LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 U N I VERSITY 
 
 OF 1LLI NOI5 
 
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 ILLINOIS HISTORY SURVEY 
 LIBRARY 
 
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The Story of Isabel Bevier 
 
l 1 "^v 
 
the story of 
 
 Isabel Bevier 
 
 Lita Bane 
 
 Chas. A* Bennett Co., Inc., Peoria, Illinois 
 
Copyright 1955 
 Chas. A. Bennett Co., Inc. 
 
 PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
I believe that all of us become better citizens, richer and better 
 directed human beings, through a knowledge of the dreams and 
 deeds of the men and women who went before. 
 
 A. B. Guthrie, Jr. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://archive.org/details/storyofisabelbevOObane 
 
Preface 
 
 I here are persons whose traits of mind and heart would 
 enable them to live helpfully in any age. Isabel Bevier was 
 such a person. Her eagerness to use her every talent to make 
 life, especially home life, rich and rewarding would in itself 
 have given her distinction. Her success in helping to launch 
 a large and important movement devoted to this high 
 purpose has given her a certain universality and timelessness. 
 
 The University of Illinois chapter of Phi Upsilon Omicron 
 believed that some record should be made of her life. That 
 is how this book came to be. Its contents were chosen in an 
 effort to point out the way she trod and to make as real as 
 possible the woman who chose that way. 
 
 The best way to accomplish this purpose posed a difficult 
 problem, so elusive are the elements needed in a book of 
 this nature. Through the efforts of the active chapter, its 
 faculty advisers, and alumnae, funds were raised, material 
 collected, and attempts made at different times by profes- 
 sional friends of Isabel Bevier to write a book about her. 
 Each time all were agreed that the story fell short of its 
 mark and would not accomplish what the sponsoring group 
 had hoped for. At last it was decided that the best way to 
 make known what kind of person she was, and what she 
 stood for, was to let her speak for herself for the most part. 
 
At the request of the biography committee, the task of 
 preparing the material for publication fell to my lot. With 
 the help of many interested persons I have carried out my 
 assignment. Selections have been made from Isabel Bevier's 
 published and unpublished writings, and certain statements 
 made by her friends have been used. All collected materials 
 have been preserved for future use. 
 
 This book is largely devoted to her twenty-one years as 
 head of the Home Economics Department and vice-director 
 of Home Economics Extension at the University of Illinois. 
 Through the years her ideas, ideals, and standards will be 
 sifted, and those that stand the test of time will be used 
 again and again, not only in directing and strengthening 
 the home economics movement, but in shaping the educa- 
 tion of women to fit their changing personal and social 
 responsibilities. 
 
 Yet, at best, a book such as this, compiled from many 
 sources, unfortunately leaves some attributes unrecorded. 
 It can be only a partial picture. 
 
 Isabel Bevier's most active home economics professional 
 life ( 1900-1921 ) paralleled the first years of the organized 
 home economics movement, and she was a person of power 
 and influence in shaping its development. Her life and 
 writings point up the foundations of modern homemaking 
 philosophy and indicate how one of the pioneers developed 
 her ideas and translated them into action. 
 
 This interest in homemaking as an area for scientific 
 study resulted not only in the rise of what is known as the 
 home economics movement but added momentum to a 
 general movement toward making scientific facts more 
 generally available and putting them to work for human 
 betterment. Other people in addition to Justice Holmes were 
 
seeing the need (as he expressed it) to "make facts live — 
 leap into an organic order, live, and bear fruit." 
 
 A book devoted to the life and work of any one individual 
 is bound to raise questions in the mind of the potential 
 reader. Who was this person? Why is she noteworthy? What 
 manner of person was she? What was the nature of the 
 work that won her devotion and in which she served with 
 enough distinction to merit biographical attention? 
 
 In these pages you will meet Isabel Bevier — the woman, 
 the scholar, the administrator — as she saw herself and as 
 friends and coworkers saw her. In the second part of the 
 book she speaks mostly for herself, through excerpts from 
 her talks and published articles. By these means we hope to 
 give the reader an insight into the life and work of a woman 
 who possessed the attributes of true greatness. 
 
 Believing as she did that "there is an art in a well-ordered 
 home and a well-ordered life," Isabel Bevier left a legacy 
 of rich promise in the broad field of educating men and 
 women for their homemaking responsibilities. 
 
Contents 
 
 Preface 
 
 Chapter I. DAYS OF PREPARATION 11 
 
 Isabel's Personal Background. Autobiographical Notes. 
 Draper's Statement. 
 
 Chapter II. AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 29 
 
 First Impressions. New Undertakings. Getting Settled. Many 
 Men Help. "Shelter" First. A Course Is Planned. First Regis- 
 tration. A "Home" Room. Operation "Telephone." Religion. 
 Household Science Defined. Isabel and the Trustees. Cata- 
 log, 1901-1902. Into the Woman's Building. Advancing in 
 Applied Arts. President James. Innovation in Research. The 
 Experimental House. Trouble Brews. Asked to Resign. 
 Advice . . . Leads to Right Choice. Pillars or "Pile-ons"? 
 Additions. "The Things That Are Fixed Are Dead." Exten- 
 sion Work. Smith-Hughes Act, 1917. World War I. Resig- 
 nation, 1921. Davenport's Farewell. 
 
 Chapter III. BEYOND THE CLASSROOM 71 
 
Chapter IV. THE LATER YEARS 80 
 
 Arizona. Isabel and the Passport Man. Comparing Old and 
 New. Europe, 1931. Home Again and Fancy-Free. 80th 
 Birthday Celebration. Nearing the End. The Bevier Lectures. 
 Summary of the Bevier Philosophy. Isabel's Charm. 
 
 Chapter V. IDEAS INTO ACTION 111 
 
 Chapter VI. SPECIAL OPINIONS 115 
 
 Men in Household Science. Bevier the Writer. Great De- 
 fense of Schools. Comparing Schools with Industry. H. S. 
 and College Homemaking. 
 
 Chapter VII. IN THE LAND-GRANT COLLEGE 128 
 
 Women Spared Experimentation. A Color, Odor, Explosion. 
 H. E. Not All Hot Biscuits. Plus Values in Homemaking. 
 Dietetics and Decoration. 
 
 Chapter VIII. EDUCATING ADULTS 143 
 
 Modern Farm Life — 1917. Electric Dishwashers and Irons. 
 Attitude of Mind. Women as Spenders. Recreation on the 
 Farm. The Modern Farm Parent. The Mother's Part. A 1923 
 View of Communism. The Father's Part. A Plea for Re- 
 ligious Faith. 1910 Home vs. Pioneer Home. Opportunity 
 Lies at Home. Women's Colleges. Note on Sociology. 
 Bane's Tribute to Bevier. 
 
 Chapter IX. "AS WE KNEW HER" 166 
 
 Lita Bane's Report. Sherman's Report. Mendel's Report. 
 
 AND FINALLY 183 
 
 INDEX 188 
 
Chapter I 
 
 Days of Preparation 
 
 Unfortunately, we have little detailed information 
 about the formative influences in Isabel Bevier's childhood 
 and early youth. The daguerreotype of Isabel at three shows 
 her a serious-eyed little girl with a high forehead and a look 
 of alertness and intelligence. She retained that look all her 
 life. Beyond the picture and her own casual reference to 
 having been born on a farm we know almost nothing about 
 her childhood. (See Eugene Davenport's notes, page 13 
 and following.) 
 
 There must have been some compelling reason for her 
 leaving her farm home to go to preparatory school and 
 college, but our sources leave that information vague. We 
 know from her own account that a profound change in her 
 life came when, after the stunning shock of her fiance's 
 drowning in 1888, she made her decision with the help of 
 friends to enter the field of science. 
 
 Although we lack details about Isabel's early years, we 
 can find many motivating influences in what was happening 
 all around her. She was born in 1860 into an atmosphere of 
 
 11 
 
thought increasingly favorable to the education of women. 
 Vassar was founded when she was five, and her future 
 teacher and friend, Ellen Swallow Richards, was one of the 
 first students; Smith followed in 1873 and Wellesley in 1875. 
 Her own state of Ohio had led in the movement, Oberlin 
 having been opened as a co-educational college in 1833, 
 almost thirty years before her birth. Wooster, the Presby- 
 terian college from which she graduated, was founded in 
 1866 when she was starting off to grade school. 
 
 Living as she was in a farm home she must have heard 
 talk about the land-grant colleges with their plans for offer- 
 ing practical education to women as well as men. She was 
 two when the first Morrill Act was passed in 1862 and ten 
 when Michigan, California, Missouri, and, significantly, 
 Illinois, took advantage of the grant plan and opened 
 universities for men and women. 
 
 A sensitive and perceptive person, Isabel could not 
 escape the impulse which women's education was receiving. 
 She did escape its traditional pattern. At our point in time 
 it is hard to realize what it meant in the 1880's for a woman 
 to venture into the field of science. Languages, art apprecia- 
 tion, music, and literature were considered proper for a 
 woman if she must be educated. There seemed to be almost 
 no thought of applying scientific principles to the work in 
 which most women were engaged — homemaking. 
 
 Through her study of science and her friendships with 
 scientists, Isabel was able to see the possibilities of making 
 this application — of using the findings of science to help 
 solve the problems women were meeting every day in their 
 homes. Nutrition was one of them. While at that time little 
 was known about human nutrition, she had been observing 
 and felt sure it had an importance to human well-being not 
 
 12 
 
yet appreciated. She concluded too that if women knew 
 something about architecture their homes might be better 
 engineered to fit the needs of family living. With her purpose 
 constantly before her, she studied a fragment here, another 
 there, and put them together to form "household science," 
 as she termed it. 
 
 Isabel's Personal Background 
 
 As a friend, and as an administrator fully aware of the 
 value of Isabel Bevier's contribution to education, Dean 
 Eugene Davenport of Illinois tells something of the back- 
 ground of her life and career. Speaking first of the signifi- 
 cance of her birthplace, a farm near Plymouth, Ohio, he 
 wrote: 
 
 "The fact that she began life and spent her early girl- 
 hood in a rich and prosperous region at the southwest 
 corner of the Western Reserve helps to account for her 
 subsequent career. Not only was the country rich and 
 prosperous, as riches and prosperity went in those days, but 
 the people were of that sturdy stock that cast their fortunes 
 with the Connecticut Fire Lands and developed there what 
 was probably the most characteristically American of all 
 the civilization centers west of the Alleghenies. The spirit 
 of personal initiative was the distinguishing mark of these 
 sons of pioneers. Of the home-building type, they never- 
 theless had an early baptism of fire in the War of 1812 and 
 another in the '60' s. War to them was not an occupation but 
 a disagreeable necessity in defense of free institutions. 
 
 "All this must have had its influence upon the develop- 
 ment of a character naturally strong. For in such an environ- 
 ment this farm girl lived all her early life and until she went 
 away to college. She taught country school, which brought 
 
 13 
 
her into intimate contact with life as it is actually lived 
 under a variety of conditions. Besides, the Civil War had 
 hit Ohio hard, and the days of recovery were times of 
 intense purposes and of extremely hard work. Both men and 
 women learned what hard work really was. 
 
 "And so it was that Isabel Bevier was brought up in a 
 period when nothing seemed too hard if only it was well 
 worth while. 
 
 "It seemed written in the book of fate that this farm 
 girl should be very largely dependent upon the friendship 
 and counsel of men. Her choice of science threw her almost 
 entirely with men, for at that time few women were in 
 college and fewer still were studying science. Those were 
 pioneer days in home economics, as they had been shortly 
 before in agriculture/' 
 
 Dean Davenport speaks of the "sturdy stock" from which 
 Isabel came. The name Bevier is of French origin, her 
 father being of French ancestry, with possibly some Dutch. 
 Her mother was Dutch, a Brinkerhoff. On both sides her 
 ancestors were adventuring, pioneering people. 
 
 In 1675 Louis Bevier with his wife and baby came to 
 New Amsterdam. They came from the lower Palatinate, 
 where his people had settled when religious persecution 
 drove the Huguenots from France. After two years at New 
 Amsterdam, Louis and his family joined eleven other Pal- 
 atinate families in the settling of New Paltz, not far from 
 what is now Poughkeepsie. They prospered. 
 
 Today, in New Paltz, New York, in a small, grassy tri- 
 angle on the original Huguenot Street, a large boulder is 
 inscribed, "To the memory and in honor of the twelve 
 original settlers." The name of Louis Bevier is among those 
 engraved. On this same street, the old Bevier house of stone 
 
 14 
 
with a massive Dutch door is still standing, although it 
 passed out of the family's possession in 1735. The historical 
 marker attached to the house indicates the years of Bevier 
 ownership. 
 
 Andreas Bevier, direct descendent of Louis, left the 
 homestead and moved west. He settled near Plymouth, Ohio. 
 His son, Caleb, was Isabel Bevier's father. 
 
 Isabel herself credited her love of wandering and her 
 spirit of adventure to the Brinkerhoffs, her mother's people. 
 In 1639 Joris Dircksen Brinkerhoff came with his wife from 
 Holland to New Amsterdam. In 1646 he settled in Brooklyn, 
 where he was prominent in affairs of the town and a ruling 
 elder in the church. One of his descendents, Henry Roeliff 
 Brinkerhoff, became General Brinkerhoff and a member of 
 the state legislature. In 1828 he moved his family from New 
 York State to Ohio, settling near Plymouth. His daughter, 
 Cornelia, was Isabel Bevier's mother. 
 
 Louis Betts who painted Isabel's portrait, called her a 
 French type. Yet one is inclined to associate her sturdiness 
 with her Dutch progenitors. Whether we think of her as a 
 Bevier or a Brinkerhoff, there is ample evidence that her 
 vitality, her keen mind, and her striking appearance were 
 the fruits of a splendid inheritance. 
 
 When preparing his short sketch of Isabel Bevier as part 
 of the material for this book, Dean Davenport asked her for 
 some biographical data. She responded with some pages of 
 what she termed "material facts." This account given in the 
 forthright and unadorned fashion so characteristic of her, 
 is reproduced here virtually in its entirety. She wrote: 
 
 Isabel's Autobiographical Notes 
 
 "I was born on a farm five miles from anywhere, the 
 
 15 
 
youngest of nine children, in cold weather, in the midst of a 
 rich and populous region, three miles from three churches 
 and five miles from two towns, and really lived there all my 
 life until I went to college. I taught a country school the 
 summer before I was sixteen years of age, and taught for 
 three successive summers before I went to Wooster Prepara- 
 tory. I had been in the Plymouth [Ohio] High School for 
 two years, but it was not accredited, so I had to go to 
 Wooster Preparatory for two years. My mother died the 
 first year I was in Preparatory, so I could not complete the 
 year. As it seemed better to just go on another year, I was 
 slightly irregular. 
 
 "It seems to me most of the changes in my life have 
 come because I did something that somebody else thought I 
 should do. For example, in college I took German and Latin 
 and some French, and was supposed to do my best work in 
 languages. My father's influence got me a position in the 
 Shelby [Ohio] High School, where I was principal for two 
 years; then I went to Mt. Vernon High School and taught 
 mathematics and Latin." 
 
 Her record shows her teaching in high school from 1885 
 through 1888, having graduated from the University of 
 Wooster in 1885 and earned her master's degree at the same 
 institution in 1888. It was in the latter year that tragedy 
 struck, changing her whole life. Her fiance, Elmer Strain, 
 whom she had known at Wooster University, had just 
 completed his course at the Harvard Medical School and 
 was taking a short vacation. While swimming with several 
 companions, he was drowned. She rarely spoke of this tragic 
 experience but when she did, you realized how vivid the 
 memory of it was and something of the depth of her grief. 
 The young men who were with Elmer Strain at the time of 
 
 16 
 

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his death and who were also friends of Isabel, corresponded 
 with her through all the succeeding years. 
 
 Her account continues: 
 
 "Meanwhile, my roommate had married and was living 
 in Pittsburgh, and she and her husband conceived the idea 
 that it would be nice to have me teach in the Pennsylvania 
 College for Women. The vacancy happened to be in the 
 sciences, about which I felt I knew very little, but I decided 
 to try it and so asked if I could study chemistry in Case 
 School of Applied Sciences in Cleveland. 
 
 "The request was granted, though there was no summer 
 school; and after I had arrived on the spot and had some 
 acquaintance with my instructor, I was told that I was the 
 only woman who had ever asked to study in Case. I simply 
 knew that it was a good scientific school and wrote for 
 information, and the reply was that Professor Albert W. 
 Smith would be working in oils and could tutor me. It was 
 really a great chance. He had only one other student, who 
 fell by the way, so I went as far and as fast as I could and 
 really learned considerable chemistry. The next year I 
 returned and did likewise. 
 
 "During this time I had in Pennsylvania College the 
 large and indefinite title of Professor of Natural Sciences. 
 I taught, in the nine years I was there — chemistry always, 
 geology two years, physics two, botany nine. I had taught 
 that in Mt. Vernon. At the end of two years Professor Smith, 
 whom I consider a good deal of a prophet, told me that the 
 place for women in chemistry was in work with foods, and 
 that the big universities in the Middle West, like Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, and Illinois, would one day have some kind of a 
 department for foods work with women in it, and I should 
 get ready. I should not come to him any more, but I should 
 
 17 
 
go to Harvard summer school and then to Professor Atwater's 
 laboratory. 
 
 "So, armed with a letter of recommendation from Dr. 
 Mayberry, head of chemistry in Case, I went to Harvard, 
 and the registrar told me that since Dr. Mayberry was a 
 personal friend of his he would do what they usually did not 
 do — he would find me a nice place to live in a fine old 
 New England family. That really meant very much to me 
 because later in the summer Professor Putnam of Peabody 
 Museum at Harvard and his wife came there to visit the 
 family, and Professor Putnam asked me if I was going to 
 work as a chemist in the World's Fair. That Fair was two 
 years away and I had never even dreamed of such a thing. 
 
 "Meantime my father died in January, 1893. I had 
 arranged to go to the Fair for ten days with some Pittsburgh 
 friends. The first night when I got home from the Fair there 
 was a telegram asking me to report at the Administration 
 Building. I was much amazed and wondered what had hap- 
 pened since I had forgotten about Professor Putnam. In the 
 morning I found that Mrs. Virginia C. Meredith was one of 
 the powers that be. I had never seen her. She told me that 
 I had been recommended by Professor Putnam as a scientific 
 young woman, and because of his recommendation they 
 had sent for me and would give me a position. I should go 
 on with my plans but call occasionally at the office until 
 the committee could be formed. 
 
 "I remember very distinctly how I rushed over to the 
 Museum to Professor Putnam's office and said to him I was 
 very grateful for his recommendation, but I was sure I could 
 not do what they wanted me to. He looked at me rather 
 curiously and said, 'Just what is it they want you to do?' 
 I said, 1 do not really know; they do not know yet." He said, 
 
 18 
 
'Very well, when they really do know, if you can't do it I 
 want you to go home, because I have recommended only 
 three women, and I expect them to do themselves and me 
 credit, but I do not want you to go away until you find out 
 exactly what you are to do/ 
 
 "So I went back and followed directions, and the tenth 
 day when my friends were about to depart I was told to get 
 in the elevator and go upstairs; the committee was to be 
 formed. It ended, to the great amusement of the people who 
 knew me, by my being made secretary of the Mineral Waters 
 Committee, and A. A. Breneman of New York City was to 
 be chairman. The plan was to have the power in the hands 
 of Americans, but other people were to be put on; so we had 
 one German, one Mexican, one sugar man from Trinidad, 
 Spain, one doctor, director of an insane asylum in Nebraska, 
 Professor Breneman, and myself. Professor Breneman had to 
 go back to New York to close up his work and to make 
 arrangements to send some of the World's Fair materials to 
 his laboratory and some of them — the greater part of them — 
 went to the chemical department of Northwestern under 
 Long, who was then in charge. 
 
