Home Economics:
the Science of Household Management

The Bureau of Home Economics was formed as a separate entity within the U.S. Department of Agriculture on July 1, 1923, at the recommendation of Agriculture Secretary Henry C. Wallace, to continue scientific research in home economics that was formerly conducted in the Office of Home Economics of the States Relations Service. The Department of Agriculture had responsibility for home economics research and field education undertaken through a network of field extension agents at the land-grant colleges, where home economics was both a recognized course of study and an outreach program answering the needs of the community.

Extension Work Among Negroes Conducted by Negro Agents, 1923, a U.S. Department of Agriculture circular published in 1925, illustrates such field extension efforts. Thrift for Women. Presented by the Household Science Department of the Illinois Farmers' Institute (1930) illustrates the popularity of home economics education more generally.

The American Home Economics Association was founded in 1909 to systematize knowledge about the home. It focused on issues of consumer education, nutrition, industrial safety, public health, and the purity of air, food, and water. The professionalization of the home economics field -- the science of household management, as it was called, or household engineering -- was indebted in part to the influence of efficiency engineer Frederick W. Taylor. (INTRO NOTE Taylorism)

The Anna Kelton Wiley Papers amply illustrate the concerns of an activist homemaker during the 1920s, played out through participation in the Housekeepers' Alliance, the Federation of Women's Clubs, and the District of Columbia's Thrift Committee.

Home economics, though primarily concerned with foodstuffs, is an important part of the picture of 1920s consumerism both because it was predicated on the assumption, or hope, that homemakers could be "educated" in how to become better consumers, and because it was premised on the belief that items made at home, whether canned goods, clothing, or radios, could help break the cycle of extravagance in the marketplace.

In keeping with the fascination that the "do it yourself" experience held for many Americans, radio magazines such as Radio Age: The Magazine of the Hour devoted space to blueprints and instructions in how to construct different radio parts. Fashion and household magazines carried sewing features and patterns for making clothing (DETAIL NOTE Butterick). And Popular Mechanics Magazine (not included in our collection), further capitalizing on the do-it-yourself, make-it-at-home vogue, spawned The Popular Mechanics Automobile Tourist's Handbook (1924), which, among other things, instructed readers in how they could craft at home and rig up for themselves automobile touring accessories.