History of the School of Human Ecology

Detailed timeline of the School's history

Return to The Establishment of the Department (1895-1908)
Spring 1895	Mrs. Helen Campbell gives a series of lectures titled “Synoptical Lectures in Household Economy” at the suggestion of Professor Richard Ely. The following year her lectures are published under the title Household Economics: A Course of Lectures in the School of Economics of the University of Wisconsin.
January 1903	The Regents insert a request for $15,000 for domestic science into a draft of a tentative bill. The following day, the Daily Cardinal reports: “A department of domestic science and economy will be part of the university if the legislature can be prevailed upon to grant an annual appropriation of $15,000 for its maintenance.”
February 1903	A women’s club from Waupaca petitions the State Senate to found a school of domestic science. In March, a group of citizens from Edgerton gives the Senate a memorial favoring the bill that would establish this school.
May 1903	The Wisconsin Legislature enacts Chapter 344, providing for a number of appropriations to the Regents of the University including $7,500 for “domestic science and allied sciences,” just half the amount originally requested.
June 1903	Upon the recommendation of President-elect Charles Van Hise, the Board of Regents names Caroline Hunt professor of home economics, with her instructional work to begin in the second semester of the 1903-04 year, and her salary for the part year set at $1,000.
January 1904	The Regents vote to make Domestic Science a Department in the College of Letters and Science. According to President Charles Van Hise’s 1902-04 report, “With reference to the advisability of establishing this department there had been much difference of opinion. However, the principle was laid down that only students admitted to the University under the requirements already established were eligible for work in this department. It was further decided, that, so far as practicable, the courses offered should be of equal grade to other courses offered for the A.B. degree. These principles led to the co-operation of other departments in constructing a course in which home economics is a major.”
February 1904	The Home Economics Department offers its first classes. The Department is housed in South Hall.
Fall 1904	The Board of Regents appoints Ella A. Huntington as instructor of home economics.
February 1905	The first housekeepers’ conference is held. These are one-week courses offered every February to the wives of farmers in conjunction with Farm Week.
1908	Research in home economics begins with Ella Huntington’s publication of The Fireless Cooker.
Spring 1908	The Board of Regents votes to transfer the Department of Home Economics to the College of Agriculture. It soon accepts the resignation of Caroline Hunt. No classes are offered in the 1908-09 year.
Return to The Establishment of the Department (1895-1908) Return to The Growth of the Department under Abby Marlatt (1909-39)
Spring 1909	The Regents appoint Abby L. Marlatt professor of home economics, at a salary of $2,000 per annum, to take effect July 1, 1909.
Fall 1909	Classes begin once again. The Department of Home Economics is temporarily housed in Agriculture Hall. Leona Hope is instructor of applied arts and Alice Loomis a graduate fellow and half-time assistant in foods.
1909-10	The Euthenics Club is started.
Feb 1910	The Department moves into two rooms in the attic of Lathrop Hall. In the fall, two more rooms are secured, giving the department one lecture room and three laboratories.
June 1910	Sarah Sutherland becomes the first graduate of the program when she earns a B.S. degree. The title of her thesis is “A study of the methods of cooking the rump of beef showing cost, in market cost, in preparation and loss in cooking.” Alice Loomis graduates with an M.A. in agricultural chemistry. Her thesis is on the “Effect of high and low percentages of fat upon the digestibility by pepsin of the rennet curd of milk.” She becomes an instructor in the Home Economics Department.
February 1911	The women’s short course is expanded into two weeks, the first consisting of lectures and demonstrations, and the second of laboratory practice. Attendance for the first week is over 500, and 73 women attend the second week.
June 1911	Katherine Agnes Donovan earns an M.S. in home economics, making her the first recipient of a graduate degree in home economics. The title of her thesis is “A study of infant mortality of Madison.”
July 1911	The Wisconsin legislature approves Chapter 631, a law that increases the building appropriation to the university. According to Nellie Kedzie Jones, one of the legislators jokingly asked Abby L. Marlatt if her students could make good pancakes, so the students prepared a pancake supper for the legislators. Shortly afterwards the legislators passed the allotment for the new building. The Wisconsin Federation of Women’s Clubs also played a role in getting the appropriation by appealing to the state legislature.
July 1911	The Regents resolve to construct a single building to be shared by the Department of Home Economics and by University Extension. They expect that University Extension’s tenure in the building will be temporary, but in fact Extension ends up staying until 1962.
1911	The University purchases a small house near Agriculture Hall and remodels it. It becomes the Department’s Practice Cottage.