 "That was a very interesting experience. I stayed until 
 Pennsylvania College opened, and then, in October, Pro- 
 fessor Breneman wrote and asked that I be released for two 
 weeks to finish up the records. That was really the beginning 
 of my acquaintance with Dr. Wiley, Dr. Langworthy, and 
 Professor Atwater. I did work for a few days in the U. S. 
 Chemical Laboratory, weighing samples under Dr. Wiley, 
 but my real work in connection with the World's Fair was 
 done with the Mineral Waters Committee. Needless to say, 
 I greatly enjoyed my experiences with that group. Before 
 that my acquaintance with mineral waters had been con- 
 
 19 
 
fined to an occasional soda. 
 
 "I always went to see Professor Smith in the summer, 
 and when I told him about my World's Fair experience, he 
 said, 'Well, now you must go to Professor Atwater's labora- 
 tory,' and I said, 'Why, what would he want with me?' 
 Professor Smith said, 'Well, whatever is worth having is 
 worth asking for. You must write and ask him if you can 
 work in his laboratory/ I did write two letters, one to the 
 University of Chicago and one to Professor Atwater. The 
 catalog of the summer work came from Chicago University, 
 and a letter from Professor Atwater which said, 'We have 
 no summer school as such, but my assistants will be here and 
 we shall be glad to have you come and you can have 
 abundant opportunity to work with food with us/ 
 
 "So I went for six weeks' work with Dr. Woods, after- 
 ward of Maine, head of Professor Atwater's laboratory, and 
 Dr. Langworthy was detailed to look after me. Professor 
 Atwater talked with me, told me of his hopes and fears. He 
 was then director of the agricultural experiment station at 
 Storrs and was trying to get money for his investigations. 
 He asked me what I was interested in and what I would 
 like to work at, and I said, 'bread/ He said he would be very 
 glad to have me get some samples ready and bring them 
 back at the holiday vacation, so I interviewed the head of 
 the U. S. Baking Company, a member of the church I 
 attended, whom I knew slightly. 
 
 "I collected samples, dried them, and prepared them. 
 Professor Atwater came to Pittsburgh and we had a dinner 
 for him at the college with the interested people, and then 
 we went to the poorer districts. He was having dietary 
 studies made then in various parts of the United States, and 
 he wanted some made in Pittsburgh, so I made seven there 
 
 20 
 
for him, representative of three levels of living. We had the 
 poorest family in Cherry Valley, the most prosperous one in 
 Polish Row, and the family of a very well known Pittsburgh 
 attorney, and two or three between. I spent my holiday 
 vacation in Middletown analyzing my samples of bread and 
 getting my data for the dietary studies in shape. 
 
 "By the end of 1897 I had decided that I was not going 
 to teach in a woman's college any longer. The life seemed 
 to be abnormal, so I severed my connection with the college 
 and decided to take a year of study. I arranged to study 
 with Dr. Morley in Western Reserve and took my organic 
 chemistry under that wonderful man. Then I felt better 
 ready for my food work and decided at the middle of the 
 year that I would go to Tech [Massachusetts Institute of 
 Technology] and work with Mrs. Richards, to whom Pro- 
 fessor Putnam had introduced me in the summer I was 
 at Harvard. 
 
 "I ought to say before I close this chapter that when I 
 was ready to leave that first summer I asked Professor 
 Atwater about my expenses for tuition, chemicals, etc., and 
 he said, 'Nothing!' He said that when he had come back 
 from Europe, keen to do something in the analysis of foods, 
 the man who was then at the head of the United States 
 Fisheries Department had given him his chance to work 
 and he was passing that chance on to me. Also, Mrs. Richards 
 had written me that I could have my tuition in Tech free 
 and work with her in air, water, and food. I took sanitary 
 chemistry with her, sanitary biology and sanitary science 
 with Dr. Sedgwick, and Mrs. Richards had me do special 
 work with a sugar man. So I really had a very good chance 
 in Tech. 
 
 "In May Professor Atwater wrote and asked me to go to 
 
 21 
 
Hampton to make dietary studies among the Negroes. I was 
 quite appalled at the job and wrote him so, but when I 
 spoke to Mrs. Richards she said, 'Why, of course you will 
 go. You cannot afford professionally not to. Professor Atwater 
 has asked you and it is a great chance/ I heard nothing more 
 from Professor Atwater until a telegram came, asking me to 
 meet him at Youngs Hotel to make arrangements to go to 
 Hampton. 
 
 "So I say I went to Pennsylvania College because my 
 roommate wanted me to; I went to Harvard and to Professor 
 Atwater because Professor Smith told me to; and I went to 
 Hampton because Mrs. Richards and Professor Atwater 
 told me to. 
 
 "Then the summer passed and I had not been recom- 
 mended for any job that I wanted. The agencies got me jobs 
 to teach zoology. While I had taught that in elementary 
 classes among the numerous ones I taught in Pennsylvania 
 College, I knew I did not know how to teach it, so I 
 decided to go back to Mrs. Richards and work and read, 
 for I had not had time to do the reading I wanted. This 
 account will perhaps help to explain why I have inscribed 
 under the photographs of Dr. Smith, Professor Putnam, 
 Professor Atwater, Dr. True, and Mrs. Richards, 'My bounti- 
 ful benefactors.' 
 
 "Professor Canfield of Ohio State had written asking me 
 if I would start a department of household science or some- 
 thing of the kind at Ohio State. I wrote him that if he was 
 willing to begin in a small way until we could find out what 
 we really could do and wanted to do, I would be glad to 
 do it; but if he wanted a large and spectacular work in the 
 beginning, I should not undertake it. He wrote back that by 
 my own confession I was not prepared. Then I had a good 
 
 22 
 
blowing up from Professor Smith, and he said that the next 
 time he got me a job he wanted me to take it. So I decided 
 to go back to Mrs. Richards and her laboratory. 
 
 "While I was there and she was on a western trip, I 
 developed a course which I named 'chemistry, with applica- 
 tions to food and physiology/ and took it over to Professor 
 Sedgwick and asked him if he would tell me what he thought 
 of it. I said I was ashamed of the name because it was such 
 a long one, but that was what I meant. He said he would not 
 worry about the length of it if that was what I expected to do. 
 
 "When Mrs. Richards came back, I showed her my 
 course and she said, 'Why, you seem to be all ready, and 
 Lake Erie College at Painesville wants a professor of chem- 
 istry with such applications as you have/ So I went to Lake 
 Erie College. I confess it was a terrible disappointment to 
 go into a woman's college again, but I went there in Novem- 
 ber as professor of chemistry. I really never had such a 
 good chance to work for myself because there were few 
 students in general chemistry and I had time to work on my 
 applications and develop my ideas. 
 
 "The next year they wished me to plan the menus for 
 the college, give a new course in chemistry and the general 
 one — that is, all the work in chemistry — and have charge 
 of the course in sanitation. Miss Elizabeth Sprague was 
 secured to come as my assistant. So we planned the meals 
 for the hundred and fifteen, and oversaw the domestic ar- 
 rangements—they had a modified Mt. Holyoke plan with 
 one Negro cook, one English woman to bake, two women 
 to wash the tins, and the girls to do the rest. It was a 
 marvelous experience. 
 
 "A plague of typhoid fever in some way came upon us. 
 I spent the month of November at home having what the 
 
doctor called malaria fever, the only real sickness I ever had 
 in my life. They extended the Christmas vacation through 
 December, and in January we went back and began again. 
 Meanwhile the manager had proved inefficient, and Miss 
 Sprague and I thought we would run it ourselves. We went 
 through January and made our famous dietary study by 
 weighing every morsel of food and waste for that family of 
 a hundred and fifteen for ten days. Then in February Miss 
 Sprague fell ill. We had to plan the menus a month in 
 advance because the meat which the college used came 
 from Cleveland and was kept in storage in Painesville. 
 
 "Finally, the last of February I took Miss Sprague to 
 Cleveland and put her on the train for her home in Cin- 
 cinnati. Only I was left of that noble force of three to teach 
 chemistry, sanitation, and run the domestic arrangements. 
 
 'In the Easter vacation there came word from President 
 Draper that I was to come to Illinois for an interview. Miss 
 Sprague and I had already agreed that we would not stay 
 another year at Painesville and had handed in our resig- 
 nations. I came, I saw you and President Draper, and was 
 conquered and decided to try out my ideas in the University 
 of Illinois. 
 
 "Will you pardon this long chapter and return it to me 
 when you have finished, because I shall never want to tell 
 it over again." 
 
 The conference with President Draper resulted in Isabel 
 Bevier's allying her interests with, to quote Dean Daven- 
 port, "those of the most rapidly developing university of the 
 western continent." 
 
 "With this engagement," continues Davenport, "the 
 period of preparation may be considered as closed and the 
 real life work begun. . . . What was it," he asks, "that led 
 
 24 
 
or drove this farm girl along her zigzag course of prepara- 
 tion? Preparation for what? Nobody could have answered 
 the question then, much less she herself. She belongs to a 
 worthy company of pioneers. She worked with pioneers of 
 science, not content to follow beaten trails along the margins 
 of a goodly prospect, but intent upon exploration for them- 
 selves. So she caught the spirit of the trail maker, and it led 
 her all the way, a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire 
 by night/ " 
 
 How well Isabel Bevier's ideas were succeeding by the 
 time she had been a faculty member for six years is indicated 
 in a letter written by President Draper of Illinois to Dean 
 Liberty Hyde Bailey of Cornell University in response to his 
 inquiry about her. President Draper wrote: 
 
 President A. S. Draper's Statement 
 
 "I know Miss Isabel Bevier and her work very thoroughly, 
 for I first found her trying to develop a department of 
 household science, or home economics, at Lake Erie College, 
 Painesville, Ohio, and brought her to the University of 
 Illinois for the first serious effort to establish such work on 
 a university grade that has really been made in the country. 
 
 "At the time of her appointment at Illinois I felt far 
 from certain about her strength, though not about her char- 
 acter or culture and accomplishments, and I was somewhat 
 skeptical as to whether such a department could be estab- 
 lished in a university so as to make it really worth the time 
 and cost. With very many obstacles in her way, Miss Bevier 
 steadily pushed her work to success and in time ac- 
 complished precisely what I desired. 
 
 "What I wished was a university department which 
 would command the respect of other university departments 
 
 25 
 
and at the same time make an impression upon the home 
 life of the people, particularly in the farming districts. I 
 wanted a department which was really scientific and knew 
 what it was talking about and could attract students to the 
 fundamental principles upon which the comfort and health- 
 fulness and attractiveness of the home must rest. I cared 
 little about fanciful or spectacular demonstrations in cooking 
 or dressmaking, but a great deal about women being edu- 
 cated so that they would have sound judgment and con- 
 siderable resourcefulness in determining what a good home 
 needs and how to get it. 
 
 "I told Miss Bevier at the beginning that I should not 
 expect her to travel a great deal for the purpose of enter- 
 taining people, but that I should expect her to command 
 the interest of students upon such subjects as domestic 
 architecture, and particularly the interior architectural con- 
 struction of the house, its sanitation, its utility and its 
 attractiveness; the chemistry of foods and their adaptation 
 to the different needs of the members of the family; the 
 uses of clothing, its material, its manufacture and its suit- 
 ability to the differing conditions in life; as well as all the 
 other things which enter into good homemaking, the compe- 
 tent management of the household and the health and 
 happiness of all in the house. 
 
 "I told her that I should not care to have her engage 
 in any work which was not based upon a sound scientific 
 principle; that while it would be desirable for her to 
 elucidate these things now and then before a public audi- 
 ence, it was to be distinctly understood that her main work 
 would be in her laboratories and lecture room, and would 
 be judged by the measure of University respect which she 
 was able to gain for it. 
 
 26 
 
"I have been a little particular in indicating what I had 
 in mind concerning the development of a department of 
 household economics. 
 
 "Miss Bevier succeeded beyond my expectations in 
 accomplishing the things which I wanted. If your ideals 
 are substantially the same, she can do it at Cornell more 
 surely than any other woman in the country. . . . 
 
 "The department of household economics, as you doubt- 
 less know, has just been splendidly housed in the new 
 Woman's Building at the University of Illinois, and every- 
 thing promises a still larger measure of accomplishment. 
 There are reasons enough why Miss Bevier should remain 
 here; many a university has tried to get her away and been 
 unsuccessful. . . . 
 
 "It occurs to me that I have not stated the essential 
 traits of Miss Bevier's personal and professional character. 
 She is a woman of sound and sane religious life, she has 
 marked dignity of bearing, is attractive in person, has passed 
 through very deep sorrows, but is gifted with a sunny 
 temperament which always stands her well in hand. She is 
 thoroughly quick-witted and has a sense of humor which 
 gives her ready welcome to every social circle. 
 
 "She is scientifically educated, with chemistry as her 
 major work. She has the scientific habit and method which 
 lead her to go into things with an analytical mind and to 
 rest plans upon a foundation which will stand. She writes 
 very well and appears to good advantage at public gather- 
 ings. She is singularly successful in avoiding embarrassing 
 situations in a work which has to deal with people who are 
 both inquisitive and sensitive and which is fraught with 
 many pitfalls. 
 
 "She has had very considerable experience since her 
 
graduation from college, as she has worked with Professor 
 Atwater and the United States Department of Agriculture, 
 with several years of teaching at Lake Erie College, and 
 the charge of the first university department of household 
 economics which had developed to anything like a uni- 
 versity success. 
 
 "With considerable familiarity with the whole subject, 
 I am bound to say that if there is any other woman in the 
 country who approaches Miss Bevier as a builder and leader 
 of such work I have never heard of her." 
 
 Such was her president's estimate of Isabel Bevier in 
 1906. 
 
 28 
 
Chapter II 
 
 At the University of Illinois 
 
 In 1934 at the request of Director P. L. Windsor of the 
 University of Illinois library, Isabel Bevier prepared a 
 detailed history of her twenty-one years as department head 
 and six years as vice-director of home economics extension, 
 to be filed in the archives. The greater part of this chapter is 
 drawn from this narrative. 
 
 First Impressions of a New "Home" 
 
 "I shall never forget my first impressions of Champaign 
 that April day when I arrived to be looked over. I was the 
 guest of President Draper, and after luncheon he took me 
 for a drive. I thought I had never seen so flat and so muddy 
 a place: no trees, no hills, no boundaries of any kind. This 
 lack of boundaries, physical and mental, the open-minded- 
 ness of the authorities and their willingness to try experi- 
 ments, indeed their desire to do so, opened up a whole new 
 world to me. President Draper and I soon found one 
 common bond, possibly a surprising one, our love of fine 
 horses. I felt almost as if I had been riding with my father. 
 We went to see Dean Davenport in the house out by the 
 
 29 
 
barns, and he and I looked at the new Agricultural Building 
 [Davenport Hall] and talked about farm Me and education 
 for it. I remember I told Dean Davenport I had been reared 
 on a 200-acre farm and felt that I knew much of the life 
 that went on there, but Illinois University seemed to be 
 working on the 800-acre basis. 
 
 "Then I had a conference with that gentleman of the 
 old school, Dr. Burrill, on education and life, both of which 
 he understood so well. By the time these conferences were 
 completed, I was ready to agree to President Draper's 
 statement, 'We don t have much scenery around here, but 
 we do have a good crowd to live with/ 
 
 "There is another vivid memory of that visit. On Sunday 
 afternoon we went to the chapel in University Hall to attend 
 services held in honor of Professor Morrow, Dean Daven- 
 port's predecessor. I recall that Professor Stephen A. Forbes 
 made the principal address and that I thought it good ( as I 
 learned afterward his addresses were sure to be). But my 
 most vivid memory is of the ugliness of the room, its 
 awkward shape and size, and its color, an awful blue. I could 
 not help contrasting it with the beautiful, new, well-propor- 
 tioned and well-furnished chapel in Lake Erie College, from 
 which I had come. 
 
 "I cherish yet that fateful telegram dated April 19, 1900, 
 which reads: 
 
 "TRUSTEES YESTERDAY ELECTED YOU PRO- 
 FESSOR OF HOUSEHOLD SCIENCE AT FIFTEEN 
 HUNDRED DOLLARS PER YEAR AND MISS SPRAGUE 
 AT EIGHT HUNDRED. WILL YOU BOTH ACCEPT? 
 A. S. DRAPER/ 
 
 "I had long before decided that I would not spend my 
 years teaching in any woman's college, although I had 
 
 30 
 
learned much while living in them. But I had never been 
 able to make them seem other than abnormal places of resi- 
 dence for me. My association with my father and three 
 brothers, as well as my training in coeducational colleges, 
 had made me entirely coeducational in all my sympathies. 
 Moreover, these years had given me some rather definite 
 ideas as to what I thought constituted a liberal education 
 for women, and I was pleased to find that I was to have 
 my chance to plan a course that would help me realize my 
 ideals." 
 
 The University of Illinois, in which Isabel decided to try 
 out her ideas, had for some years given attention to the 
 education of women. As early as 1869-70 the catalog an- 
 nounced a "Ladies' Department," going on to say: "The 
 trustees have voted to admit female students as soon as 
 suitable accommodations can be provided. Ladies already 
 attend the lecture courses and early preparations will be 
 made to afford them the full benefits of the Institution." 
 The catalog for 1873-74 included a "School of Domestic 
 Science and Arts," and Dr. J. M. Gregory, Regent (Presi- 
 dent) of the University, recommended to the Board of 
 Trustees "the employment of a lady instructor of the highest 
 attainments and large experience. ... If a lady can be 
 found who can properly open and direct the studies in the 
 School of Domestic Economy her employment will be of 
 double use and value. ... In this connection I wish to 
 repeat the recommendation that at the earliest day prac- 
 ticable you provide fully for a School of Domestic Economy 
 and such other schools as the wants of our female students 
 demand." 
 
 The "lady of high character and culture" specified by 
 Regent Gregory was found in the person of Miss Lou C. 
 
 31 
 
Allen in 1874. She reports that "the school was the outgrowth 
 of a conviction that a rational system for the higher and 
 better education of women must recognize their distinctive 
 duties as women . . . the mothers, housekeepers, and health 
 keepers of the world . . . and furnish instruction which 
 shall fit them to meet these duties . . . enabling them to 
 bring the aids of science and culture to the all-important 
 labors and vocations of womanhood. ... If ignorance is a 
 weakness and a disaster in the places of business where the 
 income is won, it is equally so in the places of living where 
 the income is expended/' 
 
 A glance at the course of study for the bachelor's degree 
 in the School of Domestic Science will reveal her farsighted- 
 ness. In addition to chemistry, physics, designing and draw- 
 ing, British and American authors, German and French 
 classics, political economy, logic, and the history of civiliza- 
 tion, one finds household esthetics, mental science, food and 
 dietetics, and home architecture — the last four subjects 
 almost unheard of in 1875, when this plan appeared in print. 
 
 When Dr. Gregory gave up his work as Regent of the 
 University in 1880, the position of Professor of Domestic 
 Science was also made vacant, for Miss Allen had become 
 Mrs. Gregory! In spite of the promising beginning she had 
 made with the department, the work was allowed to lapse 
 until 1900, when Isabel Bevier arrived to establish a new 
 department with a new name — household science. 
 
 In writing of her years as department head Isabel says: 
 "In 1900 under the presidency of Andrew Sloan Draper, 
 when a new order in agriculture was undertaken by Dean 
 Davenport, the suggestion of the education of women was 
 considered, and steps taken to open a department to repre- 
 sent their interest. By that time President Draper had been 
 
 32 
 
working hard for six years to overcome what he and Gov- 
 ernor Altgeld regarded as the one-sideness of the University. 
 
 New Undertakings 
 
 "Dean Davenport's efforts toward building up the new 
 college of agriculture had borne fruit in many ways. The 
 most tangible evidence was an appropriation for $150,000 
 for a new agricultural building. It takes some imagination to 
 visualize the five buildings on the campus when I arrived — 
 the President's house, University Hall, Chemistry, now the 
 Entomology Building, part of the Natural History Building, 
 and the Engineering Building. The appropriation for 1899 
 was $593,566 and $50,000 interest on endowments. Of these 
 sums, $150,000 for the Agricultural Building and $10,000 
 for a course of domestic economy are of special interest to 
 us. But these statistics give no idea of the atmosphere of the 
 campus. It was literally buzzing with newness, new build- 
 ings, new courses, and new members of the faculty, all of 
 them infused with the spirit of adventure and open-minded- 
 ness toward experimentation. 
 
