Home Economics as a Natural VocationJunior majors of the Department of Home Economics at Milwaukee-Downer College in 1922. According to the image caption, these women were also known as the “Carefree Thirteen.”Milwaukee-Downer College was a women’s college founded in 1895 after the merger of two older women’s colleges. In 1901, the school’s home economics department was created, though the program was initially intended for personal enrichment rather than as a career path. The school’s president, Ellen Sabin, saw the domestic sciences as a woman’s chief vocation and one for which she possessed the unique qualifications to understand. via: Lawrence University Archives read more: Lynne H. Kleinman, The Milwaukee-Downer Woman (1997) Our current guest curator is Erika Janik, an award-winning writer, historian, and the producer and editor of Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio. She’ll be with us all month to consider the history of food and cooking in Wisconsin, using the digital archives available via Wisconsin Heritage Online. Stay tuned next week for a closer look at beer and brewing!
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Home Economics as a Natural Vocation
Junior majors of the Department of Home Economics at Milwaukee-Downer College in 1922. According to the image caption, these women were also known as the “Carefree Thirteen.”

Milwaukee-Downer College was a women’s college founded in 1895 after the merger of two older women’s colleges. In 1901, the school’s home economics department was created, though the program was initially intended for personal enrichment rather than as a career path. The school’s president, Ellen Sabin, saw the domestic sciences as a woman’s chief vocation and one for which she possessed the unique qualifications to understand.

via: Lawrence University Archives

read more: Lynne H. Kleinman, The Milwaukee-Downer Woman (1997)

Our current guest curator is Erika Janik, an award-winning writer, historian, and the producer and editor of Wisconsin Life on Wisconsin Public Radio. She’ll be with us all month to consider the history of food and cooking in Wisconsin, using the digital archives available via Wisconsin Heritage Online. Stay tuned next week for a closer look at beer and brewing!

Homemaking on the AirSix mornings a week, starting promptly at 10AM, home economist Aline Hazard greeted women across Wisconsin on WHA Radio’s Homemakers’ Program. Hazard, a University of Wisconsin home economist, and her colleagues instructed the unprepared homemaker on how to pickle, prepare frozen food, select a washing machine, and countless other household tasks. Hazard hosted the program for three decades, from 1933 to 1965, and was one of the most recognizable voices in the state. Sometimes Hazard took her show on the road, broadcasting live from beautiful gardens and other places of interest to Wisconsin women. This photo is from a 1940s broadcast. via: UW-Madison Archives, University of Wisconsin Digital CollectionsRead more about Hazard and the Homemakers’ Program in “Good Morning Homemakers!” in the Wisconsin Magazine of History.
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Homemaking on the Air
Six mornings a week, starting promptly at 10AM, home economist Aline Hazard greeted women across Wisconsin on WHA Radio’s Homemakers’ Program. Hazard, a University of Wisconsin home economist, and her colleagues instructed the unprepared homemaker on how to pickle, prepare frozen food, select a washing machine, and countless other household tasks. Hazard hosted the program for three decades, from 1933 to 1965, and was one of the most recognizable voices in the state.

Sometimes Hazard took her show on the road, broadcasting live from beautiful gardens and other places of interest to Wisconsin women. This photo is from a 1940s broadcast.

via: UW-Madison Archives, University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Read more about Hazard and the Homemakers’ Program in “Good Morning Homemakers!” in the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

Before Dear Abby Was Dear Nellie Nellie Kedzie Jones was a nationally recognized pioneer in home economics who brought down-to-earth and good-humored advice to rural farm women through her columns in The Country Gentleman from 1912 to 1918. Jones knew of what she spoke - she and her husband ran a farm in Marathon County, Wisconsin. Jones wrote a particularly vivid series of advice columns in the form of letters to an imaginary young niece named Janet from her “Aunt Nellie.” Young Janet, with her husband Ben, had supposedly just moved to an old farmhouse from the city and desperately needed advice on how to handle the overwhelming work burden. Jones’s basic message was that a farm wife must be efficient and spare herself in any small ways she could so that she did not change into an overworked piece of farm equipment. via: Nellie Kedzie Jones, “Advice to Farm Women,” Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society
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Before Dear Abby Was Dear Nellie
Nellie Kedzie Jones was a nationally recognized pioneer in home economics who brought down-to-earth and good-humored advice to rural farm women through her columns in The Country Gentleman from 1912 to 1918. Jones knew of what she spoke - she and her husband ran a farm in Marathon County, Wisconsin.

