View source for Home demonstration clubs

[[File:Farm and Home Bureaus- Meat canning demonstration at meeting of the Akron Home Economics (cropped) (3856810708).jpg|alt=Meat canning demonstration at meeting of the Akron Home Economics Club on December 19, 1916.|thumb|300px|Meat canning demonstration at meeting of the Akron Home Economics Club on December 19, 1916.]]
'''Home Demonstration Clubs''' (also known as '''homemaker clubs''', '''home bureaus''' or '''home adviser groups''') were a program of the [[U.S. Department of Agriculture]]'s [[Cooperative Extension Service]]. Their goal was to teach farm women in rural America better methods for getting their work done, in areas such as [[gardening]], [[canning]], [[nutrition]], and [[sewing]], and to encourage them to improve their families' living conditions. Home demonstration agents worked with local clubs to provide teaching services. The clubs also took on other education and charitable roles.<ref name="arkansas">{{cite web |last1=Hill |first1=Elizabeth Griffin |title=Home Demonstration Clubs |url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/home-demonstration-clubs-5387/ |website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas |access-date=22 August 2019}}</ref> These clubs survive into the present day.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://leaextension.nmsu.edu/homeec.html|title=Lea County Extension Office - Home Clubs|website=New Mexico State University|access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://laurel.ca.uky.edu/content/homemaker-clubs|title=Homemaker Clubs {{!}} Laurel County|website=University of Kentucky|access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref>

== About ==
Home demonstration clubs were an extension of [[Progressive Era]] values.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://montanawomenshistory.org/more-than-just-a-happy-housewife-home-demonstration-clubs-in-post-world-war-ii-montana/|title=More Than Just a Happy Housewife: Home Demonstration Clubs in Post-World War II Montana|date=2014-02-27|website=Women's History Matters|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref> The clubs were meant to help improve the lives of women living in [[rural area]]s.<ref name=":0" /> People who were considered experts in various topics were brought into the clubs to teach and were called Home demonstration agents.<ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}} Topics covered included domestic skills, issues relating to family life, [[home economics]] and information about new technologies and goods of interest to rural women.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}}{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=60}} Part of the purpose of the clubs was to make the same kind of information found at colleges and universities available to rural women.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}} Clubs also helped raise the standards of living for members of the group.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=97-98}} Clubs also helped women have a sense of community with others and pride in their own work.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}} Some clubs worked together to raise money to help improve their communities.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Redeker|first=Norma|date=1981|title=Homemaker Clubs Help Communities|url=https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/296235|journal=Progressive Agriculture|volume=32|issue=3|pages=13|via=The University of Arizona}}</ref> Many women enjoyed the leadership opportunities the home demonstration clubs provided them.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=107}}

Clubs were sometimes known as Homemakers clubs, home adviser groups and home bureaus.<ref name=":0" />{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=12}} Clubs were often named after geographic areas, but some had unique names, such as O.N.O. (Our Night Out) and H.E.O. (Help Each Other).{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=61}} Clubs elected officers and often rotated to different members' homes.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=61}} Members of the clubs worked with home demonstration agents to choose topics of interest to the clubs.{{Sfn|Frysinger|1932|p=1}} Clubs also had a social element with members hosting [[baby shower]]s and [[Party|birthday parties]].{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=62}} The first week of May was proclaimed "National Home Demonstration Week".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=K5xlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=KxsQAAAAIBAJ&pg=397%2C5958602|title=National Home Demonstration Week|date=28 April 1955|work=Weston County Gazette|access-date=23 August 2019|via=Google News}}</ref>

Clubs in most states were part of a larger county organization that was then organized by state and finally, part of the organization, the National Home Demonstration Council.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=13}} Clubs could get a home demonstration agent to work with them by contacting their local state agricultural college or the county's agricultural agent.{{Sfn|Ward|1921|p=8}}

=== Home demonstration agents ===
[[File:Home Demonstration Work-Fig 7 Home Demonstration Agent Relationships.jpg|thumb|Fig 7 Home Demonstration Agent Relationships, from the 1933 USDA publication ''Home Demonstration Work'']]
Home demonstration agents were considered to be the local representatives of individual states' county extension services and of the [[United States Department of Agriculture|USDA]].{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=2-3}} They were employed to teach different skills inside of the home, outdoors or in the community.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=3}} Home demonstration agents were required to have at least a bachelor's degree in [[home economics]], although that requirement had been waived in the past.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=5}}{{Sfn|Ward|1921|p=6}} Home demonstration agents would work with clubs by making home visits.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}} Agents also had office hours, wrote articles, conducted workshops and lectures, and had office hours.{{Sfn|McKinney|2011|p=58}} Agents felt that their jobs were to provide information, but not to provide "judgment".{{Sfn|Frysinger|1932|p=1}} Agents, especially ones working black communities, understood the importance of building a rapport with their communities and worked to gain trust.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=97}}