 "The list of new undertakings that had followed in the 
 wake of President Draper's arrival included the Music 
 Department, Library and Law Schools. The Chicago Schools 
 of Medicine, Dentistry, and Pharmacy came trooping along. 
 In the words of Alice in Wonderland, In my country one 
 must run to keep up.' And into all this newness I came from 
 ten years' experience in teaching chemistry and natural 
 science in women's colleges in Pennsylvania and Ohio and 
 a year's residence in Boston, where I had studied in Massa- 
 chusetts Institute of Technology with Mrs. Ellen S. Richards 
 and Professor W. T. Sedgwick. 
 
 "My enthusiasm for the new chance was checked when 
 
 33 
 
I realized in part the size of the venture that I was to 
 undertake in September, especially since I was conscious 
 of my lack of either experience or training in what was then 
 known as domestic science. To be sure, when I was studying 
 chemistry with Professor Albert W. Smith of Case School of 
 Applied Sciences, he had told me that the place for women 
 in chemistry was in food chemistry, and acting upon his 
 suggestion I had studied food chemistry in Massachusetts 
 Institute of Technology and in Professor W. O. Atwater's 
 laboratory. Also I had made it plain to President Draper 
 and Dean Davenport that fine cooking was not in my 
 repertoire, and both Mrs. Richards and Professor At water 
 had emphasized the fact that my special training had been 
 in the chemistry of foods and nutrition. Indeed, I learned 
 some years later that Professor Atwater had written defin- 
 itely to President Draper that if the department was expected 
 to be organized on cooking-school lines, I had better not 
 be called as I would be a misfit, and President Draper had 
 said to me, 1 don't care if you can cook or not, I will get 
 somebody to do that. I want you to run your department 
 and it will be judged by the results obtained in its labora- 
 tories and classrooms and its success by the measure of 
 University respect obtained for it/ 
 
 Getting Settled 
 
 "I devoted considerable time that summer of 1900 to 
 collecting ideas at the Lake Placid Conference which was 
 then, and for many years, the best source of ideas for this 
 new type of work. On September 1, 1 arrived in Champaign, 
 settled my possessions in two rooms at 802 West Illinois 
 Street and immediately sought conferences with my superior 
 officers. 
 
 34 
 
"President Draper told me to visit the various depart- 
 ments and see what I could find that I wanted to incorporate 
 in the new department. My pedometer showed that for 
 three days I had averaged five miles per day in even the 
 restricted space from the Engineering Building to the top 
 floor of the Natural History Building, where the department 
 was temporarily located. The new Agricultural Building, 
 following the lot of new buildings as I learned afterward, 
 was not ready for occupancy. Each day was an adventure 
 into the great unknown. The liabilities of the department 
 were many. Its assets were chiefly the good will and far- 
 sightedness and the genuine interest of those in authority, 
 assets not to be lightly esteemed. 
 
 "The naming of this new educational child was entrusted 
 by President Draper to Dean Davenport, Vice-President 
 Burrill, and me, and here Dean Davenport's guiding hand 
 appeared. The three of us wanted science as the basis and 
 approach to the subject; but it was Dean Davenport who 
 said, 1 believe there will be some day a science of the 
 household. Let's get ready for it and develop it/ So the child 
 was called 'household science,' and thus due warning was 
 given that neither a cooking school nor a milliner's shop was 
 being opened at the University. Immediate plans had to be 
 made for class instruction. The new laboratory could not be 
 ready before the second semester, but Dr. Burrill said, It 
 has been advertised all over the state that a new department 
 is to be opened, so you must teach something.' That was 
 quite a poser, but I was so anxious not to have the food work 
 begin until the second semester of the first year that I was 
 glad to do anything that would help toward that end. The 
 fact that we could have no laboratory justified our post- 
 poning it. 
 
 35 
 
Many Men Help 
 
 "In my search for ideas and help I went naturally to the 
 Chemistry Department first, because of my experience as a 
 teacher of chemistry, and found Professor A. W. Palmer and 
 Dr. H. S. Grindley most anxious to help. Also Mrs. Richards 
 had told me to go to 'that nice old man in Engineering, Dean 
 Ricker; he is the best of them all/ He was most helpful, and 
 through his influence, as well as that of Professor J. M. 
 White, was established a close connection with the College 
 of Engineering, for many years the only such alliance in the 
 country. That connection enabled us to provide for this 
 wonderful opening course which both Dean Davenport 
 and Vice-President Burrill had said must be given to the 
 freshmen if we wished to build up a strong department. 
 After much thought it was decided that the course formerly 
 given in the College of Engineering, which had included six 
 lectures each on history of architecture, heating, and plumb- 
 ing, should be moved over, revamped and renamed in the 
 Department of Household Science. Professor White came 
 nobly to the rescue, and we opened a course in home archi- 
 tecture and sanitation. I chose that name because I thought 
 we could teach a greater variety of things about the house 
 and the home under that name than under any other, and I 
 wanted the class to begin early to understand that what we 
 were working at under any and all names was the home. 
 
 "Shelter" First 
 
 "The Lake Placid Conference had suggested that the 
 work in home economics should center around food, shelter, 
 and clothing, and I chose to begin with shelter so as to 
 have a tangible basis for the work. In household science 2, 
 as we called home architecture and sanitation, Professor 
 
 36 
 
White taught house planning most skillfully. Other members 
 of the engineering staff gave lectures on heating, plumbing, 
 and lighting, while Dean Ricker gave a course in the history 
 of architecture, and I supplied the woman's point of view 
 about the home. 
 
 "I still think we planned better than we knew when we 
 made that approach to the subject. Almost daily I went to 
 Dean Davenport to recount my successes and failures and 
 to find out what to do next. You who knew his facility in 
 that direction understand that I was never without a job. 
 There was always in Dean Davenport's mind the broader 
 outlook, the ability to see things in their relationship. These 
 qualities made him a wonderful dean for a department 
 looked upon with suspicion. This thing of putting science 
 into the household was not always kindly received. Even 
 the dean of liberal arts, though kindly disposed, had said, 
 'How much credit are you asking for bread making?' and I 
 said, 'Not much, because we are not baking much bread/ 
 It was a source of real satisfaction two years later to have 
 that same dean say to me, 'We are making some changes in 
 the catalog in liberal arts and I would like to include two 
 of your courses, home sanitation and home decoration/ 
 
 A Course Is Planned 
 
 "Dean Davenport always had time to listen, to evaluate, 
 to decide about the time to be spent in courses and the 
 proportion of credit for the whole group. It was decided at 
 the beginning that only about one-quarter of the student's 
 time should be given to household science because of the 
 requirements in science, history, literature and art — all of 
 which we included in our plan for a liberal education for 
 women. A colleague of mine working in Missouri at the 
 
 37 
 
same time once said, 1 don't know as I would like to have 
 a dean that knows as much about home economics as Dean 
 Davenport does. I wouldn't know whether it was his course 
 or mine/ I was never troubled that way. I always knew 
 that it was a composite gathered from many people. 
 
 "Miss Elizabeth Sprague, mentioned in President 
 Draper's telegram, had been too ill to come, so I was left to 
 open the ball. The annals of the University this time furnish 
 the following data: 'March 13, 1900, Department of Do- 
 mestic Science established. September, 1900, Organization of 
 the School of Household Science.' The University catalog of 
 1899-1900 shows architecture, bacteriology, chemistry, eco- 
 nomics, and physiology offered under the caption 'House- 
 hold Economics/ This variety of names shows something of 
 the confusion attending the work. 
 
 First Registration 
 
 "When registration had ended we found that we had 20 
 students and three courses, one on architecture and sanita- 
 tion, for the first semester; the second on selection and 
 preparation of food, and the third on home decoration, for 
 the second semester. Later in the semester we moved into 
 the north wing of the new Agricultural Building and pro- 
 ceeded to plan kitchens and the beginnings of a chemical 
 laboratory. For the one course which I felt really prepared 
 to offer there were no students. I had worked it out when in 
 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and it had been 
 approved by Mrs. Richards and Professor Sedgwick, and I 
 had taught it at Lake Erie College. It was the chemistry of 
 food and nutrition, but no student had sufficient work in 
 either foods or chemistry to take it. 
 
 "I had, however, plenty to do in the course in home 
 
 38 
 
sanitation and in planning the development of the courses 
 listed. Planning the work in foods proved to be a real 
 undertaking. In those days where to begin with food was a 
 great question. Nine land-grant institutions had courses in 
 'domestic economy' in 1900: Iowa State College, Kansas 
 State Agricultural College, South Dakota State College, 
 Oregon State College, the Agricultural College of Utah, 
 Colorado Agricultural College, Michigan State College, Ohio 
 State University, and Montana State College. But, judged 
 by their catalogs, the work seemed to me to be on the 
 cooking-school basis. The courses were listed as cooking 
 and advanced cooking, including salads, which I had 
 thought were made mostly from raw materials. I sought for 
 another classification and finally decided to use the method 
 I was familiar with in the teaching of chemistry — namely, 
 to take the classes of foods and study one class until the 
 student knew something about it. Proteins, fats, and carbo- 
 hydrates were the classes we decided to begin with — protein 
 because of its importance and because it would give us the 
 work with meat in midwinter. Cooking seemed to me so 
 inadequate that after much thought I chose 'selection and 
 preparation of food' for the title of the first semester's work 
 in foods and 'economical use of food' for the second 
 semester's work. 
 
 A "Home" Room — in 1900! 
 
 "For the home-decoration work I begged, bought, and 
 borrowed all manner and kinds of house furnishing materials, 
 from Tiffany vases to six-cent wallpaper, and fitted up a 
 room in the new building to illustrate home furnishings. 
 
 "No day passed that some one or ten people did not 
 appear to see the 'noo buildin',' the 'noo' department, and 
 
 39 
 
the 'noo' woman, or to find out about something. There were 
 distinguished visitors who wished to have explained how 
 cooking could belong in a university. Teaching classes, 
 planning courses, answering the telephone, and receiving 
 visitors kept me busy. 
 
 Operation "Telephone" 
 
 "One morning in the early dawn when I was mapping 
 out my day's work, I said to myself, It is not fair to my 
 class to have all these interruptions by telephone and visitors. 
 I am going to pay no attention to the telephone/ We were 
 only well started in the class work when the telephone 
 began. Remembering my resolution I kept bravely on, as 
 did also the telephone. Finally I gave up and went to my 
 office to answer it and found Dr. Burrill at the other end of 
 the line saying, 'When we get the new building, what do 
 you think we had better call it? Just the Woman's Building 
 or Gregory Hall, or some other name?' Stalling for time I 
 said, 'Oh, I can't decide on such a big question — let me call 
 you later/ and I went back to my class. 
 
 "Ab°ut two minutes later I heard steps on the stairs. 
 Soon Dean Davenport, accompanied by two gentlemen, 
 passed the door with a nod which seemed to say, 'Your 
 office, please/ I went in to be introduced to the noted 
 Irishman, Sir Horace Plunkett, and to Sir William Mc- 
 Donald, the Governor General of Canada. Needless to say, 
 my resolution not to be interrupted faded in the face of such 
 opposition, but Dean Davenport saw that I needed a 
 secretary and he provided one. 
 
 How to Handle Critics 
 
 "Critics came too, among them a superintendent who had 
 two daughters in school and who knew exactly what ought 
 
 40 
 
to be done about woman's education. At the very sight of 
 him I knew something was the matter. One night after a 
 hard day, as I was leaving the building I met him at the 
 head of the stairs and rather surprised him by saying, *Well, 
 I am in a hurry, what is the matter? Let's have it now/ He 
 said, 'What do you mean?' And I said, 'There is always 
 something the matter, and I thought we might as well get 
 it over with/ Not exactly a tactful procedure, I admit. He 
 said, 'Do you know you haven't the word cooking in that 
 catalog once?' I was greatly relieved and said, 'Oh, that is 
 because cooking is not all that we do with food. Some we 
 freeze, some we dry, some we just wash and eat raw. I 
 wanted a chance for a large liberty for my work in food 
 so I said "selection and preparation," which covers much 
 more nearly what I want to do/ 
 
 "Then there was the man fond of horses. I had spent 
 considerable time and thought on fitting up the hall at the 
 head of the stairs so as to make an attractive reception room, 
 and Professor Wells (teacher of art) and I had been com- 
 missioned to go to Chicago to select some pictures and some 
 chairs and a book rack to add to its attractiveness. The 
 pictures were Corot's 'Dance of the Nymphs/ Millet's 'The 
 Gleaners/ and one other of that type. They had been framed, 
 according to the custom then, in rather broad frames. 
 Imagine my surprise to have this man say, 'If you don't look 
 out, the first thing you know you will just have a collection 
 of frames here. Why don't you have a picture of a good 
 horse?' I was amused, but I hesitated a moment and then I 
 said, 'I don't know where I can get a picture of a good horse. 
 Could you get one for me?' He didn't seem so certain that 
 he could produce one. 
 
 "Day by day I was acquiring the idea of what the land- 
 
 41 
 
grant college meant in education: that it belonged to all the 
 people; that the state university was to serve the interest of 
 the state; that what we found out in our laboratories if 
 helpful was to be passed on. This viewpoint was very dif- 
 ferent from what I had been accustomed to. I had been 
 associated with the aristocratic idea of education. No 
 responsibility was undertaken for interpreting the common 
 life and the daily tasks on a scientific basis. So far as women's 
 education was concerned at that time, the idea of working 
 on a scientific basis was a very great contribution from the 
 land-grant college. The cooking schools, with their rule-of- 
 thumb methods, could not get very far; but the scientific 
 explanation for the action and reaction of heat, cold, acids, 
 and alkalis opened up a whole new world. 
 
 Religion in the Land-Grant College 
 
 "Another of my surprises in these early days was the 
 attitude of those in authority toward religion. I came with 
 the idea that land-grant colleges were very godless places 
 and I found each of my superior officers pillars in their 
 respective churches, men not only of high principles but 
 active, outspoken, working Christians, and the student 
 Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., factors in the social and religious 
 life of the student body. In those early days I think the 
 land-grant college did much for the farm boy and girl, not 
 only in broadening their intellectual horizon but in develop- 
 ing their social life. The contacts in classroom, clubs, 
 churches, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. of all the classes and 
 kinds from all the colleges of the University gave the 
 country-bred individual new ideas as to the importance of 
 social gifts, and the town-bred group respect for the sub- 
 stantial qualities of their country cousins. 
 
 42 
 
"A teacher of English, city-bred, said to me, 1 am glad 
 to have the agriculture boys in my classes. They have not 
 read anything and don't know English, but they go to work 
 at it just as they would work at digging ditches. They work 
 intelligently and they soon learn to read discriminately/ A 
 woman who came to my staff from a land-grant institution 
 in the Northwest said, The Illinois home economics girls 
 have a very different social status from what I have been 
 accustomed to. The Illinois girls seem to be in the center 
 of the campus social life. Those I knew were segregated/ 
 
 "All this was what we called inside work, but many con- 
 tacts had to be made on the outside. Dean Davenport had 
 me visit three homes which he called typical Illinois homes. 
 Each was on an eight-hundred-acre farm. To be sure, I 
 learned later that not all the Illinois farms had eight hun- 
 dred acres, but the Raymonds and the Fulkersons whom 
 he selected were leaders in better farming and better living. 
 The Farmers' Institute was already a growing concern, and 
 the women's division, afterward named the Home Science 
 Department, was already at work under the leadership of 
 Mrs. Henry Dunlap, Mrs. Raymond, Mrs. Carter, Mrs. S. 
 Noble King, and others. Through these women, arrange- 
 ments were made for the School for Housekeepers which 
 was held the last two weeks in January and which brought 
 together women for demonstrations and for discussion of 
 the problems of the home. 
 
 "Dean Davenport was interested in having me visit other 
 institutions in which similar work was being conducted. So 
 I went to places as widely separated as McDonald Institute 
 in Canada, the Detroit Manual Training School, the Phila- 
 delphia Museum. I spoke at Farmers' Institutes, at the edu- 
 cational meeting of Canadians at Toronto, and made my 
 
 43 
 
debut at the annual meeting of the Farmers' Institute at 
 Jacksonville, Illinois, in February of my first year. Mrs. 
 Carriel, the daughter of Johnathan B. Turner of land-grant 
 fame, told me years afterward that I turned to her as I sat 
 on the platform trembling and said, If I had known that 
 this kind of thing went with my job, I would never have 
 accepted the position.' 
 
 Household Science Defined 
 
 "The following excerpt from the address given at Jack- 
 sonville will show something of what we were attempting: 
 
 *"We come now to consider the second question, what do you 
 mean by household science? Youmans has said it includes a study of 
 the agents, the material, and the phenomena of the household. We 
 need to pause a moment and repeat the words to appreciate the 
 largeness of the suggestion. The agents, heat, light, food, electricity, 
 cold; the materials, the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water 
 we drink, the houses we live in. Who will complete the list? It is 
 well to remember that principles are universal, while the applications 
 are special and particular. The general laws of heat are as true for 
 the modern range as for the steam engine. The painter, the decorator, 
 and the dyer have a technical interest in color, but the woman who 
 would give beauty and personality to her home by a harmonious 
 blending of color cannot disregard these same principles that govern 
 the technical work. Women have been rather slow to recognize the 
 close relation science sustains to the affairs of the home; and, by some 
 strange oversight, provision has not been made for them to apply 
 science in fields particularly their own. Is there any good reason 
 why the girl should not apply her knowledge of chemistry to bread 
 and of bacteriology to the processes of fermentation? I believe it is 
 our privilege to benefit by the educational experiments conducted 
 on the men. They have tested successively the classical school, the 
 manual training school, the technical school; and our universities 
 stand today because men have found that the widest development, 
 the truest unfolding, of the human spirit was to be accomplished, not 
 
by any on© of the schools, but by the correlation of the best elements 
 of each. 
 
 m 'This brings us directly to our last topic, the position of household 
 science in a state university. I answer: to provide a place and an 
 opportunity for the correlation and application of the arts and sciences 
 to the home. I know of no one place which affords so many oppor- 
 tunities for these applications. Neither do I know of a place more 
 fateful for good or evil in the life of the individual or the nation than 
 the home. As the equipment and advantages of the University greatly 
 exceed those of any single college, so are the opportunities for the 
 household science department greatly multiplied. . . . 
 
 "'The College of Science can reveal to the students some of the 
 mysteries of the laws of life. The College of Liberal Arts can give 
 them a better conception of their own place and work in the world 
 by the study of the history and literature of other peoples and 
 tongues. The eye can be trained to recognize beauty of color and 
 outline, and the hand to express it in constructing and adorning the 
 house beautiful. A wise selection and correlation of work in these 
 various lines, combined with the experienced work of the Household 
 Science Department, affords an unusual opportunity for that symmetri- 
 cal development so greatly to be desired in educational training/ 
 
 "One other outstanding event so far as agriculture and 
 household science were concerned in that first year was the 
 dedication of our new Agricultural Building. With the 
 interest centered in agriculture, we had to put our best foot 
 forward to show our part in the new building: namely, the 
 north wing over the dairy. By that time we had a kitchen, an 
 office, part of a chemistry laboratory, two classrooms, and 
 illustrative material of various kinds. There were many 
 distinguished guests. We were especially interested in Miss 
 Alice M. Ravenhill, who was sent to the United States by 
 the English government to study the work of household 
 science in the United States. Her own work in London had 
 made its approach through hygiene. We found her a most 
 interesting and stimulating woman, and afterward we read 
 
 45 
 
with admiration the report of her visit to the United States 
 because of her understanding of the movement as a whole. 
 "President Draper had said to me, 1 don't care very 
 much about your running around the country for the 
 farmers' institutes. I doubt if you have the time to give to 
 them, but I do feel that you ought to go to the state meet- 
 ings like the Federation of Women's Clubs and the educa- 
 tional meeting at Springfield/ So for ten years I went 
 regularly to represent the University at the meeting of the 
 Federation of Women's Clubs and told them of our plans 
 and our problems. 
 
