Beginning in the early 1900s, collegiate home economics programs across the nation included "practice house" programs designed to help female students learn "mothercraft," the scientific art of childrearing. At Cornell each semester, eight women students lived with a resident advisor in the "practice apartment," where they took turns performing a full range of homemaking activities in a scientific and cost-efficient manner.

In 1919, the first practice baby, named Dicky Domecon for "domestic economy," came to Cornell. Cornell secured infants through area orphanages and child welfare associations. Babies were nurtured by the students according to strict schedules and guidelines, and after a year, they were available for adoption. Prospective adoptive parents in this era desired Domecon babies because they had been raised according to the most up-to-date scientific principles.

Flora Rose, an early proponent of the program, believed that babies were essential to replicate the full domestic experience. Albert Mann, Dean of the College of Agriculture, called the apartments "essential laboratory practice for women students." As time passed, however, new research in child development pointed to the need for a primary bond with a single caregiver, and social changes in the lives of women made the practice house focus on domesticity seem old-fashioned. In addition, the ideology most prominent in the college favored hard science over practical applications. By 1969, the college changed its name to the College of Human Ecology.

Better Homes In America

This 1925 Better Homes in America pamphlet contains information about hundreds of practice home programs in universities and high schools across the United States. In 1925, Better Homes in America's Board of Directors included Herbert Hoover and Grace Abbott, a Progressive Era reformer. Its Advisory Council included Calvin Coolidge, Katharine Blunt (AHEA President), Theodore Roosevelt, and Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Bobby Domecon

Bobby Domecon, the second practice baby, arrived at Cornell in 1920 as a malnutrition case, but developed normally during his two-year stay.

Practice Babies' Diet

Practice apartment babies were held to a strict, scientifically engineered diet by their student "mothers."

Christmas with Edna Mae Domecon

Students gathered around the practice apartment living room with Edna Mae Domecon at Christmastime, 1924.

Life Magazine Article

Cornell's practice apartments received prominent coverage in local and national media. Life featured the program in a 1952 article, "The Making of a Home: Cornell Girls Study for Their Big Job."

Troy Orphan Asylum

This 1929 letter from Troy Orphan Asylum responded to Martha Van Rensselaer's request for babies. Infants were leased from child welfare organizations around the state through a contract that either side could terminate if the arrangement proved unsatisfactory.

Joan Domecon's Baby Book

Early practice apartment students kept baby books that included detailed information regarding the baby's physical, emotional, and behavioral progress and development. This is the scrapbook created for Joan Domecon in 1922.