In [[Mississippi]], almost a quarter of all agents working in the 1920s had been part of the early tomato clubs that preceded the idea of home demonstration clubs.<ref name=":2" />

In 1922, the [[General Federation of Women's Clubs]] had a "special work" project of Vice President Mrs. W.S. Jennings, "A Home Demonstration Agent in Every County".<ref name=winslow1922page13>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q34fAQAAIAAJ |title=Official Register and Directory of Women's Clubs in America |date=1922 |volume=XXIV |publisher=[[Helen M. Winslow]] |access-date=August 22, 2019 |page=13}}</ref>

During the [[Great Depression]], home demonstration agents were often able to provide help to families in need.{{Sfn|Frysinger|1932|p=2}}

== History ==
Home demonstration clubs started before 1911.<ref name="National Agricultural Library" /> In 1898, women in Illinois recommended that farmers' institutes include "special subjects for farmers' wives and daughters".{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=28}} Other early prototypes of the Home demonstration clubs were the reading clubs set up for rural women starting in 1900 in [[New York (state)|New York]].{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=28}} Two women, [[Marie Cromer]] and [[Ella Graham Agnew|Ella Agnew]], started early [[canning]] clubs in [[North Carolina]] and [[Virginia]] respectively.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=28}} In [[Texas]], [[Edna Westbrook Trigg]] worked with the USDA and girls' [[tomato]] clubs in 1912.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/aah01|title=Home Demonstration|last=Cottrell|first=Debbie Mauldin|date=15 June 2010|website=Handbook of Texas Online|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=21 August 2019}}</ref> A similar path was taken by [[Susie V. Powell]] in [[Mississippi]], who was working with the [[Mississippi Federation of Women's Clubs]] to set up girls' tomato clubs in 1911.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/home-demonstration/|title=Home Demonstration|last=Morris|first=Sara|date=11 July 2017|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> Tomato clubs like the ones started by Powell and Trigg were part of a [[Progressive Era]] movement to help improve the quality of life for rural women and bring [[Home economics|home economic]] concepts into their homes.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/235/girls-tomato-clubs-in-mississippi-1911-1915|title=Girls' Tomato Clubs in Mississippi, 1911-1915|last=Moore|first=Danny|date=2003|website=Mississippi History Now|access-date=2019-08-24}}</ref> States like North Carolina found that there was a need to organize the successful tomato clubs at a state level, and hired [[Jane McKimmon Simpson|Jane S. McKimmon]] in 1911 to do that work.{{Sfn|Christensen|Deekens|n.d.|p=x}} In 1914, Mrs. Miller Earle was organizing tomato clubs for black girls in [[South Carolina]].{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=94}} Prior to home demonstration agents working with rural black women, Jeanes teachers from the [[Jeanes Foundation|Jeanes Supervisor teacher program]] traveled between farms and taught home economics and agricultural skills.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=92-93}}

[[File:Three Day Cooking School (Advertisement) - Louisville, Mississippi - 6 March 1931.png|thumb|Advertisement for home demonstration event in Winston County, Mississippi in 1931.]]In 1914 the [[Smith–Lever Act of 1914|Smith-Lever Act]] made national funds available for the home economics, including home demonstration agents.<ref name="National Agricultural Library">{{cite web |title=Apron Strings and Kitchen Sinks: Home Demonstration Work |url=https://www.nal.usda.gov/exhibits/ipd/apronsandkitchens/items/show/64 |website=National Agricultural Library |publisher=USDA |access-date=20 August 2019}}</ref> The act provided both legal and financial backing for home demonstration clubs.<ref name=":1" /> By 1951, there were 60,361 home demonstration clubs.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=12}}

During World War I, home demonstration clubs worked with [[Food preservation|food conservation]] programs.<ref name=":1" /> Emergency funds were appropriated in order to hire more home demonstration agents during WWI.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|url=https://www.ncpedia.org/lowe-dazelle-foster|title=Lowe, Dazelle Foster|last1=Von der Heide|first1=Mary|last2=Pronovost|first2=Emily|date=2007|website=NCpedia|access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref> Out of these funds, many [[African Americans|African American]] agents were hired and after 1920, when the emergency funds were no longer needed, white agents asked that black agents continue to be hired.<ref name=":3" /> McKimmon was one of the women who worked to keep on African American agents full time.<ref name=":3" /> Throughout [[World War II]], clubs were involved in efforts such as [[victory garden]]s and victory canning.<ref name=":1" /> In South Carolina, more than 17,500 black women and girls were involved in producing and conserving food during WWII.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=104}}