 Isabel and the Trustees 
 
 "In my early days I wasn't particularly enthusiastic over 
 the women trustees of the University. They seemed not to 
 understand what we were trying to do nor to be very much 
 interested in it. During the first semester Miss Cornelia 
 Simon had been added to the staff, and word had reached 
 us that the trustees were to meet at the University. Miss 
 Simon was much surprised when she said to me, 1 suppose 
 the women trustees will come here first,' and I said, 1 doubt 
 it — they usually go to the cattle barns and don't have time 
 to get here.' I do not wish to seem unappreciative of the 
 women trustees, for after the first few years we spoke the 
 same language and understood each other. 
 
 Extract from Catalog, 1901-1902 
 
 "The following extract from the catalog of 1901-1902 
 tells something of the idea back of the work: 
 
 '"The Household Science Department of the University of 
 Illinois is one of the new departments, being only a little more than 
 a year old. Its position among the departments is somewhat unique 
 
 46 
 
because of the correlation of its work with the offerings of other 
 colleges. The introduction of a Department of Household Science 
 into our colleges and universities is substantial evidence of a change 
 of ideals in education, particularly in the education of women. . . . 
 Social and industrial forces have made themselves felt in the cur- 
 ricula of our colleges and universities. The Household Science 
 Department of the University of Illinois may be said to put the 
 emphasis upon three things: First, a symmetrical education upon a 
 scientific basis. There is no necessity to plead now for the recognition 
 of the claims of science. Its contributions to the sum of human 
 knowledge give it first rank among the benefactors of mankind. The 
 accuracy, thoroughness, and breadth of mental vision which its study 
 justifies are most desirable mental attributes. 
 
 " 'Second, it emphasizes the benefits of applied science for 
 women. This is in a sense a departure from the traditions of the 
 fathers, more particularly from those of the mothers. 
 
 "'Third, the Household Science Department asks for the recog- 
 nition of the home in the education of women, it being the one 
 place to which the energy of most of them is directed. Women are 
 everywhere members of a household; their health, their comfort, and 
 their efficiency oftentimes depend upon a knowledge of household 
 processes and the science which underlies them/ 
 
 "The following data are summarized from the catalog: 
 
 "1900-1901. Miss Bevier and Miss Simon: selection and prepara- 
 tion of food, home sanitation, elementary home decoration, chemistry 
 and nutrition of food, dietetics. 
 
 "1901-1902. Miss Beatty and Miss Bevier: selection and prepara- 
 tion of food, home architecture and sanitation, elementary home 
 decoration, chemistry of food and nutrition, dietetics and household 
 management, economic uses of food, textiles, personal and public 
 hygiene, seminar. 
 
 "The same courses were offered in 1902-03 and in 
 1903-04. In 1904-05 there were ten courses and two graduate 
 courses. The enrollment reads: first year 20, second year 40, 
 third year 60, fourth year 80. 
 
 47 
 
"1903 is the most important date because in that year the 
 Legislature passed the bill appropriating $80,000 for a new 
 woman's building. Much credit for this is due to the persis- 
 tence and wise efforts of Senator and Mrs. Henry Dunlap. 
 
 "The first class was graduated in 1903: Miss Ellen 
 Huntington, Miss Mabel Nelson, and Miss Ruth A. Wardall. 
 That was really a great event, and no less a person than 
 President Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin came to 
 see the Department and asked particularly that he might 
 see what manner of women were seniors. In 1904 there were 
 four graduates, and in 1905, five. 1904 marked our beginning 
 of graduate work with the addition of Miss Susannah Usher. 
 
 1 have given in considerable detail the work of the 
 opening years in order to give a better understanding of the 
 status of household science at the University of Illinois. 
 There were no precedents to follow, many rocks to be 
 avoided, many people to be pleased, but through it all I had 
 the support of those in authority and much satisfaction in 
 developing a new work. It was a real source of regret to me 
 when President Draper left to take up his work as Commis- 
 sioner of Education in New York State. He had been such a 
 tower of strength to me, considerate and helpful in many 
 unexpected ways, so appreciative of the difficulties and of 
 my efforts. 
 
 Moving Into the Woman's Building 
 
 "The growth in number of students of agriculture and 
 household science made necessary a change in location for 
 the Household Science Department. The north wing of the 
 beautiful new Woman's Building was its next home. The 
 appropriation of $80,000 had been increased by $15,000 and 
 on January 26, 1904, the plans of McKim, Meade, and White 
 
 48 
 
of New York were presented and adopted. The plan was 
 U-shaped, 194 feet 8 inches by 83 feet 6 inches, the central 
 section being planned as a women's gymnasium, the north 
 wing for the Household Science Department, and the South 
 wing for social headquarters for women. 
 
 "On October 16, 1905, the dedicatory service took place 
 in the gymnasium of the new building as one of the features 
 of the installation of President Edmund Janes James. The 
 principal speakers were President James and President 
 Lilian W. Johnson of the Western College for Women in 
 Oxford, Ohio. The first classes were held in the new Woman's 
 Building on November 7, 1905. The additional space pro- 
 vided opportunity for much better working conditions, 
 called for new equipment, also provided space for the School 
 for Housekeepers held each January, a group which had 
 grown in numbers from thirty to one hundred seventy-five. 
 Each succeeding year saw additions to the student body as 
 well as to the staff. The demand for speakers at the Farmers' 
 Institute increased. A syllabus was made for the high schools. 
 A woman was added to the staff to help them, and special 
 thought was given to providing for teachers in the summer 
 work. Emphasis was put upon the development of the art 
 side of the work, as told in the following statement issued 
 at that time: 
 
 Advancing in Applied Arts 
 
 "'Perhaps our most noteworthy advance has been along applied 
 arts. Those who have investigated the subjects of textile and domestic 
 art in our colleges and universities realize what a heterogenous 
 collection is included under that title. Much of it judged by educa- 
 tional, economic, or esthetic standards is of little value. Everyone 
 recognizes the desirability of educating women to be intelligent 
 consumers of the commodities that form so large a part of their own 
 
 49 
 
possessions and are so important in furnishing their homes. It has 
 been, however, a work of much time and patience to select from 
 the data offered those elements which ought to form a part of the 
 University courses in textiles, together with those processes of applied 
 art which most directly concern the woman in the home. Miss 
 Charlotte Gibbs has given hours to this problem with skill, and the 
 results of her efforts, as shown in our new course in household art, 
 seem to me most worthy of commendation. In this connection I 
 would like to say that whatever may be done to strengthen the 
 university offerings along the line of art and design will be of great 
 benefit to the work of the Department of Household Science.' 
 
 The New President — Edmund James 
 
 "I had dreaded the change of presidency. President 
 Draper and I had understood each other from the first, and 
 I had always found it easy to talk over my plans with him. 
 A rumor obtained on the campus that President James had 
 the German conception of woman's place and work and 
 was not in sympathy with women in University pursuits. 
 I felt that that attitude would make it difficult for me, 
 especially in the development of new policies. I was obli- 
 gated to consult with the president frequently. However, he 
 seemed businesslike and agreeable and my feelings were 
 relieved. My testing time came very unexpectedly. I had 
 gone over to see President James on a rather minor matter. 
 In the midst of our conversation he turned to me and said 
 in his quick, abrupt way, 'Now, Miss Bevier, you know your 
 groups are not made up of college students. Oh, you may 
 have a few, but most of them are specials and irregulars/ 
 To have this said to me after I had really battled for ten 
 years to have chemistry as a requirement for admission to 
 our work and had offended some of those in high places by 
 my insistence was too much to stand. I answered quickly 
 
 50 
 
and with considerable feeling, ^President James, you are 
 mistaken. Our group is made up of college students. We 
 have very few specials. I can't give you figures now, but I 
 can send them to your office within an hour/ 'All right, get 
 them over here/ was the reply, and I hurried back to my 
 office. The data were collected hastily, and to my joy our 
 proportion of special students was less than that given by 
 the Registrar for the University as a whole. I sent the data 
 and called attention to the fact. 
 
 "I came to have great admiration for President James 
 personally and his manner of doing things. He was some- 
 times abrupt, but you could be too. He would listen to you 
 respectfully and tell you what he thought of the procedure. 
 He was so impersonal. The subject of discussion was either 
 for or against the good of the University and stood or fell 
 by that standard. But you had your chance. If you could 
 give a good reason for your request and there was money 
 available, it was granted. If you had not thought it through 
 carefully it were wiser to stay away until you had. In any 
 case the chapter was closed, with no disagreeable hangover 
 because of a difTerence of opinion. You could do an immense 
 amount of business with him in five minutes if you were 
 ready to answer his question, 'What is on your mind and 
 heart today? - one, two, three/ Then the end, 'All right, go 
 ahead/ and he sent you out of his office with new courage. 
 
 Innovation in Research 
 
 "In 1908 two new ventures were undertaken. So many 
 questions were being asked in the classrooms and over the 
 state about the daily processes and products of the home 
 that the necessity for research work had long been evident. 
 The Department was fortunate in securing the service of 
 
 51 
 
 **«jr' 
 
Miss Nellie E. Goldthwaite, A.M., Ph.D., who had been for 
 several years head of the Department of Chemistry at Mt. 
 Holyoke College and later was research assistant in the 
 Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research. Incidentally, it 
 may be added that Miss Goldthwaite was the first woman 
 secured by a department of Home Economics for research 
 work alone. She did outstanding work, finding the answer 
 to the question what makes jelly jell, and also the solutions 
 to many problems regarding bread. Also she was in charge 
 of the graduate students. 
 
 The Experimental House 
 
 "The second venture was the securing of an experi- 
 mental house. This house, at the corner of Wright and 
 Daniel near the Woman's Building, provided an unusual 
 opportunity for working at the problems of a home. It 
 served as a laboratory for most of the classes. The classes in 
 house planning, furnishing, and decoration derived the most 
 benefit because of the improvements that had to be made. 
 Doors and windows were changed, the kitchen made lighter, 
 and the whole question of furniture and furnishings was 
 studied. Part of the furnishings were bought in Chicago, 
 part were generously lent by local dealers. 
 
 "In addition the house served as a laboratory for the 
 community; as many as 80 visitors came in one day to see 
 not only the furniture, but the new electric equipment. Wide 
 publicity was given to it by visitors and reporters from 
 Chicago and St. Louis. 
 
 "In 1910 I was granted a much-needed leave of absence. 
 I spent part of the month of September in Boston and visited 
 various kinds of schools. On October 1, through the courtesy 
 and generosity of Professor Chittenden and Dr. Mendel of 
 
 52 
 
Yale, I went to Dr. Mendel's laboratory, where for two 
 months I had the privilege of working and of seeing this 
 great teacher at work. Then I moved on to New York City, 
 with Columbia University as my immediate goal. Here again 
 I was given opportunity to visit classes, observe laboratory 
 work, and go on numerous excursions ranging from Camp- 
 bell's soup plant to Tiffany's glass works. It was a real priv- 
 ilege. Later I visited schools in the South - notably Miss 
 Berry's at Rome, Georgia - in Pittsburgh, in Ohio, and in 
 various parts of the Middle West. I improved my oppor- 
 tunity to collect ideas in regard to education. 
 
 Trouble Brews 
 
 "Meanwhile the age-old conflict between the cooking 
 and sewing school adherents and those who believed in the 
 scientific method of approach to the teaching of household 
 science had gone on in the Farmers' Institute circle. 
 
 "My insistence on university standards for entrance had 
 not found favor in all quarters, particularly since the boys 
 were admitted to the College of Agriculture on easier terms. 
 It was no comfort to the dissenters that a representative of 
 the Carnegie Foundation rated the Department of House- 
 hold Science as the only one of college rank in the College 
 of Agriculture. 
 
 "This opposition found expression in a resolution by the 
 household science department of the Farmers' Institute 
 voicing its disapproval of our department. Possibly if I had 
 not been so busy developing the department, speaking at 
 Farmers' Institutes and writing texts to use in the depart- 
 ment, and had had the patience and taken the time to seek 
 the favor of these women, the breach might have been 
 avoided. 
 
 53 
 
"The final straw was my refusal to accept the proposition 
 to work for an appropriation which the insurgents felt 
 certain could be secured if I would agree to an advisory 
 committee of their number to work for me for the depart- 
 ment. I already had as advisers the deans of the three 
 colleges in which the department gave courses and the 
 President of the University. Since those women and I had 
 never spoken the same language and held such opposite 
 ideas about the teaching of household science, I could not 
 expect help from such a committee. I was warned by Dean 
 Davenport if I refused this offer, I must do it at my own 
 risk. I said, 1 take the risk/ 
 
 Asked to Resign 
 
 "Dean Davenport honestly felt that the good of the 
 department would be served by my resignation and wrote 
 urging me to resign. Fortunately for all concerned I was in 
 Columbia as an observer when the letter came. At that 
 distance I could have a better perspective and not trouble 
 my friends at the University. President James and Dean 
 David Kinley were most considerate and helpful, but after 
 all the decision as to my return rested with me. I was assured 
 by them that the way was open for me to return if I wished 
 to do so. After much consideration I decided to ask advice 
 from my good friend, former President Draper. I knew he 
 understood the situation. I had faith in his judgment, and 
 it was a real comfort to have the counsel of so wise a friend. 
 
 An Old Friend's Advice . . . 
 
 "President Draper investigated and found that the 
 opposition was all outside of the University. He said to me, 
 If you leave now you can spend the rest of your life telling 
 
 54 
 
why you left the University of Illinois. Go back and tend 
 strictly to your own business and I think you will be 
 supported/ 
 
 . . . Leads to the Right Choice 
 
 "So in July I returned. President James and Dean Kinley, 
 then Vice-President and Dean of the Graduate School, had 
 through it all given me their cordial support and welcomed 
 me back. In deference to the wishes of the opposition, the 
 experimental house had been given up in my absence, but 
 the enrollment grew. I was warmly welcomed by my col- 
 leagues and by my staff. In the spring of 1911 the General 
 Assembly granted our request for an addition to our Woman's 
 Building in order that we might more adequately serve the 
 needs of the women. I may add that later Dean Davenport 
 came to me and said, 'You were right and I was wrong. I 
 greatly overestimated the strength of the opposition/ So 
 there was restored the old working relations, and the friend- 
 ship of many years was strengthened. 
 
 Pillars or "Pile-ons"? 
 
 "Time went quickly, the enrollment of the University 
 grew rapidly. We had hardly adjusted ourselves to the new 
 Woman's Building, it seemed, before we discovered it was 
 too small and plans for enlarging it were considered. Some 
 of us were very loath to see our beautiful colonial architec- 
 ture spoiled, much as we wished the space for development. 
 We were fearful that the state architect would not be careful 
 about architectural harmony. I remember very distinctly a 
 conference with President James in which I objected to the 
 pillars at the front entrance. Tor heavens sake, don't call 
 them pillars/ said President James. 'The state architect nearly 
 
 55 
 
had a fit when the trustees called them pillars/ 'What are 
 they?' I asked. 'Pylons/ 'Never anything better named/ I 
 said. 'The whole addition is a pile on/ 
 
 Additions of All Kinds 
 
 "By dint of much labor and thought on the part of 
 Supervising Architect James M. White, an addition two hun- 
 dred feet in length and forty feet in width was made to 
 the front of the building. The catalog spoke of the new 
 addition as three stories high 'in a free, modern, colonial 
 style with an additional two-story colonnade between the 
 main entrance/ and pylons were forgotten. 
 
 "The main divisions of work in the new building as a 
 whole were maintained. Household science still kept the 
 north wing; physical education, the center; the office of the 
 Dean of Women, and the rest rooms for students, and the 
 upper parlors for social events were in the south wing. For 
 household science a new kitchen and dining room were 
 added in the basement. On the second floor a diet kitchen 
 and a room for electrical equipment were enlarged from 
 what already existed. But the great gain for household 
 science came in two outstanding new undertakings: a 
 cafeteria and a practice apartment. The former provided 
 opportunity for training in institutional work with food, 
 while the practice apartment was an evolution of the former 
 experimental house. The cafeteria served the college com- 
 munity and set standards in food. In the apartment the 
 individual student investigated some of the problems of the 
 home, serving as cook for a group of six one week and in 
 succeeding weeks taking on other tasks as her share in the 
 division of labor. 
 
 "The informal opening of the new addition on April 25, 
 
 56 
 
1913, was marked by a luncheon for members of the Uni- 
 versity Senate served in the new cafeteria. 
 
 "The work of my department seemed to me always a 
 series of new undertakings and for that reason interesting. 
 A change of location had occurred every five years, with all 
 the attendant opportunities for improvement. While the 
 front was being added to the Woman's Building, it was my 
 daily practice to look over the building to prevent some 
 wrong move by plumbers, carpenters, or painters. One day 
 when there had been no moment to leave my office until 
 almost six, I said to myself, 1 have not gone over the build- 
 ing, but I will let it go now until morning and begin with 
 that walk/ Imagine my dismay at finding nine doors finished 
 in the wrong color. The supervising architect's office, the 
 painter, and the committee on color had to be called and 
 some quick work done. 
 
 "Again it had taken a good deal of pressure on my part 
 to get the practice apartment made out of the third-floor 
 waste space. President James said, 'You wont like it when 
 you get it/ 'Why wont I?' I said. 'Because the windows 
 will have to be in the corners and the whole space is a 
 queer shape/ I said, 'There is much more space in it than 
 some Chicago families live in. I think it is the business of 
 the architect to make a livable apartment out of that much 
 space/ And we were all rather proud of the attractive five- 
 room-and-bath apartment that was made and abides to this 
 day [1934] in active use. Moreover, and still more strange, 
 some of the furnishings bought in 1908 for the experimental 
 house are in use in the practice apartment in 1934. 
 
 "The Things That Are Fixed Are Dead" 
 
 "Just as all seemed to be going well with the apartment, 
 
 57 
 
a call came from the President's office. When I arrived, 
 President James said, 'You can't have that pantry up there 
 with all those wooden shelves. That is supposed to be a 
 fireproof building/ I said, 'There are a good many places 
 that will burn before fire reaches to the third floor/ So 
 though everybody really wished to be helpful, it was not 
 easy to make plans and to watch over carpenters, plumbers, 
 and painters. I learned to count it as part of the day's work, 
 but in the beginning it disturbed me a great deal and I said 
 once to Mrs. Richards, If only we could get a few things 
 fixed and have them stay fixed/ Mrs. Richards' reply I have 
 many times recalled, 'My child, the things that are fixed 
 are dead/ 
 
 "Along with this newness went always my effort to 
 unify the teaching and to keep the balance among the 
 varying demands, in order not to put too much emphasis 
 upon the chemistry of food and forget to teach how to pre- 
 pare really good food. The development of the art side 
 must be looked after as well as the growing tendency for 
 a better understanding of the economic phases. We found 
 it very difficult to find a woman trained in economics who 
 knew home economics and could relate the two fields prop- 
 erly. Emphasis was being placed upon home and family 
 life and the rights of the children by the formation of the 
 government's Children's Bureau. The question of a child 
 in the practice house had to be considered. 
 
 "A step that touched household science most closely was 
 the passage of the Smith-Lever Act* in 1914. The hap- 
 hazard, politically dominated work of the Farmers' Insti- 
 tute, well-intentioned but uneducational, was over. Their 
 misguided efforts were to be transferred to non-political 
 organizations, directed by men and women trained in edu- 
 
 58 
 
cational methods. Not that the Farmers' Institute must be 
 done away with, but that much of its work would be done 
 by government organizations and on a very different basis. 
 I have no intention of discrediting the work done by men 
 and women in Illinois under Farmers' Institute organiza- 
 tion. They made ready the soil and many of them gave 
 excellent service, but in the very nature of things the move- 
 ment was bound to grow into something bigger and better. 
 