1914	The Department moves into the east wing and fourth floor of the Home Economics and University Extension Building.
1914	Passage of the Smith-Lever Act, which results in the beginning of home economics extension. Elizabeth B. Kelley is the first State Leader of Home Economics Extension.
1914	A permanent research tradition begins with Dr. Amy Daniels. Although she is appointed as a full-time instructor, she uses graduate students to begin experimental work on the effects of preparation methods on nutrients in food.
1915	The Eta chapter of Omicron Nu is established at Wisconsin.
1917	The Home Economics Alumni Association is established with Hazel Manning as its first president.
April 1917	The University War Committee is organized. Members of the sub-committee on women’s service, which includes Abby Marlatt, present a course of emergency lectures and demonstrations for all university students. Topics include conservation of food, clothing, and health.
1917	Passage of the Smith-Hughes Act provides federal funds for vocational education. This legislation has the effect of orienting the discipline of home economics towards teacher training.
October 1918	Students in the Home Economics Department help care for influenza patients. They are involved in the sanitation, quarantine, and feeding of female patients. Abby Marlatt later writes about the helpers, “They certainly were jewels, and worked like Trojans, being excused from classes during the crisis. The result is that the Home Economics Department has come into its own.”
1921	Establishment of the home economics sorority Gamma Alpha Epsilon at UW.
December 1921	The death of Dorothy Roberts, assistant professor in the Department of Home Economics, from burns sustained during an experiment in which she was using wood alcohol as fuel. The nursery school is named after her several years later.
1923	May Reynolds begins giving lectures on nutrition on WHA.
1923	A tea room and cafeteria is established in the home economics building. Students had previously gained experience in institutional management by working in the Lathrop Hall cafeteria, the Charbourne Hall kitchen, and in a tea room in Wingra Park named The Rendezvous.
Fall 1924	A new course combining nursing and home economics is created. The course leads to a B.S. (Home Economics) with a major in nursing.
1924	The Home Economics Department is divided into 3 departments: Foods & Administration, Clothing & Textiles, and Applied Arts. Applied Arts is soon renamed Related Arts.
1925	Phi Upsilon Omicron, the national home economics sorority, is established at the UW, with UW as the Nu chapter. Gamma Alpha Epsilon, the UW home economics sorority founded in 1921, merges with Phi Upsilon Omicron.
1926	The Dorothy Roberts Nursery School is established at the request of some neighborhood mothers. After spending a year in Luther Memorial Church, it moves in 1927 to a living porch added to the Practice Cottage.
1926-29	The first Homemakers’ Program is broadcast during these years. By 1929, the program is aired five times a week on WHA.
Spring 1930	The Practice Cottage moves from the corner of Linden Drive and Randall Avenue to a new site at the corner of Linden Drive and Lorch Street to make way for a children’s hospital. The nursery school remains in the Cottage.
May 1932	The first Ph.D is granted to Julia Frank Nofsker, in Education and Home Economics. The title of her thesis is “A Study of Home Economics Education in the Public High Schools of Wisconsin.”
Fall 1933	A joint major between home economics and journalism is established.
1938	Most home economics students sign a petition asking for more space for the Home Economics Department.
Return to The Growth of the Department under Abby Marlatt (1909-39) Return to From a Department to a School (1939-61)
1939	Abby Marlatt retires. Frances Zuill is named director.
1940	After Mr. Gould W. Van Derzee visits his daughter Karen while she is in the Practice Cottage, he sees the need for a new building. He enlists the support of his company, the Wisconsin Utilities Association, an association of investor-owned utilities, and it offers the Board of Regents $20,000 to construct a new home management house, plus additional funds for equipment and furniture.
Spring 1941	The present Home Management House is finished. It continues to be used for practical live-in training until 1970. The Dorothy Roberts Nursery School takes over all three floors of the old Practice Cottage.
Spring 1942	Students run a Clothes Clinic to teach conservation. Three home economics students run the clinic, which teaches students to repair and renovate old clothing, with the goal of helping to “win the war.”
1943	The legislative committee of the Home Economics Alumni Association writes a letter to the alumni explaining the need for more space for the Department. Among the reasons cited is that the space was intended for 250 students in 1914, but by 1941 there are 675 students.
1943	A major in child development is introduced as a joint program between several departments including Home Economics.
May 1948	At the suggestion of the members of the Euthenics Club, Phi Upsilon Omicron and Omicron Nu, the first Open House is held for high school students. Students view exhibits, tour the home economics building and nursery school, and hear various talks on career opportunities in home economics. Two hundred and thirty students attend the first Open House. By 1951, 800 students visit.