The first agent in [[Arkansas]] was [[Emma Archer]], who organized club for in [[Mabelvale, Arkansas]] to teach food preserving using canning in 1912. Four years later she became the state agent supervised district organizers. The system was racially segregated whilst black women agents taught black urban women in largely non-white areas, white women agents supervised other black clubs.<ref name="ency">{{Cite web|url=https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/home-demonstration-clubs-5387/|title=Encyclopedia of Arkansas|website=Encyclopedia of Arkansas|language=en-US|access-date=2019-08-21}}</ref> In 1918, [[Edith Parrott]], who supervised home demonstration work in South Carolina, said that while white women could help black families, the work could only be done "properly" if black agents served black families.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=95}} Negro extension work was funded at a lower rate than programs for white people and black women's extension services received less funding than black men's services.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=93}} Black demonstration agents were also paid around half of what white women earned for the same work.{{Sfn|Harris|2009|p=95}} In some cases, the difference between the salaries of white and black home demonstration agents was even more pronounced. For example, in [[Winston County, Mississippi]], Olga B. Hughes, the white home demonstration agent received a salary of $150 per month in 1931,<ref name='WCJ-Hughes'>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=23 Jan 1931 |title=Proceedings of January Board |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/303329637/ |work=The Winston County Journal |location=Louisville, Mississippi |page=7 |access-date=7 Jan 2021 |url-access=subscription |quote=Mrs. Olga B. Hughes salary 150.00 }}</ref> while Grace Perryman, her black counterpart, received only $25 per month in the same year.<ref name='WCJ-Perryman'>{{cite news |author=<!--Staff writer(s)/no by-line.--> |date=20 Mar 1931 |title=Proceedings of March Board |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/303331017/ |work=The Winston County Journal |location=Louisville, Mississippi |page=6 |access-date=7 Jan 2021 |url-access=subscription |quote=The Board does hereby employ Grace Perryman as County Home Demonstration Agent of said county for a period of twelve months beginning first day of Jan. 1931 at and for sum of $25 per month. }}</ref>  
[[File:Home_demonstration_club_meeting_has_games_and_refreshments_a..._(3109739817).jpg|alt=Louisiana home demonstration club meeting has games and refreshments after a discussion, 1940.|thumb|Louisiana home demonstration club meeting has games and refreshments after a discussion, 1940.]]
[[Connie J. Bonslagel]] served as Arkansas' state-level agent from 1917 to 1950, and [[Mary L. Ray]] was the Negro District home demonstration agent from c.1918 until 1934. Both served until their deaths.<ref name=ency/> The first Negro home demonstration agent worked in [[Okfuskee County, Oklahoma|Okfuskee]] and [[Seminole County, Oklahoma|Seminole]] counties in [[Oklahoma]] and was hired in 1912.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=25}} In Texas, [[Mary Evelyn V. Hunter]] worked as the statewide home demonstration agent for black women from 1915 to 1931.<ref name=":1" />

The clubs sometimes met in rural schoolhouses, such as the [[Galen Elementary School]] in [[Macon County, Tennessee]].<ref name=nrhpdoc-Galen>{{cite web|url={{NRHP url|id=93000030}}|title=National Register of Historic Places Registration: Galen Elementary School |publisher=[[National Park Service]]|author=Nancy Jane Baker |date=September 30, 1992 |access-date=August 20, 2019}} With {{NRHP url|id=93000030|photos=y|title=accompanying standard building plan and nine photos from 1992}}</ref>

Home demonstration agents serving rural women overlapped with [[4-H]] clubs, including in Montana.<ref name=":0" /> In 1951, 540 different home demonstration clubs employed 4H agents.{{Sfn|USDA|1951|p=1}}