 Extension Work Begins 
 
 "The first effect upon our department was the addition 
 of a woman to serve as our extension worker throughout 
 the state. Miss Mamie Bunch, a graduate of our depart- 
 ment, who had formerly been a county superintendent of 
 schools, was chosen for this position and did valiant service 
 in the new work. Miss Bunch and I had many conferences 
 about the method of organization for this new enterprise. 
 We had seen how the women had been handicapped in 
 their efforts for leadership as a department of the Farmers' 
 Institute. Little opportunity was given for them to take the 
 initiative. The most of the plans were made and executed 
 by the men. In those days, women were very timid, afraid 
 of the sound of their own voice in a public audience. They 
 found difficulty in seconding a motion to say nothing of 
 the fear and labor of putting one. 
 
 "Miss Bunch and I felt strongly that a special organiza- 
 tion manned' by women and managed entirely by them 
 might move more slowly but it would offer much better 
 
 •This act made provision for "cooperative agricultural extension 
 work which shall consist of giving instruction and practical demon- 
 strations in agriculture and home economics to persons not attending 
 nor resident in the agricultural college." It is here that the term 
 home economics appears for the first time in federal legislation. 
 
 59 
 
opportunity for women to state their plans and work for 
 their women's meetings, and in so doing develop themselves. 
 We were helped in a very unexpected way in carrying out 
 this decision. The women of Kankakee county wished to 
 organize. They said very frankly they were not willing to be 
 a part of the farm bureau organization; that it was quite 
 impossible for them to work with the man who was then 
 county agent because of his attitude, that while he pre- 
 tended to favor their organization, in reality he was secretly 
 working against them because he was jealous of their 
 possible power. 
 
 "Then we were ready to talk to Dean Davenport and with 
 Mr. Walter Handschin, who was in direct charge of the 
 mens extension work, as I was of the women's, both under 
 Dean Davenport. I have recalled many times the long con- 
 ference Dean Mann of Cornell, Mr. Handschin, Miss Bunch, 
 and I had about the organization question. As a result, Miss 
 Eva Bennefield, one of our graduates, began work as home 
 adviser in Kankakee county in the new organization of 
 women in October, 1914, and so headed for Illinois that 
 long procession of women home advisers who have worked 
 so well with such steadfast courage and unselfish devotion 
 in the cause of home betterment. It was a real satisfaction 
 to me to have Mr. Handschin say about a year later, 1 was 
 not at all certain about your plan of organization, but I 
 have watched it. I am for it.' The years have proved that 
 the Kankakee women did well for their kind, and the Illinois 
 plan is recognized as superior to the form of organization in 
 many other states. I have sometimes wondered whether the 
 resemblance between the New York and Illinois plans was 
 not born in, or very closely associated with, that conference 
 with Director Mann. 
 
 60 
 
Smith-Hughes Act, 1917 
 
 "Extension work on the new foundation was only fairly 
 started when another responsibility was added to our de- 
 partment by the passage of the Smith-Hughes Act in 
 February 1917. Smith-Lever had to do with the field outside, 
 but Smith-Hughes affected the work on the inside, par- 
 ticularly in the training of teachers of vocational education. 
 For us that meant the training of teachers in home economics. 
 
 "The purpose of this act was to promote vocational edu- 
 cation in agriculture, home economics, trades, and industry, 
 and to provide for the training of teachers in these subjects. 
 Home economics education was defined as that form of 
 vocational education which has for its purpose the prepara- 
 tion of girls and women for useful employment as home- 
 makers engaged in the management of the home. As a 
 result of these two acts, Smith-Lever and Smith-Hughes, 
 and in order to avoid confusion in terms, the name of our 
 department was changed from that of household science to 
 home economics. 
 
 World War I 
 
 "In 1917 the Department of Home Economics had to 
 meet another emergency. The war clouds which had dark- 
 ened the lands across the sea grew more threatening. The 
 United States planned to enter, and the call to arms for 
 men by President Wilson was quickly followed by a call to 
 the men and women of the country to serve in the first line 
 of defense at home. The University aided the work in every 
 way possible. The newly finished residence hall for women 
 was converted into a barracks for the prospective soldiers. 
 It was suggested that the Woman's Building might be 
 needed for that service. 
 
 61 
 
"Because of the importance of food to the soldier and 
 private citizen as well, agriculture and home economics 
 worked together to meet the nation's needs. Women trained 
 in home economics demonstrated at home the conservation 
 of food by the use of substitutes; while in the hospitals 
 abroad they worked against fearful odds to give food to the 
 soldiers. At least three of our staff went abroad, Miss Ada 
 Hunt and Miss Mary DeGarmo as dietitians and Miss Fannie 
 Brooks as nurse, while many of our girls served in the base 
 hospitals on this side. 
 
 "The Food Administrator called women into service from 
 Washington to the remotest country hamlets. In common 
 with most of the heads of departments of home economics 
 in state universities, I was made chairman of the committee 
 for the conservation of food in the Council of National 
 Defense in Illinois, and in addition I served in the office of 
 the Food Administrator in Washington for the months of 
 November and December, 1917. 
 
 "Meanwhile the new extension service was greatly in- 
 creased by workers called in to demonstrate throughout the 
 state how to save wheat and meats. The Home Economics 
 Department offered, in connection with the Animal Hus- 
 bandry Department, a course on the selection and prepa- 
 ration of cuts of meat. A home-nursing course in charge 
 of a regular trained nurse was another of the offerings of 
 the department. Conservation leaflets on ways to save wheat 
 and meat by the use of substitutes were written by members 
 of the department. The departments of home economics in 
 Milliken, Chicago, and the University of Illinois cooperated 
 in a great food show in the Coliseum in Chicago. Home 
 economists the country over met this emergency well and 
 proved that they had a knowledge of food and could and 
 
 62 
 
did render a real service. By the end of the war home eco- 
 nomics had earned growing respect from the public. 
 
 It was Isabel's custom to write an annual letter to the 
 alumnae of her department. The following gives an idea 
 of the content and spirit of these letters. 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 
 Department of Household Science 
 
 Urbana, Illinois 
 
 [sabel Bevier, Director 
 
 Tora E. Gray, Household Management. 
 
 Suth Wheeler, Nutrition 
 
 Vlaud E. Parsons, Lunch Room Manage. 
 
 Georgia E. Fleming, Clothing 
 
 ,,orene Seymour, Textiles 
 
 Horence Harrison, Practice Teaching 
 
 tona W. Williams, Household Manage. 
 
 ,eona Hope, Costume Design 
 
 ,orinda Perry, Economics 
 
 /lary C. DeGarmo, Dietetics 
 
 ..ucile Wheeler, Foods. 
 
 Dear Household Science Girls, 
 
 Jean G. MacKinnon, Foods 
 Marie E. Freeman, Lunch Room 
 Viola J. Anderson, Foods. 
 Bessie E. Packard, Office Assistant 
 
 EXTENSION 
 Mamie Bunch, State Leader 
 Olive B. Percival, Demonstration Car 
 Fannie M. Brooks, Home Nursing 
 Naomi O. Newburn, Assistant 
 Anne I. Green, Assistant 
 Floyd E. Fogle, Demonstration Car 
 
 April 30, 1917 
 
 It occurred to me that I might follow the example of the multi- 
 tude and depart from the custom of sending the annual letter and 
 offer as an excuse that I had gone to war. On the other hand, we 
 have made considerable effort to remind people that they could best 
 serve their country by doing their daily tasks until some other was 
 thrust upon them, so I am sending the letter. 
 
 It has been an unusual year for us all, I am sure. The whole 
 world seems going somewhere though we do not know where. Our 
 girls, it seems to me, have been much less hysterical than our boys. 
 Many of the latter have departed, part of them to farm in Canada 
 or South Dakota or some other place. I believe it is the verdict of 
 the authorities that three-fourths of them are really serving their 
 families or their nation, and about one-fourth are slackers. Doubt- 
 less you know of Dean Davenport's scheme for mobilizing the food 
 resources. His plan has found very general acceptance. Dean Kin- 
 ley spent a week in Washington, taking with him the bill and stay- 
 ing until he was satisfied that Medill McCormick was to introduce 
 it, so Illinois is really in it. 
 
 The University is offering hospital service as outlined in the Red 
 
 63 
 
Cross requirements, though the scheme has not yet been accepted 
 by the Red Cross. One hundred and forty-one girls are registered 
 in it, about four-fifths of them taking the three courses, First Aid, 
 Home Nursing, and Surgical Supplies and about thirty taking in 
 addition the courses in Dietetics and Field Problems. Fannie Brooks 
 is working at it from seven in the morning until nine at night, and 
 Miss Ruth Wheeler and Miss DeGarmo are giving the Dietetics. I 
 believe I am to contribute words on the planning of meals, this being 
 in the Field Work course. 
 
 I think the Department has seemed somewhat phlegmatic because 
 we have neither thundered nor lightninged, but we have done con- 
 siderable in the way of getting word to the papers as to what to 
 do with asparagus and rhubarb, and the Extension Division is to fol- 
 low it up as other fruits and vegetables appear. The regulars are to 
 publish meals and menus giving calorific value and actual meals 
 eaten in the apartment or in the cafeteria. 
 
 It seemed for a time as though one could not walk the streets 
 without being held up for something. The University faculty raised 
 $6000 for Belgian relief, and the students, something like $3500, 
 which amount was duplicated by a Chicago friend, so that about 
 $13000 was raised altogether. At present we are equipping an 
 ambulance corps to go to France, so you see several things are 
 doing. 
 
 Our six new women proved to be treasures and have risen up 
 to their jobs very satisfactorily. Since they came from Kansas, 
 Minnesota, Simmons, Georgia, and Illinois, it did mean some effort 
 on their part, and I appreciate greatly the way in which they have 
 met the situation. 
 
 We are quite happy over the new course which is to be offered 
 in Interior Decoration. Professor Provine of the Department of 
 Architecture is the one who has really pushed it, and contributes 
 of his men for the larger part of the work in the first two years. Miss 
 Hope does a large part of the work in the second two years, with 
 Miss Fleming working in Household Science 2. It is a union of the 
 art side of our work with the courses in architecture, freehand draw- 
 ing, and landscape design, so that it does make a very good con- 
 nection between engineering and agriculture. 
 
 Omicron Nu and Household Science Club rose up to their privi- 
 leges and made eighty-five dollars to contribute to the Richards 
 Memorial Fund. 
 
 Doubtless all of you are interested in knowing about the celebra- 
 tion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the University. 
 I believe the dates are October 17, 18 and 19, 1918. It seems likely 
 that there will be a great gathering of the clans at that time. The 
 committees have been at work for some time. I am wondering if 
 Household Science ought not to have some special hour even though 
 it could not be either a silver wedding or a crystal one. 
 
 On behalf of Miss Packard, (Miss Bevier's secretary) I am saying 
 that it would help her greatly in keeping the records and getting 
 
 64 
 
the annual letter to you if you would keep us better informed in 
 regard to changes in your occupation, address, and name. Of course, 
 changes in name are of special interest. 
 
 With cordial good wishes for each and every one, 
 
 Sincerely 
 
 "When the armistice had been signed and the various 
 home economics workers returned to their work, they found 
 some inevitable effects of the war, upon themselves and 
 upon their work. They were very tired, but in the experi- 
 ence they had acquired a wider vision of the world's needs. 
 Progress had stopped within the department because the 
 workers had been called from classrooms and laboratories. 
 Research had been abandoned for the same reason. Mean- 
 while there was an awakening of interest — people were ask- 
 ing many questions about food. The war experience had 
 taught the layman the close relationship between food and 
 health. Questions of all sorts about processes and products 
 of several kinds cried aloud for research. The National Re- 
 search Council gave home economics a place in its delibera- 
 tions, and I was made a member of a subcommittee of the 
 council on food and nutrition. Another result of the war was 
 the opening of new lines of work for women trained in home 
 economics. Dietitians were asked for, not only by hospitals 
 but also by hotels. The banks wanted women trained in 
 home economics to help their clients in thrift programs 
 aimed at wise choice of foods. 
 
 "In 1918 another emergency came to the department. A 
 flu epidemic broke out in the University. One morning I 
 met G. Huff on the street and he said to me, 'Miss Bevier, 
 the boys are dying like flies/ All the hospital resources were 
 overtaxed. That afternoon Mr. Huff and Dean T. A. Clark 
 appeared in the Woman's Building to ask that the Woman's 
 gym be used as a hospital for women. I was somewhat 
 
 65 
 
appalled by this undertaking because being such a well per- 
 son I had never been a patient in any hospital and knew 
 very little about them, but I said we would do what we 
 could. All the women on the University staff responded 
 most generously in support of the project. By night three 
 patients arrived. Nurses were called from Danville to take 
 care of them because the local supply was exhausted. Some 
 of the staff attended to the sterilization of dishes; others 
 who had nursing experience offered their services to care 
 for the patients. Fortunately no one died, although I never 
 saw such a fight for life as one nurse put up with a patient. 
 At ten o'clock I said to the nurse, 'That woman is dying — 
 her face shows it now.' 'Oh, I know it/ the nurse said, but 
 for four hours she waged her battle and at 2 a.m. we could 
 see a decided change. She turned to me and said, 'You can 
 go home. She wont die tonight,' and I went with unbounded 
 admiration for that nurse as a life saver. 
 
 Resignation, 1921 
 
 "By 1920 I saw very clearly the need for a new building 
 for home economics. I felt that I did not want to go through 
 all the work of planning and overseeing it and by the time 
 it was completed leave it to my successor who might not 
 approve of my plans. Moreover, President James* health 
 had failed and he was going. Dean Davenport was approach- 
 ing the retiring age. Life looked very difficult for me, and 
 I was physically very much exhausted. It seemed wiser in 
 the interest of the department and my own health to resign 
 and I did against the protest of many people. At the urgent 
 request of both Dean Davenport and President Kinley, I 
 agreed to take a leave of absence from June to October and 
 return with the understanding that with no more words I 
 
 66 
 
would be allowed to leave in June of 1921, which I did." 
 It was characteristic of Isabel Bevier that when she felt 
 she had built an enduring institution and guided it through 
 the most vigorous years of her life she was willing to leave 
 it to others for future development. 
 
 In the words of Dean Davenport, "She put her life, her 
 strength, and her all into her work and her 'girls/ After 
 twenty years she was weary, and against the wishes of all 
 of us she laid down the work for a much needed rest/' 
 
 One ceremony marked her resignation: that was the for- 
 mal presentation of her portrait to the University. The high 
 esteem in which Miss Bevier and her work were held on her 
 own campus is shown in the following excerpts from the 
 address given at this time by Dean Davenport on home 
 economics at Illinois: 
 
 Dean Davenport's Farewell 
 
 "Whatever the name [household science or home eco- 
 nomics] the subject matter of study covers these three great 
 fundamentals of civilized society — food, clothing, and shel- 
 ter. Chemistry having been a leading science in this field, 
 as in agriculture, it was quite necessary to employ this great 
 science in the earliest stages of exploration; but it became 
 more and more evident that not only chemistry but physics 
 and physiology lay at the bottom of the food question, if 
 not also of clothing. Later on, the subject of expending 
 family income began to bulk large in the study and teach- 
 ing of this subject. Finally, this department has never for 
 a moment forgotten the fact that all these subjects are dis- 
 tinctly humanistic and involve to an exceptional degree that 
 quality known as the human equation. 
 
 "From the very first the department has been keenly 
 
conscious of its objective. It has constantly kept in mind 
 the thought of human beings in the home relation, and its 
 great purpose has always been to improve the home, either 
 directly through the training of housekeepers or indirectly 
 through the training of teachers. 
 
 "It is my abiding opinion that this fact lies very close 
 to the foundation of the remarkable success that has attended 
 the career of Professor Bevier in the University of Illinois. 
 The one purpose always in mind as the final goal of all that 
 might be said and done and taught was nothing less than 
 the American home. For her ability to keep this in mind 
 amid all the stress and strain of pioneer endeavor, the coun- 
 try owes her a debt of gratitude above that which is owing 
 to most women. 
 
 "If efforts are to be judged by their results, it is not 
 too much to say that the purposes of this department have 
 been in the main accomplished, by which is meant that the 
 department has trained hundreds of competent executives 
 and teachers without such exclusive attention to the pro- 
 fessional as to break the contact with that great mass of 
 university women who are to become, not teachers or pro- 
 fessionals of any kind, but the heads of American homes. 
 To achieve this double purpose has been the great ambition 
 of the department, in which it has eminently succeeded. 
 
 "Naturally, when a great work has been accomplished, 
 we seek the individual whose leadership has blazed the way. 
 In this case the individual was not hard to find. 
 
 "Professor Bevier has given her life unsparingly to the 
 development of this department. The field was almost en- 
 tirely new as a university subject. There was naturally 
 much impatience twenty years ago at what appeared to be 
 slow progress. There was much demand for the doing of 
 
 68 
 
impossible things, and here, as in many cases, it was the 
 friends of the movement who in some respects made prog- 
 ress difficult by expecting of the department what it could 
 not render without entirely setting aside its university ob- 
 jective. 
 
 "If it had yielded to pressure fifteen or twenty years 
 ago, we should not have, as we do now, strong and well- 
 developed departments of home economics in hundreds of 
 high schools in the country. Realizing the significance of a 
 university department in home economics, Professor Bevier 
 set her face strenuously to the development of such courses 
 of instruction as would produce permanent results. 
 
 "It was decidedly pioneer work for Professor Bevier and 
 her co-laborers. In other places other pioneers were dream- 
 ing and working, but each was practically working alone, 
 for the study was not understood in university circles, even 
 being considered in many places an academic joke. 
 
 "In many ways these good women did not have even a 
 fair chance. For example, when a well-trained professor is 
 greeted in the morning by her associates with the thread- 
 bare question, 'Have you got the dishes washed?' it is not 
 the sort of inspiration needed to develop a great new subject. 
 By attending strictly to its business and by getting results, 
 this department has slowly but surely justified itself, not 
 only in the opinion of the student body and of the public, 
 but of the faculty as well. 
 
 "I think it is not too much to say that at present no 
 department of the University enjoys more of the confidence 
 and respect of the institution than does the department of 
 home economics. To say that this gratifying achievement 
 is mainly the work of one person is perhaps putting it too 
 strongly because Professor Bevier has many able and loyal 
 
 69 
 
associates. But even so, the difficult task of choosing be- 
 tween alternative courses, of deciding what to do and what 
 not to do, what to undertake and what to let alone — this 
 great task has rested almost entirely with the head of the 
 department. Her nearest associates in administrative circles 
 have been obliged to rest content with standing on the side 
 lines, dropping here and there a word of encouragement but 
 realizing all the time that their real service was of slight 
 account. All in all, therefore, whatever success we have 
 achieved in this University in the development of home 
 economics must go, so far as leadership is concerned, ex- 
 clusively to the one whom we honor today. 
 
 "She has not only been a force in the development of 
 her chosen subject in the University of Illinois, but she has 
 been a national figure as well. She has been an inspiration 
 to thousands of young women who have been so fortunate 
 as to come under her influence, and she has been a bene- 
 diction to the University. 
 
 "We count it fortunate for those who may come and go 
 as the years go by, and fortunate for those who sojourn 
 here that so excellent a portrait of so lovely a character shall 
 be left among us as almost a speaking remembrance of one 
 who so long labored that others might live better lives." 
 
 70 
 
Chapter III 
 
 Beyond the Classroom 
 
 Isabel Bevier's broad interpretation of home economics 
 extended beyond her classroom and beyond the campus of 
 the University of Illinois. During the time she served as 
 department head, she wrote books and articles, addressed 
 a variety of audiences, and was prominent in state and 
 national organizations. Her personality and her ideas were 
 of lasting influence in shaping the American Home Eco- 
 nomics Association and in giving direction to the whole 
 home economics movement. The strength of her influence 
 is reflected in the statement made by Dr. H. C. Sherman 
 when he said that the scientific esteem in which home 
 economics is held in any comparable institution is closely 
 proportional to the fidelity with which it has followed the 
 standard set by Isabel Bevier. 
 