Jones wrote a particularly vivid series of advice columns in the form of letters to an imaginary young niece named Janet from her “Aunt Nellie.” Young Janet, with her husband Ben, had supposedly just moved to an old farmhouse from the city and desperately needed advice on how to handle the overwhelming work burden. Jones’s basic message was that a farm wife must be efficient and spare herself in any small ways she could so that she did not change into an overworked piece of farm equipment.

via: Nellie Kedzie Jones, “Advice to Farm Women,” Turning Points in Wisconsin History, Wisconsin Historical Society

Professional Opportunities in Home EconomicsImages of women in the kitchen are a familiar scene in home economics, but what these images don’t show is the important role that home economics played in getting women into higher education. From its inception, collegiate home economics was multidisciplinary and integrative with an emphasis on science applied to the real world of the home, family, and community. It was an academic science designed by women for women. In the first half of the 20th century, these programs prepared women for teaching but also for careers in extension services, state and federal government, industry, restaurants, hotels, and hospitals. The University of Wisconsin got its own Department of Home Economics in 1903. This image shows students working in one of the department kitchens in the 1910s. via: UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
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Professional Opportunities in Home Economics
Images of women in the kitchen are a familiar scene in home economics, but what these images don’t show is the important role that home economics played in getting women into higher education. From its inception, collegiate home economics was multidisciplinary and integrative with an emphasis on science applied to the real world of the home, family, and community. It was an academic science designed by women for women. In the first half of the 20th century, these programs prepared women for teaching but also for careers in extension services, state and federal government, industry, restaurants, hotels, and hospitals.

The University of Wisconsin got its own Department of Home Economics in 1903. This image shows students working in one of the department kitchens in the 1910s.

via: UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Search for EfficiencyWe all want to be more efficient in the kitchen, don’t we? Kitchen efficiency was a major concern of the national home economics movement. Their efforts led to smaller kitchens, space-saving cabinetry, and countless time and motion studies to map every movement involved in meal preparation. Home economists gave us the “work triangle,” which specified where each cabinet and appliance should be to maximize production and minimize time. It’s an idea still in use today.  In 1958, University of Wisconsin home economist May Cowles calculated the time and walking distance saved using a more efficient, “synthesized” kitchen for the Journal of Home Economics. via: UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Our guest curator Erika Janik joins us for the entire month of May, taking a look at the diverse histories of cooking and eating in the Badger State. Janik is an award-winning writer, historian, and the producer and editor of “Wisconsin Life” on Wisconsin Public Radio. She’s the author of Odd Wisconsin, A Short History of Wisconsin, Madison: A History of a Model City, and Apple: A Global History.
Pop-upView Separately

Search for Efficiency
We all want to be more efficient in the kitchen, don’t we? Kitchen efficiency was a major concern of the national home economics movement. Their efforts led to smaller kitchens, space-saving cabinetry, and countless time and motion studies to map every movement involved in meal preparation. Home economists gave us the “work triangle,” which specified where each cabinet and appliance should be to maximize production and minimize time. It’s an idea still in use today. 

In 1958, University of Wisconsin home economist May Cowles calculated the time and walking distance saved using a more efficient, “synthesized” kitchen for the Journal of Home Economics.

via: UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections

Our guest curator Erika Janik joins us for the entire month of May, taking a look at the diverse histories of cooking and eating in the Badger State. Janik is an award-winning writer, historian, and the producer and editor of “Wisconsin Life” on Wisconsin Public Radio. She’s the author of Odd Wisconsin, A Short History of Wisconsin, Madison: A History of a Model City, and Apple: A Global History.

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