequate for the growing institution. That year the college requested one million dollars in funding for construction of a new building; however, the state only gave them four hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. As a result Van Rensselaer and Rose turned to Eleanor Roosevelt, who used her connections to obtain additional funding for the school. In a 1953 interview Flora Rose described how Eleanor Roosevelt persuaded her husband Franklin to get extra money for the construction of the new home economics building:
Rose: ...we always felt that this building, in which we are now [Martha Van Rensselaer Hall], was really the influence of Eleanor Roosevelt on her husband... because when we used to go, after the appropriation [by New York state] was made we used to go, up to Albany and when he, Governor Roosevelt, only appropriated half a million dollars for it to begin with, and one night when we were up there, because we always stayed with them, Eleanor said to Franklin, "Franklin, why don't you give Martha all the money she asked for, the million dollars." And Franklin said, "Why, Eleanor, you know Martha can't use all of that right away. I'll give her the rest in time to complete the building." (Laughter.)
Despite her busy schedule Eleanor Roosevelt visited the school annually during her terms as first lady for Farm and Home Week, the College's educational outreach fair. Her attendance at the events drew large crowds and increased turnout and publicity surrounding Farm and Home week. At the 1937 Farm and Home Week pageant, Mrs. Roosevelt walked down the ramp in Bailey Hall modeling the gown she wore at her husband's second inaugural ball. In a February 1937 letter to her daughter, Anna, she described the occasion: "Darling, ...I've just been on my annual pilgrimage to Cornell and besides my speech this year I took up my inauguration dresses at the request of the Student Council and modeled them in the fashion show. I've decided I can earn my living that way some day if necessary..."
Ed. Asbell, Bernard. Mother and Daughter: The Letters of Eleanor and Anna Roosevelt. New York: Coward, McCann, and Goeghehan, 1982, 78-79.
Commission Invitation
Personal Correspondence
Interview