1950	Governor Rennebohm releases funds for the construction of a west wing for the Home Economics Building. The Regents vote in November to seek construction bids.
1951	The nursery school moves into a temporary building. Later it spends some time in the Home Economics Building.
April 1951	The Regents vote to make the Department into a School of Home Economics effective July 1, 1951. Frances Zuill is named Associate Dean in the College of Agriculture. Four departments are established, each headed by a chair: Clothing and Textiles, Foods and Nutrition, Home Management and Family Living, and Related Art. Some Home Economics Extension specialists become faculty members of resident subject matter departments.
1951-53	The west wing of Home Economics Building is built at a cost of $975,000. The School moves in during May 1953.
1955	A fifth department is added: Home Economics Education and Extension.
1957	The current Pre-School Laboratory building is built between Agriculture Hall and the Home Management House.
Return to From a Department to a School (1939-61) Return to Years of Challenge and a Search for New Identity (1961-74)
1961	Frances Zuill retires. Josephine Staab is named Associate Dean beginning September 1.
1962	Extension vacates the center portion of the home economics building.
1964	Josephine Staab resigns because of illness. Rita Youmans serves as Acting Associate Dean beginning July 1. She is named Associate Dean the following February.
December 1967	A review of home economics is conducted by a campus-wide advisory committee in 1967. In its report, released in December, the committee advises that the School place more emphasis on research, focus on improving its graduate program, and adopt a name without the negative connotations of home economics. It also recommends that the School be established as an independent unit within the university, separate from the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences.
May 1968	The name of the School changes to the School of Family Resources and Consumer Sciences (FRCS).
July 1968	The Department of Foods and Nutrition is repositioned in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Rita Youmans transfers entirely to the UW-Milwaukee campus as chair of the Department of Home Economics effective July 1. Louise Young is named interim Associate Dean.
August 1968	Helen Louise Allen passes away unexpectedly. She bequeaths her collection of textiles to the university.
1969	William H. Marshall is named Associate Dean and Director of the School.
March 1970	Marshall writes a letter to the director of the Wisconsin Utilities Association informing him that he would like to abandon the use of the Home Management House as a live-in practice cottage and instead use it for office space and classrooms.
Spring 1973	Marshall is dismissed from his deanship by Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Glenn Pound.
Return to Years of Challenge and a Search for New Identity (1961-74) Return to Reorganization and a New Beginning (1974-)
July 1, 1973	The School becomes an autonomous unit, administered by a dean and an associate dean. Rose Marie Chioni is named Acting Dean of the School.
July 1974	The School is reorganized into program areas, each with a coordinator: Child and Family Studies, Consumer Science, Environment and Design (soon renamed Environment, Textiles and Design), Home Economics Education, and Home Economics Communications.
September 1974	Elizabeth Simpson is named Dean.
September 1977	The Minority Program Office of the School opens under the direction of Professor Marion Brown.
September 1979	The School marks its 75th anniversary with a celebration at the Sheraton Inn.
1984	FRCS Graduate student Grace Tonge publishes Ten Dynamic Women with funding from the Meta Schroeder Homemaker Fund. One of the women she features is May Reynolds.
1985	Elizabeth Simpson steps down and Hamilton I. McCubbin is named Dean effective August 1.
1987	The Center for Retailing Studies is established with funding from May Department Stores, Federated Department Stores, and Main Street Stores.
1989	An estate gift endows Audrey Rothermel Bascom Professionships in the School.
1991	A Jean Manchester Biddick gift establishes program support for the Center for Family Excellence.
Fall 1991	The Gallery of Design opens.
Fall 1992	Dedication of the Ruth Ketterer Harris Book Collection.
1995	Helen Zepp Flexman estate gift establishes fund to support educational programs related to women and philanthropy.
1996	A gift from James and Kathryn K. Vaughan endows the Vaughan Bascom Professionship in Women and Philanthropy.
January 1996	Family and Consumer Education is moved into the newly created Department of Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Ecology.
July 1996	The name School of Human Ecology is adopted.
1997	The Apparel Design 2 class designs a sweater for the university’s sesquicentennial. The sweater is sold commercially.
1999	Hamilton I. McCubbin steps down as dean, effective July 1. Robin A. Douthitt is named interim Dean.
1999	Elizabeth Metz of Marinette bequeaths almost half a million dollars to the School.
2000	A second preschool site, the Bethany Preschool Center, is established. This site provides care for infants as well as toddlers.
2001	Robin A. Douthitt is named Dean.
Return to Reorganization and a New Beginning (1974-)