 The American Home Economics Association, incorpo- 
 rated in 1909, grew out of conferences held annually from 
 1899 to 1909 at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) Club upon the invi- 
 tation of Mr. and Mrs. Melvil Dewey. Before coming to 
 the University of Illinois in 1900, Isabel Bevier attended 
 the second of these conferences which were, as she said, 
 "then and for many years after the best source of ideas" 
 
 71 
 
in home economics. She continued to attend almost all of 
 the conferences and as officer, committee member, and par- 
 ticipant in discussion she contributed her enthusiasm, and 
 her ideals and ideas as well as her plans for making them 
 effective. Not all the conference members sympathized 
 with her point of view, but one needs only to give a super- 
 ficial examination to the papers she read and to the reports 
 from the meetings to realize that she built into the organi- 
 zation a combination of common sense and academic insight 
 rarely found. 
 
 The first conference was attended by only eleven persons, 
 with Ellen Swallow Richards as chairman and Melvil Dewey 
 as secretary. Not even the most forward-looking of the 
 eleven realized that they were launching an idea which 
 within fifty years would develop into an organization of 
 some twenty thousand members with a salaried staff and a 
 good-sized office building of its own in Washington, D.C. 
 
 At the second meeting Isabel was appointed a member 
 of a committee on courses of study in universities, with Mrs. 
 Mary Roberts of Leland Stanford University as chairman. 
 In 1901 she was herself chairman of a committee on nomen- 
 clature and also appeared on the program to outline the 
 courses in home economics as given at the University of 
 Illinois. In 1903 she made a report for the standing com- 
 mittee on courses of study in colleges and universities saying 
 in part: 
 
 "From the first, the conference has recognized the im- 
 portance of a clearer understanding of the relation of the 
 higher education of the country to those sociological princi- 
 ples which underlie the daily life of the people. 
 
 "The first work of this committee was to gather infor- 
 mation as to the status of such branches as hygiene, sanita- 
 
 71 
 
tion, economics, etc., in the colleges and universities. A 
 canvass of the country showed that the importance of these 
 branches was not generally recognized, that in the agricul- 
 tural colleges the work was largely on a utilitarian basis 
 without sufficient scientific foundation, that there was danger 
 in allowing this to continue because it would be harder to 
 lift the technical part to a higher plane, the more extended 
 it became. The committee therefore attempted to show in 
 what directions the colleges and universities could bestir 
 themselves, without too definite commitment to a set course 
 of study, to influence opinion along desirable lines." 
 
 The statements of the Bevier committee were supple- 
 mented by a resolution passed in September, 1902, by the 
 Lake Placid Conference, in which heads of higher institu- 
 tions were earnestly requested to "consider the advisability 
 of introducing" work in home economics. 
 
 At this same meeting Isabel presented a paper on "Physi- 
 ological Chemistry Taught in Connection with Home 
 Economics." 
 
 At the 1904 meeting Isabel again reported on the depart- 
 ment at the University of Illinois. Some of the points she 
 made were: 
 
 "The organization of the department is somewhat pecu- 
 liar. For administrative purposes it is allied with the College 
 of Agriculture, and some of its work is offered to students 
 in that college, but as there are no women, the greater 
 proportion of the students come from the College of Liter- 
 ature and Arts. 
 
 "In the arrangement of courses of study, as the depart- 
 ment aims to give women a liberal education with a basis 
 of pure and applied science, a four-year course planned 
 with that object in view is put in the College of Science. 
 
 73 
 
The entire work of the department is elective, as are other 
 University courses. 
 
 "In order to obtain a degree in household science from 
 either the College of Agriculture or from the College of 
 Science, certain prescribed work must be done. The College 
 of Literature and Arts makes the household science work 
 one of its majors. So students may graduate from any one 
 of the colleges, having specialized in household science. 
 
 "The strength of the department lies in the fact that it 
 has the advantage of the resources afforded by the various 
 departments of the University. Art, architecture, pure sci- 
 ence, literature, history, education, and economic courses 
 are open to its students. 
 
 "The department reserves for itself those subjects which 
 especially serve the interest of women, and stand in univer- 
 sity life for a recognition of the importance of adequate and 
 proper training for home duties. 
 
 "One cannot draw conclusion from a single illustration 
 but judging from results in the University of Illinois there 
 is room for such a department in university life." 
 
 The report of the standing committee on Home Eco- 
 nomics in Higher Education was given by Caroline Hunt 
 of the University of Wisconsin. In it this sentence appears: 
 "To show that the subject can be presented in an academic 
 manner, we cite the courses given in the University of 
 Illinois and in the University of Chicago." These are the 
 only two universities cited in the entire report. Their inclu- 
 sion indicates the high reputation of these departments. 
 
 By 1905 Isabel was serving as vice-chairman of the 
 conference and chairman of a section on college and univer- 
 sity education. Her report summarizing progress at the 
 University of Illinois reflects her interpretation of home 
 
 74 
 
economics and indirectly accounts for the success of her 
 work. She saw clearly what she wanted the department 
 to do and was able to steer her course without becoming 
 entangled in the various side issues that plagued many 
 departments. 
 
 Isabel reported: "The department is now in its fifth year. 
 Its enrollment for the present year is one hundred and sixty. 
 It stands in university life for those subjects which particu- 
 larly serve the interests of women. There are twelve courses: 
 three on food emphasizing selection and preparation, eco- 
 nomic and dietetic values respectively; three have to do 
 with the house, its sanitation, including house planning, 
 decoration, management; one on chemistry of food and 
 nutrition; one on textiles; one on history and development 
 of home economics as an educational factor; one on public 
 health; and two for graduate work. 
 
 "Of the one hundred and thirty credits required for 
 graduation, twenty-five may be obtained in this department. 
 All the work is elective, but in order to obtain a degree 
 in household science certain courses are prescribed. 
 
 "Courses are planned for two classes of students: 1) 
 those who specialize in other lines of work but desire a 
 knowledge of the general principles and facts of household 
 science; 2) those who wish to make a specialty of household 
 science by a comprehensive study of the affairs of the home 
 together with the arts and sciences whose applications are 
 directly connected with the management and care of the 
 home. For this latter class two years of work in science, 
 together with courses in art and design, economics, and 
 education are prescribed. 
 
 "New courses undertaken in the past year have been: 
 1) a special course in economics for household service; 
 
 75 
 
2) a course on public health; 3) a summer session course 
 in the interests of rural school teachers. 
 
 "The request for a teachers' course is so urgent that one 
 will be offered in this department in connection with the 
 school of education now being organized in the university. 
 Many things yet remain to be done, but there seems to be 
 good reason to believe that in the near future in the Univer- 
 sity of Illinois household science will be interpreted to mean 
 not merely applied chemistry and physics and bacteriology 
 but also applied economics, ethics, and esthetics." 
 
 In 1908 Isabel was first vice-chairman, and a member 
 of three committees: college entrance requirements, national 
 organization, and recommendations. 
 
 In a paper, "Outlook for Advanced Work," presented to 
 the Association she stated that advanced work in home 
 economics should emphasize three things: 
 
 "1. The orderly development of the subject. There is 
 no sequence in a course which teaches the cooking of pota- 
 toes, then the making of chocolate, then creamed cabbage. 
 Lessons should take up food as carbohydrates, fats, etc. 
 
 "2. Dietetics. With some this means catering to fads, 
 with others it implies invalid cookery, but in college work 
 it now applies to daily living and means the best results of 
 the combined knowledge and skill of the chemist, the physi- 
 ologist, and the cook. An institution is judged by its course 
 in dietetics and the requirements for it. 
 
 "3. The education value of every subject. There is a 
 noticeable growth of an intelligent public sentiment. People 
 know that home economics means more than food and 
 sewing. They are recognizing its general educational value. 
 At the recent meeting of the National Education Associ- 
 ation all sections were discussing industrial training or home 
 
 76 
 
economics. As in any new subject, there is a varied nomen- 
 clature but this is of little importance." 
 
 Of the question of training teachers, Isabel said: 
 
 "It is to be remembered that the science of home eco- 
 nomics is applied science. It is very necessary for the teacher 
 [of home economics] to know pure science and pure eco- 
 nomics. It requires a different kind of teaching to be able 
 to make good applications of pure science, and it would 
 seem to me that it would take more skill to make clear the 
 facts and applications of science to children than to those 
 with more training. From that standpoint our elementary 
 teachers ought to be the best trained in science because 
 they are to make these applications for those who will not 
 have the knowledge to make the corrections as some college 
 students might. 
 
 "We do all we can to have our college students remain 
 four years and advise a fifth year if they expect to be college 
 teachers. We recommend no one as a teacher of domestic 
 science who has not taken our course in dietetics. For that 
 we require both chemistry and physiology and the man who 
 gives the work in physiology requires zoology. 
 
 "So long as there are places where teachers are made 
 in from six weeks to a year it seems unnecessary to add to 
 that list. We feel that in the present state of development 
 of home economics, with constant criticism of the kind of 
 teachers available, that this conference ought to stand for 
 more rather than less preparation." 
 
 When the conference became the American Home Eco- 
 nomics Association Isabel continued to be active, serving 
 first as vice-president and later (1911-1913) as its second 
 president. For three years, 1909 to 1912, she was a member 
 of the editorial board of the Journal of Home Economics, 
 
 77 
 
the official publication of the American Home Economics 
 Association. She represented the division of the House. 
 
 Beginning in 1904, Isabel prepared a correspondence 
 course on the house for the American School of Home 
 Economics. The material she used became her book, The 
 House. 
 
 When the Home Economics Section of the Association 
 of Land Grant Colleges and Universities was formed in 
 1917, she was made its chairman for two years. She had 
 already appeared on the program of the annual meeting of 
 the Association. 
 
 In connection with her activities in state and national 
 organizations and in her role as an educator at the Univer- 
 sity of Illinois, Isabel spoke to audiences all over the 
 country. She presented papers at the fiftieth anniversary 
 celebrations of both Ohio State University and Purdue Uni- 
 versity, at Ohio on "The Land Grant College and the 
 Education of Women" and at Purdue on "Contributions 
 of the Land Grant College to Home Economics." In 1923 
 she addressed the annual meeting of the American Country 
 Life Association on the topics, "Ideals in Home and Family 
 Life in Rural Homes." 
 
 Isabel managed, in spite of her many responsibilities, 
 to find time to write. In 1907, with Anna Van Meter, she 
 prepared a laboratory guide, Selection and Preparation of 
 Food. Science (February 14, 1908) carried her article, 
 "Problems of Bio Chemistry." In 1913 and 1914 her bulle- 
 tins, "Some Points in Making and Judging Bread and Plan- 
 ning Meals were published by the University. 
 
 During the years 1914 to 1915 she wrote a series of 
 articles for the magazine, Woman's World. These articles 
 dealt with the kitchen, planning meals, buying of food, 
 
 7B 
 
making bread, and food values. In the June, 1915, issue the 
 editor comments: "With this splendid article on vegetables, 
 their food value, methods of cooking, etc., the head of the 
 Domestic Science Department of the University of Illinois 
 brings her present series to a close. It has made a notable 
 contribution to a subject of vital interest to all women, and 
 the editor of Woman s World is glad to have had the privi- 
 lege of presenting it to his readers/' 
 
 Isabel Bevier was granted honorary doctorate degrees 
 (D.Sc.) by Iowa State College in 1920 and by Wooster 
 University in 1936. Her name appeared in "Who's Who in 
 America and in American Men of Science. The American 
 Association for the Advancement of Science showed its 
 appreciation by making her a fellow of that organization. 
 In the councils of educators she was at one time vice-presi- 
 dent of one section of the National Education Association, 
 at another, chairman of the home economics section of the 
 Land Grant College Association.* Among national Greek 
 letter societies she was a charter member of the University 
 of Illinois chapter of Sigma Xi, scientific fraternity, honorary 
 member of Sigma Delta Epsilon fraternity of women in 
 science, elected to honorary membership in Phi Beta Kappa 
 by the Wooster chapter, a national honorary member of Phi 
 Upsilon Omicron, and a local honorary member of Omicron 
 Nu, these last two being home economics fraternities. 
 
 °She was a member of the sub-committee on Nutrition of the 
 National Research Council. 
 
 79 
 
Chapter IV 
 
 The Later Years 
 
 |n 1921 Isabel Bevier resigned from the University of 
 Illinois and set out on the various exploits that were to 
 engage her energies during most of the twenty-one years 
 of her so-called retirement. Freed from departmental re- 
 sponsibility and from the many demands that had accumu- 
 lated year by year, she could now make new and varied 
 contributions to her chosen field. She would have some 
 quiet time for writing, she thought, but when word of her 
 retirement spread, calls for her services elsewhere altered 
 this plan. 
 
 Unable because of her interest in people and in the 
 events around her to refuse the local demands that would 
 come if she remained in Urbana, and unwilling to have her 
 presence embarrass her successor, Isabel decided to seek 
 elsewhere the rest she needed. Characteristically, she put her 
 office and her home in order and was on her way. 
 
 She had been asked to go to the University of California 
 at Los Angeles, then known as the Southern Branch. As 
 chairman of the home economics department from 1921 to 
 1923, she reorganized the work in home economics and 
 
 80 
 
taught in the summer session. As always, students came 
 enthusiastically to her classes. 
 
 "No one ever joined the faculty who was more eagerly 
 expected and no one on the faculty was ever more helpful," 
 said Dr. Ernest Carroll Moore, Director of the University, 
 some year later. "The University was young and suffering 
 badly from a feeling of inferiority. Miss Bevier brought a 
 stabilizing helpfulness that gave hope and confidence to the 
 entire staff." 
 
 Members of the faculty tried to persuade her to continue 
 her work with them. When she said that was impossible, 
 they urged her to "pitch her tent" beside theirs and spend 
 the rest of her days in California. But this also she felt she 
 could not do, and they watched her go feeling that they 
 were losing one who was almost indispensable. 
 
 During her stay in California and later Miss Bevier found 
 time to revise her book, The Home Economics Movement. 
 Much enlarged and renamed Home Economics in Education, 
 it was brought out by Lippincott in 1924. The book was 
 badly needed. Until it was published, anyone wanting to 
 know the details of the home economics movement had to 
 garner the information from a wide variety of sources, some 
 of them difficult to find. 
 
 At this time Isabel's two older, unmarried sisters living 
 in Plymouth, Ohio, were seriously ill. In the next few years 
 she was often with them for long periods. Nevertheless, she 
 continued her writing and lecturing, traveling back and 
 forth from east to west, attending conferences, but always 
 carrying her concern for her sisters. 
 
 Arizona 
 
 Once again, in 1925, she was called into consultation 
 
 81 
 
regarding the reorganization of a department — this time 
 at the University of Arizona. Dr. Cloyd Marvin, who had 
 worked with Isabel when they were both members of the 
 faculty in California, was its new president. During her 
 stay in Tucson she not only helped reorganize the home 
 economics department, but for several months took the 
 place of the head, who was ill, served as a special lecturer, 
 and acted as counselor for vocational guidance, holding 
 conferences with students and giving lectures on vocations 
 open to women. As if this were not enough, she was pre- 
 vailed upon to make trips for the extension service. One 
 was to Flagstaff by bus, to most people a long, tiresome 
 ordeal, but to Isabel, an experience that held enjoyment 
 "in every mile and every hour/' 
 
 In Arizona, as in other places, students and faculty 
 warmed to her direct and friendly approaches, the superi- 
 ority of her intellect, the simplicity and soundness of her 
 judgments. Among the townspeople too, she made friends. 
 She, in turn, loved the desert, the sunsets, the flowers. She 
 made field trips with the archeology group. She visited 
 the observatory on many nights and took a review course 
 in astronomy. The stars were brighter in Arizona, she said, 
 than in any other place she had ever been and this was an 
 opportunity not to be missed. Later, in telling of her expe- 
 riences in that rough, unfinished country, she summed up 
 her impressions with wry humor: "There is one thing I am 
 sure of, and that is that the end of the world is a long time 
 off. The Lord has too much to do in Arizona yet." 
 
 The trips back and forth from California and Arizona 
 to Ohio refreshed her and gave her pleasure. She was fond 
 of travel and, in the words of a friend, she "always traveled 
 to a purpose." 
 
 82 
 
When the needs of her sisters grew more pressing, she 
 gave her full time to bringing what comfort she could to 
 them. She suffered with them, and when in 1927 both 
 sisters died, she felt a need for rest and an entire change 
 of environment. So in the late spring of 1927, with an old 
 schoolmate and life-long friend, she made her third trip to 
 Europe. 
 
 Isabel and the Passport Man 
 
 While getting ready for this trip, she was asked to go 
 to Washington to represent her Wooster class at a meeting 
 of the American Association of University Women. She 
 persuaded her brother to go with her and, knowing it would 
 be easier to get her passport in Washington than at home, 
 she took him on this errand of which she gives the following 
 characteristic account: 
 
 "It was about twelve o'clock, and I suppose the man was 
 hungry and wanted his lunch. In reply to my request for a 
 passport, he said that I could probably get it at home. 
 
 " 'No, I can't/ I said. I'm here and I want to get it now.' 
 
 "He replied, 'You have to have a birth certificate/ 
 
 " 'You know as well as I do that birth certificates did not 
 exist when I was born/ 
 
 "Then he said that I would have to have proof that I 
 was born. I thought, 'That's easy/ so I said, 'Jack, just come 
 over here and swear that I was born/ Jack replied, 'Well, I 
 can swear. I was there and I know it happened/ " 
 
 Apparently this was enough to clear the Bevier passport! 
 
 Friends who knew of her plans for this trip abroad, so 
 soon after her sorrowful sojourn with her family in Ohio, 
 sent out word of the date of her sailing. Letters, telegrams, 
 flowers, and other gifts came in a deluge. The purser was 
 
 83 
 
so impressed that he referred to her as "the lady with many 
 letters/' 
 
 Before Isabel left Washington she was asked by Louise 
 Stanley, chief of the U. S. Bureau of Home Economics, to 
 take with her a paper, prepared by Miss Stanley, to read 
 before the International Congress of Agriculture at Rome. 
 For the first time the Congress was to have a section for 
 women. The request led to perhaps the most interesting, 
 if not the most unusual, experience of the trip, an audience 
 with the King of Italy. "Though proud to live in a democ- 
 racy/' Isabel commented, "one may still be curious about 
 the habits of kings/' 
 
 That she entered into the adventures of this trip with 
 her usual zest is evidenced by her account of the stop at 
 Madeira, where neither the heights nor the toboggan slide 
 daunted her. Bumping downhill over cobblestones in a 
 "kind of willow basket on runners," with two men trotting 
 alongside, proved an alarming adventure to one of her com- 
 panions but not to her. 
 
 Rested after her European trip, she came back in vig- 
 orous health, her mind full of stories to tell her friends. She 
 had by no means exhausted her enthusiasm for travel, but 
 she was possibly a little homesick. The fall of 1927 found 
 her again established in Urbana. 
 
 For some months it had been clear that she wanted to 
 come home. We were both attending a meeting at Merrill- 
 Palmer School in Detroit early in 1927 when she asked me 
 to go for a walk, which I knew to be a talk since she was 
 careful to exclude any other partners. We hadn't gone far 
 when, taking my arm as she often did when it was to be a 
 confidence ( though her confidences were usually given in a 
 stage whisper or a very audible, resonant voice), she began, 
 
 84 
 
"Do you think I've stayed away long enough?" Somewhat 
 bewildered at first, I soon grasped what she had on her 
 mind, for I had suspected all along her real reason for stay- 
 ing away from Urbana. "I thought that if I stayed away 
 about six years it would be long enough so I wouldn't inter- 
 fere with Ruth [Ruth Wardall, who succeeded her as depart- 
 ment head], and I really want to go home." Neither Ruth 
 nor the department, I assured her, would suffer if she re- 
 turned. Word came before long that she had carried out 
 her wish. 
 