== Notable people ==

*[[Ella Graham Agnew]], home demonstration agent in [[Virginia]].<ref name="vt.edu">{{cite web|url=http://vtpp.ext.vt.edu/about/ella-graham-agnew-1871-1958|title=Ella Graham Agnew (1871–1958)|work=Virginia Tech|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605202541/http://vtpp.ext.vt.edu/about/ella-graham-agnew-1871-1958|archive-date=5 June 2013|access-date=8 September 2015}}</ref>
*[[Lassie Goodbread-Black]], home demonstration agent in [[Florida]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/10ca00d2-3374-4ee2-999a-27cb5e6864b9|title=Goodbread-Black Farm Historic District|date=1999|website=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form|access-date=26 August 2019}}</ref>
*[[Virginia Cutler]], home demonstration agent in [[California]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/1985/07/virginia-cutler-her-heart-is-where-the-home-is?lang=eng|title=Virginia Cutler- Her Heart Is Where the Home Is|last1=Gardner|first1=Cynthia M.|date=1985|website=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints|access-date=26 August 2019}}</ref>
*[[Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert]], home demonstration agent in [[New Mexico]].<ref name=":22">{{Cite web|url=http://plainshumanities.unl.edu/encyclopedia/doc/egp.ha.011|title=De Baca, Fabiola Cabeza (1898-1933)|last=McShane|first=Becky Jo|editor-last=Wishart|editor-first=David J.|editor1-link=David J. Wishart|website=Encyclopedia of the Great Plains|publisher=University of Nebraska-Lincoln|access-date=24 January 2017}}</ref>
*[[Agnes Ellen Harris]], first home demonstration agent in Florida.<ref name="home demonstration agent">{{cite web|url=http://florida4h.org/news/Promotional%20Kits/files/History_Timeline.pdf|title=Florida 4-H History Timeline|date=2009|publisher=IFAS Extension|location=Gainesville, Florida|access-date=3 October 2015}}</ref>
*[[Jane McKimmon Simpson]], home demonstration agent in [[North Carolina]].{{Sfn|Christensen|Deekens|n.d.|p=x-xi}}
*[[Marion Walker Spidle]], home demonstration agent in [[Alabama]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://content.lib.auburn.edu/cdm/ref/collection/testfa/id/627|title=Marion Walker Spidle Collection|website=Auburn University Archives Finding Aids|access-date=26 August 2019}}</ref>
*[[Helen Harrod Thompson]], home demonstration agent in [[Oklahoma]].<ref name="Oral History Project">{{cite journal|last1=Nykolaiszyn|first1=Juliana|date=August 16, 2011|title=Oral history interview with Helen Thompson|url=http://dc.library.okstate.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Fame/id/791|journal=Inductees of the Oklahoma Women's Hall of Fame Oral History Project|access-date=26 August 2019}}</ref>

== See also ==

* [[Agricultural extension]]
* [[Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service|Cooperative extension service]]
* [[Women's Institute]]
==References==
{{reflist}}

=== Sources ===

*{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/andthatswayitwas00chri/page/n1?q=%22home+demonstration+club%22|title=And That's the Way it Was: 1920-1980: the 60 Year History of Extension Home Economics Work in North Carolina|last1=Christensen|first1=Janice R.|last2=Deekens|first2=A. Maynard|publisher=North Carolina Extension Homemakers Association, Inc.|year=n.d.}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Frysinger|first=Grace E.|date=1932|title=The Home Demonstration Agent at Work|url=https://archive.org/details/CAT31378602/page/n1|journal=Radio Scripts United States|publisher=United States Office of Cooperative Extension Work|via=Internet Archive}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Harris|first=Carmen V.|date=2009|title='Well I just generally bes the president of everything': Rural Black Women's Empowerment through South Carolina Home Demonstration Activities|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/black_women_gender_and_families/v003/3.1.harris.html|journal=Black Women, Gender & Families|language=en|volume=3|issue=1|pages=91–112|doi=10.1353/bwg.0.0001|issn=1944-6462|url-access=subscription|via=ProjectMUSE|doi-access=free}}
*{{Cite journal|last=McKinney|first=Amy|date=Autumn 2011|title=From Canning to Contraceptives: Cooperative Extension Service Home Demonstration Clubs and Rural Montana Women in the Post-World War II Era|url=http://montanawomenshistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/McKinney-Amy-L.-From-Canning-to-Contraceptives.pdf|journal=Montana: The Magazine of Western History|volume=61|pages=3}}
*{{Cite book|url=https://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/CAT87791369/PDF|title=The Home Demonstration Agent|last=USDA|publisher=Government Printing Office|year=1951|location=Washington, D.C.}}
*{{Cite journal|last=Ward|first=Florence E.|date=January 1921|title=Status and Results of Home Demonstration Work: Northern and Western States, 1919|url=https://archive.org/details/statusresultsofh141ward/page/n1?q=%22home+demonstration+agent%22|journal=United States Department of Agriculture Department Circular|publisher=Government Printing Office|volume=141|via=Internet Archive}}

==External links==
* [https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/qQLCI2sVArotLQ Home Demonstration Club Scrapbooks]
* [https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00547 Guide to the Juanita Lagg Cooperative Extension Papers circa 1915-2014]
* [https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/ua023_009/summary Home Demonstration Work, Special Collections Research Center at NCSU Libraries]

{{Commons cat inline|Home Demonstration Clubs}}

[[Category:United States Department of Agriculture programs]]