 In the years since she retired, Isabel had made only 
 occasional short visits in Urbana. Her house was one she 
 had purchased a few years after going there. On Lincoln 
 avenue near Oregon street, it was unpretentious but pleas- 
 ant, within comfortable walking distance of the campus and 
 on what was at first a street-car line and afterward a bus 
 line. One room was kept for guests, and after her retirement 
 many and varied were the friends who occupied it. If they 
 chanced to find her early breakfast hour not too comfortable, 
 she made clear that it would be entirely agreeable to her if 
 they wished to sleep late and go to the nearby drugstore for 
 breakfast! 
 
 Taking up again the threads of life among her many 
 friends and former colleagues, she was not allowed to remain 
 long inactive. In February, 1928, she was asked by Dean 
 H. W. Mumford, of the College of Agriculture, to become 
 a member of the home economics extension staff to make a 
 survey of the extension work, especially the training of 
 future extension workers. A series of special conferences 
 was also being conducted at this time by the College staff, 
 "which wanted a headline speaker who alone could guaran- 
 tee the success of the meetings." She was asked to take part. 
 
 85 
 
"A bulwark of strength during worried days" was the 
 way one of her co-workers described her. Her full life and 
 her many contacts had broadened and strengthened her; 
 her clear mind, free from the details of administration, could 
 concentrate on the problems at hand; and she was free to 
 enjoy to the full the beauties of the countryside and her 
 conversations with the extension men and women. 
 
 Comparing Old and New 
 
 Part of her report to Dean H. W. Mumford at the close 
 of her study describes the changes that had taken place in 
 extension work since she came to Illinois in 1900: 
 
 "In the women's session of the Farmers' Institute twenty 
 years ago, the majority of the women were over fifty years 
 old, a rather phlegmatic group somewhat wearied with the 
 struggle, relieved that they were as far along as they were 
 and not keen to undertake new burdens — rather more in 
 the mental state of the woman who announced that mostly 
 Td druther do as I'd druther/ Generally, the officers were 
 women of poise, experience, and ability, but the lay member 
 who read her paper often did it with trembling voice and 
 shaking hands. 
 
 "Now the average age I would guess is under forty — 
 women who are in the midst of the battle. They are well- 
 groomed, their stockings are silk, their skirts and hair are 
 short, and their heels are too high for comfort. Their minds 
 are eager, alert, hungry for information on child care and 
 training, on house furnishing, on dyeing, on kitchen equip- 
 ment, and on numberless other points. They express them- 
 selves easily and, for the most part, well. They have defin- 
 ite opinions on many subjects and are interested in self- 
 development." 
 
 86 
 
As in other days, Isabel was fearless and very frank in 
 her remarks, sometimes antagonizing those to whom she 
 was talking by showing them their shortcomings and by 
 reminding them that the broad problems of home economics 
 were more important than petty details. She emphasized 
 the fact that there was real work to be done, not only by 
 the paid workers but by the homemakers themselves, in 
 studying their problems and making plans for the betterment 
 of conditions. Although they had done well, she told them 
 they should not sit back in pride but go on and do more. 
 She did not overlook the men and their responsibility for 
 the success and happiness of the farm home. 
 
 "I have done what I could with the time, sense, and 
 strength at my disposal," she said in closing her report. "It 
 seems to me that the future of the work is full of promise 
 and that now is the time to gather the forces and strike often 
 and hard." 
 
 Of her contribution to the agricultural adjustment con- 
 ferences, Dean Mumford wrote: 
 
 "Realizing that timely adjustments to ever-changing con- 
 ditions are essential for the continued progress of Illinois 
 agriculture, the College inaugurated a series of Agricultural 
 Adjustment conferences to be held in various parts of the 
 state. With characteristic and apparently indefatigable en- 
 ergy, Professor Isabel Bevier was one of the principal speak- 
 ers at the eight regional meetings in 1928 and again in 1929. 
 Her addresses, brilliant with a touch of humor, carried a 
 challenge to both the farmer and the farmer's wife to im- 
 prove their home life, not only for their own comfort, health, 
 and happiness, but that their children might receive the 
 advantages resulting from the improved home conditions. 
 These improvements pertained not only to home conven- 
 
iences, but also to the social, cultural and religious advance- 
 ment of the family. 
 
 "These audiences were fortunate to have as a speaker 
 a woman with the background and experience possessed by 
 Professor Bevier, and particularly with her human interest, 
 familiarity with farm conditions, and ambition for their 
 improvement. Her discussion should have gone a long way 
 toward convincing the audiences that the College is as 
 earnest and sincere in its efforts to be of help to the farm 
 home as it is in the solution and adjustment of purely eco- 
 nomic problems." 
 
 An old friend and associate summed up her contribution 
 to home economics in this way: 
 
 "Miss Bevier was not only a pioneer in the home eco- 
 nomics movement, but she has gone on consistently keeping 
 the 'home' in home economics both by her teaching and by 
 her practice. This of itself would not be so worthy of note 
 were it not for the fact that the pressure of new forces, and 
 new opportunities as well, is resulting in not a little confusion 
 in camp, as well as some questioning as to just where we 
 go from here/ While there is no doubt that Miss Bevier 
 sees justification for some of the new lines of work which 
 are leading home economics far afield, she seems to agree 
 in general . . . that 'there are yet to be found in this country 
 of ours women who make a point of going home in time to 
 get supper.' It is to such women and such homes that Miss 
 Bevier would give a large share of her attention." 
 
 In 1929, on Dr. Kinley's retirement from the presidency 
 of the University, Isabel insisted that the time had come 
 for her to retire too. At this second retirement the University 
 showed officially its appreciation of her work by confering 
 on her the title of professor emerita, in 1929, the first woman 
 
 88 
 
whom the University so honored. "Professor Bevier is one 
 of the members of our faculty to whom we should do all 
 the honor we can," said President Kinley on this occasion. 
 "She built up a great department in the University. She is 
 undoubtedly the foremost woman in her field in the country. 
 She left behind her a great department and sent out into 
 the service of her country a large number of young women 
 who have done fine work in elevating life in the field of 
 their education." 
 
 Thus did Isabel sever her last active professional connec- 
 tion with the University of Illinois, though by no means had 
 she retired from active interest in the field of home eco- 
 nomics and the affairs of the University. 
 
 Europe, 1931 
 
 After two years of quiet life in Urbana, Isabel, in 1931, 
 was asked to go on a trip around the world. Although still 
 ready to travel, she felt this too strenuous an undertaking. 
 "I can't see," she said, "any use in going to countries where 
 you have to carry your own bathtub and where they don't 
 really want you anyway. I think I'm a little old to start on 
 that kind of trip." But later in the year when a lively family 
 of four asked her to join them for some months of travel in 
 Europe, she accepted. 
 
 Of Isabel's place in the family's activities, the wife wrote: 
 "She made certain terms as to the freedom of her own move- 
 ments and then decided to go. So began some months of 
 travel, during which Miss Bevier was like a comet in relation 
 to our family's solar system. She owned some attraction to 
 its central group, but was never content to circle around its 
 focus, and darted freely off to yield allegiance to the pull of 
 other foci of her orbit." 
 
 89 
 
She first embarked on a Mediterranean cruise. "I had 
 always dreamed of going to Athens," she said, "but never 
 really expected to. While I was there it snowed and the 
 Acropolis was glorious." At Naples, with its view of Mount 
 Vesuvius, it rained and the rain froze, leaving the mountain 
 gleaming and glistening. When the steam and lava burst 
 forth, the effect was extraordinary." 
 
 After landing and going through customs in Naples, she 
 took a taxi to her pension. "I had been told," she said, "that 
 these men were kind of brigands, but I liked the faces of 
 my oarsmen and porter — even though my driver did look 
 like a brigand. After I had been going about fifteen minutes, 
 a blue-coated individual stopped us and talked to the driver. 
 Then the driver said he had to have a dollar and a quarter 
 right away for me and my bags. Usually when I'm not sure 
 of the money, I just get it out and let the driver take it, and 
 I was just ready to do that when I thought to myself, 'You 
 goose, you haven't gone anywhere yet. Maybe you will be 
 stopped several times before you get there/ 
 
 "I thought the whole proceeding was queer. Never hav- 
 ing been in a holdup, I did not know exactly how to act. 
 I looked at the dial, and it looked to me — if I could read 
 it right — to be something like fifteen cents. Also, they had 
 given me a folder, and that was about what it said, so I said 
 to the driver, 'I don't believe that is true. Anyway, you 
 haven't taken me anywhere. You just take me to the pension 
 and you will be paid/ 
 
 "The blue-coated individual and the driver looked at 
 each other and shrugged their shoulders, and then we went 
 on. I felt a little weak after it was all over. When I arrived 
 at the pension, I rushed from the cab and stood not on the 
 order of my going. I said to the porter, 'You pay that man 
 
 90 
 
and III pay you/ The porter read the dial and then fell on 
 the driver with words I could not understand, and I guess 
 it was just as well that I couldn't. Finally he paid him thirty- 
 five cents." 
 
 From Naples Isabel traveled through Italy into Germany, 
 living some weeks in the home of a physician at Heidelberg 
 to acquire more fluency in speaking German. She went to 
 Prague for the International Congress of Agriculture, a 
 session of which she had attended four years before in 
 Rome. One subject they discussed, much to her interest, 
 was "how to keep girls on the farm"; and some English 
 women told of the Woman's Institute in England, which 
 does work similar to extension service in this country. Here 
 she met President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia. 
 
 After the Congress came a six-day motor trip through 
 rural Czechoslovakia, with visits to homes and schools. "A 
 much-talked-of kindergarten," she wrote, "proved to be a 
 small garden, a nursery for little plants. The women em- 
 ployed in the garden were given thirty-five cents a day, and 
 the weeds they pulled they took home to feed their geese." 
 
 At Interlaken there was William Tell played in its nat- 
 ural setting by the townspeople, at Geneva a session of the 
 Opium Conference and sessions of the International Com- 
 mittee of Women of the League of Nations, in London the 
 almshouses, at Stratford Shakespeare being played. A visit 
 to Edinburgh, then back to London, and she was ready to 
 sail for home. 
 
 Home Again and Fancy-Free 
 
 After this journey Isabel contented herself with travel 
 in the United States, but only once went as far as the North- 
 west and California. Although the time came when she was 
 
 91 
 
willing to be helped onto the train, still, in answer to a call 
 from a sick friend or from one of her alumnae in need of 
 counsel, she was ready to go almost any distance and on 
 very short notice. 
 
 Isabel always enjoyed looking in on her "girls." Wher- 
 ever I was after her retirement she paid me a short visit, the 
 length being of her own choosing. The exact time of arrival 
 and departure was announced in advance. 
 
 Her first visit with me was in Washington, D. C, where 
 she had come to do some judging for a magazine. She de- 
 clined my invitation to stay with me, saying it would be too 
 crowded and too much work for me. I knew better than 
 to insist, but the first night she came to the apartment after 
 our dinner together and glacing around announced without 
 any preliminaries, "We wouldn't be too crowded. Ill have 
 my baggage sent over tomorrow." She did and we had a 
 thoroughly good time. 
 
 Her next visit was in Madison, Wisconsin, where she 
 had a good many friends. She arrived with a well thought- 
 out schedule of how she would manage to see them. One 
 friend had just broken her arm. "I'd planned to see her 
 once, but now that she's laid up, 111 go twice," was her 
 decision. 
 
 There was a tea in her honor to which not all the home 
 economics faculty had been invited and which was therefore 
 not entirely to her liking. She insisted on leaving the tea 
 almost on the dot. Before we were well off the porch she 
 took my arm and in her stage whisper, with a touch of mis- 
 chief, said, "Now we can take that drive around the lake," 
 and I recalled having told her that if we were through in 
 time, we would take the road around Lake Mendota, a drive 
 she always enjoyed. She seemed never to tire of automobile 
 
 92 
 
riding, usually bringing out of her purse a roll or two of 
 hard candies before we had gone our first mile. Unlike some 
 of my younger friends, she liked to ride with the top of the 
 convertible down, and once at her own request she took 
 a turn in the rumble seat — a stylish "trunk" seat of those 
 days. 
 
 Next came Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and a longer visit 
 this time, since I had a good housekeeper to take care of 
 our needs. Relishing our long drives through the rolling 
 country, Isabel was reluctant to give time to social affairs. 
 Yet there were several friends she was eager to see, and 
 a great many people who wanted to see her. To the sugges- 
 tion that we have a tea, she responded with an unqualified, 
 "No." The next morning, however, she called me into her 
 room. She was sitting on the side of her bed, one shoe on 
 and one in her hand. "I've been thinking about that tea and 
 I've changed my mind. I don't want to take time to see all 
 of those people individually. If I do I'll not have time for 
 anything else. Let's go ahead and have the tea and I can 
 see them all in one day." 
 
 Next came Washington again in 1934. My apartment 
 was in a walk-up in a made-over house on H Street, just 
 off 17th. I rather discouraged her staying with me, but she 
 was not daunted by the three flights of stairs nor by the 
 fact that I would have to be out of town for a few days. 
 Withstanding the urging of friends who might have made 
 her more comfortable, she stayed on in my apartment. It 
 was, she said, "in the midst of things. " I suspected too that 
 she liked the independence I gave her. While I was away, 
 her friends could call, and I made few suggestions as to how 
 she should spend her time. 
 
 Isabel attended ceremonies honoring Jane Addams, whom 
 
 93 
 
she knew and greatly admired. Together we did our usual 
 driving about and went to at least one movie. Each day 
 while I was at work, she was out on a lark of her own. One 
 evening, however, I was surprised to find she had been in the 
 apartment all day. She was noncommital and I did not press 
 my inquiry. It was a day to catch up, she said. But before 
 she left she confessed that her knees had seemed about to 
 give way and she had said to herself, "You'd better take 
 care of yourself or you'll be sick on Lita's hands, and she 
 must not have that, busy as she is." 
 
 When I returned to the University of Illinois in 1936, 
 after thirteen years' absence, I found Isabel Bevier living 
 comfortably in the house that had been her home for so 
 many years. A grandniece, Mary Morrow, was "taking care 
 of me," as Isabel expressed it; but Mary, I am sure, felt she 
 had her share of being looked after. 
 
 Still very active, Isabel was reviewing her French via 
 radio, studying suitable texts and carefully writing out as- 
 signments. She displayed a map she had drawn as part of 
 her Bible study, explaining, "It's supposed to be a map of 
 Paul's journeys, but I'm not very good at drawing." The 
 pink jacket she was knitting was for the expected baby of a 
 former member of the faculty. The various calls she had 
 been making the past few days were in the interest of a 
 project of the League of Women Voters. 
 
 When the day came for the first University Senate meet- 
 ing after my return, she suggested that I meet her there. 
 "I always sit in the middle up front," she said. "It's a little 
 conspicuous when there are so few women, but it's the only 
 way I can be sure of hearing." The Senate, I might explain, 
 is composed of all the full professors of the University. 
 "Emeritus professors may attend," she commented with 
 
 94 
 
mock solemnity, "but I don't think they're supposed to say 
 anything unless they're called on." 
 
 While not particularly clothes-conscious in day-to-day 
 work, she liked to wear dressy clothes for festive occasions. 
 After retirement she sometimes attended professional meet- 
 ings, chiefly, by her own confession, to visit with the people 
 in attendance. When the crowd was gathering for one ban- 
 quet I knew she had no intention of attending, she appeared 
 in her best lace dress. She circulated from one group to an- 
 other, chatting gaily. As she passed me, she paused to whis- 
 per that when they started to go into the banquet hall she 
 was going to her room and to bed. This is exactly what she 
 did after courteously evading several offers to escort her to 
 one of the tables. 
 
 These episodes, small in themselves, are told in an effort 
 to piece together a complex personality — to give some sug- 
 gestion of the very human side of this unusual woman. 
 
 Eightieth Birthday Celebration 
 
 Although Isabel never lost interest in her friends, family, 
 and profession, and was for the most part in good health 
 as she approached her eighties, her vigor began to lessen 
 and she suffered some impairment of hearing. At last, when 
 she thought she was "missing too much," she resorted to a 
 hearing aid for occasional use. When the salesman was tell- 
 ing her of ways to conceal the battery, she finally inter- 
 rupted with, "I see no reason to conceal it." Nor did she 
 try to conceal the one she finally chose. She wanted an 
 effective aid, and that was all. 
 
 As her eightieth birthday approached, the home econom- 
 ics faculty began planning to celebrate it. I was delegated to 
 find out what would be most pleasing to her. Armed with 
 
 95 
 
taffy apples, I took her to one of our favorite spots for 
 watching the sunset, and when darkness was almost upon 
 us, I broached the subject. 
 
 She wanted no celebration. The faculty had done too 
 much for her as it was. She was getting deaf and wasn't 
 very good at social things. There was more, and from long 
 experience I knew there was nothing to do but listen until 
 she had talked herself out in monologue fashion. 
 
 When my turn came to speak, I assured her that she 
 would have to leave town if she were to avoid a celebration 
 of some sort. That gave her pause, and I was able to tell her 
 what had been discussed — a dinner or afternoon reception 
 at the University Women's Club. If it had to be — and I 
 could see that she was becoming interested — it had better 
 not be a dinner, for you had no chance to talk to anybody 
 except those near you, and a reception at the club was a 
 touch-and-go affair. 
 
 Then I proposed a tea at my house. This struck the 
 right chord. Guests wouldn't come in crowds and there 
 would be no time limit. I was to promise not to insist upon 
 "all the young assistants who hardly know me" attending 
 as a duty. 
 
 As a matter of fact, almost every one of the faculty and 
 former members of the faculty came, and I know of no one 
 who felt it a duty call. Isabel was in high spirits — she had 
 on a new blue dress, sat in her favorite chair when she 
 wanted to rest, and made of it a gala performance for all 
 of us. It was well after seven o'clock before the last guest 
 left. 
 
 Nearing the End 
 
 After the holidays two years later, in 1942, while showing 
 
 96 
 
me her tree and the gifts around it, she said that that Christ- 
 mas had been one of the best she had ever had. She recounted 
 the social things she had done — enough to weary a much 
 younger woman. But when going home from a party early 
 in January, she seemed unusually quiet, and I asked her if 
 she felt well. She said she did but was tired. On Twelfth 
 Night she sent word that she was going to the University 
 hospital but didn't expect to be there long and didn't want 
 people to know. She had had a heart attack and Dr. Draper, 
 son of the president who brought her to the University, 
 thought the hospital was the best place for her. 
 
 She stayed in the hospital until early March, then went 
 home. She was better for a while, then not so well. On 
 my office calendar of March 15, I find this jotting, placed 
 there after my daily visit: "a courageous, intelligent woman 
 meeting the inevitable." Two days later, on March 17, she 
 died. She was buried in the Bevier family plot in Plymouth, 
 Ohio. 
 
 When her will was read it was found to contain a para- 
 graph giving to the Board of Trustees of the University of 
 Illinois the sum of five thousand dollars, the income from 
 which was to be used by the Board as a lecture fund for 
 the Department of Home Economics. The general theme of 
 the lectures, which she specified, was to be "the philosophy 
 of home economics, or, stated in another way, [they] are to 
 deal with the scientific, economic, esthetic, and social as- 
 pects of home and family life, in order that the woman so 
 trained may be enabled to apply this knowledge in her daily 
 tasks in her home, family, and community life in accordance 
 with the finest intellectual and spiritual ideals." 
 
 That was the only item in her will she had ever men- 
 tioned to me, and she charged me to see to it that "the 
 
 97 
 
brethren," as she called them, used the money for home 
 economics and not for some other cause they might think 
 more worthy on this campus where mens interests, she be- 
 lieved, usually had first consideration. 
 
 The Bevier Lectures 
 
 Dr. Henry C. Sherman, Mitchill Professor of Chemistry 
 at Columbia University, gave the first lecture, "Food and 
 Nutrition Today and Tomorrow," on May 15, 1945. 
 
 "No words can express my gratification," Dr. Sherman 
 began, "in the honor of this call to speak on your campus 
 in appreciation of our mutual friend, Isabel Bevier, whom 
 I met as a fellow chemist forty-seven years ago when we 
 were both assisting in Professor Atwater's nutrition investi- 
 gations, and whom I have ever since held in the very high- 
 est esteem. 
 
 "After the topic for this lecture had been settled, I 
 learned that the series of annual lectures of which this is 
 the first are expected, as the years roll 'round, to cover many 
 aspects of life, yet to be unified through the fact that all are 
 to bear upon 'the philosophy of home economics/ And Pro- 
 fessor Bevier seems to have put 'philosophy* in quotes to 
 mark it as admitting of individual interpretation. 
 
 "Today's talk will deal with the most practical of our 
 concerns, our daily food; yet, like most scientific lectures, 
 it aims to be philosophical in the literal sense of appealing to 
 the love of learning. 
 
 "We want to know, as exactly as we can, the nature of 
 today's view of food and nutrition, and of the new power 
 that comes with our new knowledge and insight in this 
 field." 
 
 After his usual scholarly and delightful presentation of 
 
 98 
 
his subject, he closed with this forward look: "Ending as 
 we began, with an invocation of the spirit of the Bevier 
 Lectureship, may we each carry with us throughout a to- 
 morrow long enough to bring it into effect, this thought: 
 that the How of excellent nutrition for all is not too difficult 
 a problem for this generation when we also remember its 
 Why — that this is a good goal in itself, and that, more 
 importantly than any previous generation could conceive, 
 we now see that it implements all other human endeavors." 
 
 The opening and closing paragraphs of the second Bevier 
 lecture, The Heritage of Home Economics in Illinois, by 
 Frances L. Swain, retired director of home economics in 
 the Chicago public schools, and a life-long friend of Miss 
 Bevier are included here because they show how Isabel's 
 personality, her homely advice, and her wisdom stayed as 
 an intimate part of the thought and experience of the 
 younger professional women who came into close associa- 
 tion with her. 
 
 "I am deeply honored," Miss Swain said, "to be invited 
 to come to this University in response to the mandate of 
 Miss Isabel Bevier's will. It would be presumptuous for me 
 to attempt to add honor to her name, but I do have a vivid 
 picture of the way she urged us to 'stand up and speak up 
 to the best of your ability/ I should be untrue to her exam- 
 ple and her teaching if I did not do my best in handing 
 on what I have of inspiration and information concerning 
 the earlier leaders in home economics in our state of Illinois." 
 
 Frances Swain spoke of the fortunate contacts Illinois 
 had enjoyed with Ellen Richards and continued: "By no 
 means the least influential of Mrs. Richards' students to come 
 to Illinois was Isabel Bevier, whose name has been given 
 permanence in this University where she worked so long 
 
 99 
 
and so well for home economics. ... I should like to leave 
 with you a definition of home economics which Miss Bevier 
 gave to me one day: 'The purpose of home economics is to 
 interpret through the daily task and in the common life 
 ideals and standards for individual, home, and community 
 life/" 
 
 After telling briefly of prominent Illinois home econo- 
 mists, Miss Swain closed her talk with: "In Plutarch's Lives 
 we find a paragraph which describes the value of a back- 
 ground of knowledge of the past: It was for the sake of 
 others that I first commenced writing biographies; but I 
 find myself proceeding and attaching myself to it for my 
 own; the virtues of these great men serving me as a sort of 
 looking glass in which I may see how to adjust and adorn 
 my own life. Indeed it can be compared to nothing but 
 daily living and associating together; we receive, as it were, 
 in our inquiry . . . and select from their actions all that is 
 noblest and worthiest to know . . . what more effective 
 means to one's moral improvement.' It is with a recognition 
 of this value of biography as well as a desire to pay tribute 
 to the women who laid the foundations on which you are 
 building that I ask you to remember with gratitude our 
 heritage in Illinois." 
 
 The next lectures were given in 1950 under the general 
 title, "What Education for Women?" Dr. Florence Kluck- 
 hohn, Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department 
 of Social Relations at Harvard University, spoke on the 
 topic, "Women — America." Dr. Bancroft Beatley, President 
 of Simmons College, took for his subject, "Another Look at 
 Women's Education." In introducing the speakers, Dr. 
 Janice M. Smith, head of the Home Economics Department 
 at the University of Illinois, paid tribute to Isabel Bevier: 
 
 100 
 
"The education of women in college was a subject on 
 which Miss Bevier had written with great insight. In 1918 
 she wrote 'Home Economics has a chance to teach some- 
 thing of the beauty of life and the unity of life, to teach 
 that there is an art in a well-ordered home and a well- 
 ordered life; and that perhaps is the greatest thing that 
 home economics has to do/ 
 
 "And in 1925, 'Women need ... to remember it is 
 their God-given business to mother the race. For this high 
 and holy calling no courage is too great, no sacrifice too 
 costly, no education too high/ 
 
 "Surely few faculty women in the annals of the Uni- 
 versity of Illinois or in the whole breadth of Home Eco- 
 nomics have left such a memory — of understanding, vision 
 and inspiration. 
 "Strength, courage, wisdom, a keen sense of humor, high 
 intelligence and purpose are some of the qualities mentioned 
 by those who knew her. Those of us in Home Economics are 
 particularly grateful for the wisdom she evidenced in the 
 early plans for the work here." 
 
 After pointing out in some detail the various roles of 
 women in present-day American society and their problems 
 Dr. Florence Kluckhohn said in part: 
 
 "From the educational point of view what we have done 
 and are still doing is to train our young girls for independent 
 autonomous roles which in patterning are extremely similar 
 to masculine roles. But it is education, as has been indicated, 
 largely on a contingency basis. They should expect to act 
 independently only if necessity demands. Typically they are 
 asked to forsake such autonomy upon marriage and assume 
 a representative role — the general domestic one, for which 
 they have very seldom been systematically trained. 
 
 101 
 
"Since the small or nuclear American family is such that 
 members characteristically interact with the outside world 
 as independent agents, the burden put upon the wife and 
 another of having to assume a dependent representative role 
 is considerable. Today with families smaller than ever and 
 with urban patterns having supplanted the neighborhood 
 pattern of other years, the problem of isolation has become 
 acute. 
 
 "Thus it is that even though American women have won 
 a relatively high legal, moral and political status, even 
 though they exercise an influence and dominance which is 
 unknown to the women of most societies, they are not gen- 
 erally content or very well adjusted. They are confused and 
 everyone else is confused about them. . . . 
 
 "Clearly, what is called for is the kind of thinking and 
 the kind of education which will make of the woman's role 
 a bifurcated one, permitting a combination of a limited 
 occupational activity and a truly creative domestic role. The 
 goal of interesting women in their homes and training them 
 for the work is a goal of first importance, but it must coin- 
 cide, perhaps even follow, a recognition of women's right to 
 have a defined place in the economic structure for which 
 she is also trained. 
 
 "The basic educational problem is that of educating 
 both men and women for the attitudinal acceptance of such 
 an integrated role. Much of this must be achieved at early 
 ages in our homes. Schools and colleges can do much more 
 than they now do to further such attitudinal change. More 
 specific training in schools and colleges for both aspects of 
 the role can also be developed, but again it is idle to suppose 
 that the mere inclusion of courses devoted to the domestic 
 arts will have much of the effect we desire until the attitudes 
 
 102 
 
toward the value of domestic activities is vastly altered from 
 what it now is. . . . 
 
 "What we can do by way of educating women in our 
 schools and colleges for the specifically feminine domestic 
 role is severely limited by the deeply rooted cultural attitude 
 that education is the same for all, regardless of sex or other 
 differences. 
 
 "It is this attitude, in combination with the culturally 
 defined belief that all activities should be made rational and 
 scientific, which has led to a slanting of what domestic 
 training there is in the scientific direction. It is, in other 
 words, no accident that homemaking programs were once 
 called domestic science and that college departments now 
 carry the title 'Home Economics/ Could it be that more 
 stress upon the artistic and less upon the scientific would 
 bring a change in the evaluation of domesticity by both 
 women and men? Has even motherhood, as mothers let 
 themselves be governed by the latest book, become more a 
 science than an art of human relationships? 
 
 "These are speculative suggestions within the frame of 
 the more certain argument that efforts, strenuous efforts, 
 must be made to alter prevailing attitudes both toward the 
 domestic aspect of the feminine role and the role of women 
 as productive members of our occupational system. . . . 
 
 "We do need to utilize, much better than we now do, 
 the energies of our women in full, do need to give women 
 an opportunity for an expression of their various abilities 
 and the special trainings provided by American education, 
 but we cannot do this at the expense of family life. Let us 
 then train women for jobs that are typically women's jobs in 
 time and scope, and at the same time train them for domestic 
 functions which social rewards and not moral diatribes 
 
 103 
 
declare to be both valuable for and indispensable to our 
 whole society. There is no cultural law which states that 
 persons must confine themselves to one kind of activity. 
 It is our one great fault as a people that, loving achievement 
 and success as we do, we have asked all competitors to put 
 their cars on one and the same track — the economic one. 
 Perhaps it will be the great contribution of our women to lay 
 bare the fallacy in such reasoning." 
 
 Dr. Bancroft Beatley opened his discussion of women's 
 education with a brief review of its history in our country. 
 In his opinion, "the issue today is not whether women can 
 pursue the same collegiate program as men, but whether 
 they ought to do so in view of the different roles that men 
 and women play in our common life. There is a growing 
 body of evidence that women's education needs re- 
 examination." He then cited proof of this need and con- 
 cluded by saying: 
 
 "One of the most obvious improvements needed in 
 women's education today is the offering of instruction in 
 homemaking, at least to the extent of home management and 
 child guidance, in all colleges attended by women, and the 
 encouragement of all women students to include in their 
 programs some experience in this area. In common with civic 
 education, education in homemaking is a must* if we accept 
 the logical deductions of the functional theory as applied to 
 the education of women. . . . 
 
 "Many uninformed persons think of vocational or techni- 
 cal education as synonymous with training in skills. Though 
 some marketable skill must result from vocational education, 
 the higher the occupational level the more the training must 
 emphasize technical intelligence. Since the occupations 
 which college women will seek to enter are of a professional 
 
 104 
 
or at least semiprofessional character there is a large body 
 of facts, ideas, and principles on which successful work in 
 these occupations depends. Technical intelligence is the 
 what and the why, rather than the how. All the skill in the 
 world in the preparation of food will not make a sound 
 nutritionist. She must first of all be a competent student of 
 dietetics. Dietetics, in turn, is an organized body of subject- 
 matter drawing its materials from such established disci- 
 plines as chemistry, physiology, pathology, physics, eco- 
 nomics, sociology, and psychology. Skills are an essential and 
 worthy part of job preparation, but we must relate them 
 constantly to the fundamental ideas and principles which 
 constitute technical intelligence. If we do this, we can be 
 confident that our graduates will qualify initially for po- 
 sitions in fields that challenge their abilities, and that they 
 will have the basis for progressive growth toward positions 
 of larger responsibility commanding their best efforts." 
 
 Considering Isabel Bevier's interest in the house, the 
 lecture given March 16, 1953, by James Marston Fitch, 
 architectural editor of House Beautiful, on the subject, "The 
 American House at Mid-Century," seemed particularly 
 fitting. The following few paragraphs taken from his notes 
 will show the general trend of his talk. 
 
 He said: "In the house, as in other areas, we stand 
 astride two eras. And we will be better able to plot our 
 course in the new era if we better understand the old. 
 
 "If this is so, then it is a happy coincidence which brings 
 us together here in Illinois this evening. For it is precisely 
 here in the Midwest that these forces can be traced with 
 especial clarity. . . . 
 
 "The main effect of industrialization has been to change 
 the house, even the farm house, from a center of production 
 
 105 
 
to a center of consumption. And the most conspicuous archi- 
 tectural evidence of this has been the shrinking size of the 
 house. . . . 
 
 "Yet diminishing size is the least important aspect of 
 what has happened to the houses: its changing function is 
 what matters. I said a while back that a direct causal line 
 connects the first McCormick reapers with the first houses 
 by Frank Lloyd Wright. For Wright's houses were the first 
 expression, at a high architectural level, of the changed 
 society which Mr. McCormick and his kind had wrought. 
 They were the first expression of the modern house in its 
 urbanized, economically nonproductive role. . . . 
 
 "A house is a tool, a complex instrument, for manipulat- 
 ing your environment. It is of course different from most 
 other tools if for no other reason than that you live in it. It 
 affects — I might almost say, it controls — more aspects of 
 your life than you dream of — your work and rest, concen- 
 tration and relaxation, moods and emotions. You experience 
 a house with all your senses: sight, hearing, touch, smell. 
 Temperatures, drafts, odors, noises, glare and gloom, all 
 have a direct bearing on your well-being. Therefore when 
 it comes to a house don't judge it by looks alone. 
 
 "Now I do not mean to imply that there's anything wrong 
 with a house being good to look at; in fact, any really good 
 house must by definition satisfy our esthetic as well as our 
 practical requirements. But looks are only one measure of 
 its worth. Here ordinary common sense is a good solvent. 
 Instead of asking yourself: Do I like the looks of this 
 house? ask yourself: Do I like the feel of this house? Do I 
 like its sound? Do I like its smell? In short, what is its all- 
 around performance? . . . 
 
 "If the house tradition established by Wright and the 
 
 106 
 
Greene Brothers seems more promising today than these 
 glass cages [he had just discussed houses in which large 
 amounts of glass are used], it is largely because they have 
 recognized two simple facts: the nature of our climate and 
 the nature of man himself. They have recognized that there 
 are times when we want the flooding sunlight of a green- 
 house, times when we need the close security of a cave. 
 Times when we need the broad expansive outlook, times 
 when we need privacy. Actually, a good house should pro- 
 vide both. The chief virtue of modern house-building tech- 
 nology is that it can do just that. . . . 
 
 "You will have noticed I imagine that I have preached 
 a sermon on the golden mean. There is no cause for undue 
 pessimism, certainly none for uncritical optimism. Our 
 houses stand in much the same state as our society as a 
 whole. And because they reflect so accurately our values 
 and mores as a people they can only deteriorate or improve 
 as we do ourselves/' 
 
 Isabel Bevier's books, her lectures, and her articles sup- 
 plement her accounts of her years of preparation and her 
 work at Illinois. In them she expressed her philosophy of 
 home economics. The material which appears here for the 
 first time and the reprinted excerpts are her revelation of 
 what she knew and felt about home economics and the 
 education of women. 
 
 Summary of the Bevier Philosophy 
 
 Because her lectures and her articles represent her pro- 
 fessional self they contain fewer glimpses of her rare 
 personality but reveal more of her rare mind. And most of 
 what she wrote is not "dated." Her chief interest was in 
 educating women to be capable, attractive, influential mem- 
 
 107 
 
bers of their homes and their communities. She recognized 
 that women have a different role in society from that of 
 men. In a period when "the right to compete" was a fem- 
 inist battle cry, she looked beyond competition to a supple- 
 menting of the work and thought of men. She believed 
 women should be offered more than "a blind imitation of 
 the education of men" — that their educational opportunities 
 should be different because their objectives are different. 
 Since her ideas forecast those of many educators today who 
 are especially interested in the direction which women's 
 education shall take, what Isabel Bevier had to say as an 
 intellectual pioneer is of as lasting interest as her work in 
 home economics. 
 
 Her liberal arts and specialized training, her interest in 
 the political, social, and economic responsibilities of women, 
 together with her experience in high school and college 
 work, combined to lend authority to her opinions. She 
 examined the problem of suitable college education for 
 women thoughtfully from many angles and came to her 
 conclusions after years of study, observation, and experience. 
 
 Her clear-cut ideas and definiteness of purpose gave sig- 
 nificance to all she said in her lectures. In one sense the 
 quotations given in this book let her speak again. In another 
 sense quotations are not quite enough, for it was not entirely 
 what she said but the way she said it that appealed to her 
 audience and gave her words the influence they had. 
 
 Isabel's Charm 
 
 The records of Isabel's lectures reflect only imperfectly 
 the richness of the talk itself. Stimulating as her words are, 
 they do not convey to the reader the effect of the address on 
 the people who heard her give it — the f eeling of elation in 
 
 108 
 
any audience where her clear, far-ranging thinking found 
 its way into spoken words. 
 
 She spoke with greatest charm when the talk was im- 
 promptu and informal. When she "committed it to paper," 
 as she expressed it, she left out many of the asides we had 
 especially enjoyed. We often told her so and she responded 
 with a chuckle and a promise to do better. But even if we 
 had a record of the unexpected humorous comment and the 
 apt illustrations that enlivened her speech under the stimulus 
 of an audience, there would still be missing the warmth of 
 her voice, the animation of her face, and the strong mag- 
 netism of her physical vitality. 
 
 She could challenge the thinking of an academic group 
 or appeal to the common sense of a popular audience. Com- 
 ments made by a reporter on a small town newspaper about 
 a talk by Isabel in 1917 give some idea of the impression 
 she made on her audience. 
 
 "The best talk of all was made by Miss Bevier, who is 
 head of the Household Science Department. I supposed she 
 would be very scientific and tell us about a lot of things 
 that would be all right for people who had money and lived 
 in town and had all the modern conveniences, but she was 
 very practical and I thought how glad we ought to be to 
 have a woman like her in our state university. Girls who go 
 there to school wont get any foolish impractical ideas from 
 her, you may be sure. One of the best things she said was 
 that men thought women were unbusinesslike and did not 
 know how to take care of money. But she said that it was 
 because they were never told to spend wisely but always 
 told they must save. She said she would like to have the 
 pocketbook transferred to the woman for one week and for 
 that time the man should have full control of the butter- 
 
 109 
 
and-egg money to buy what he needed, and she would 
 choose that time when the hens were moulting and the 
 cows were dry. 
 
 "I was glad to have her say that we will always be obliged 
 to wash dishes and cook meals and keep our houses clean. I 
 never have had much faith in those who tell you that you 
 ought to be able to press a button and do the dishes or turn 
 a crank and have the washing done. But it is true we are 
 doing a lot of unnecessary work and things we could get rid 
 of if we only set our minds to it. She told about the woman 
 intending to make a cake who had to climb up on a chair 
 to get the recipe out of the cup on the third pantry shelf. 
 I don't know whether she knew that I keep mine there and 
 that every time I make an angel cake I have to go over all 
 the recipes to find that one. 
 
 "The subject of her lecture was 'After the New House- 
 keeping What?' It wasn't to be buying food out of a can or 
 everyone living in a boarding house. It was merely to be 
 better housekeepers, with more time for rest and relaxation 
 and enjoyment and being able to do some of the things we 
 wanted to do. I was glad that so many of the Review readers 
 could hear her talk, but I wish that every housewife in 
 Illinois might have heard her." 
 
 110 
 
Chapter V 
 
 Ideas Into Action 
 
 Isabel Bevier came to Illinois with a perceptive, open 
 mind. She quickly made use of her training in developing a 
 curriculum suitable to a land-grant college. Enthusiastic, 
 though never fanatic, she advocated educating women for 
 the life most of them would lead as wives and mothers. 
 
 Her interest in science and the home predates Illinois, 
 going back to Dr. Atwater's laboratory and her work with 
 bread, to her study of the nutritive problems of the Negroes, 
 and to her work in sanitary engineering with Mrs. Richards. 
 But except for her course on chemistry and food, developed 
 earlier, her applications were made at Illinois and there 
 her educational theories came to a focus. 
 
 She was consistently unwilling to offer college courses 
 devoted almost entirely to skills, unwilling to mortgage the 
 students' time with specialized home economics subjects to 
 the point where courses in history, economics, literature, 
 and art were crowded out. She stood for a liberal college 
 course with a major only in home economics. 
 
 Isabel's Book 
 
 She did not see home economics as isolated from the long 
 
 111 
 
evolution of ideas regarding formal education, but as a 
 logical development. She believed home economics students 
 must be given this feeling of continuity and some under- 
 standing of the difficulties the movement had faced if they 
 were to comprehend fully their opportunities and obliga- 
 tions as home economists. With this in mind she taught a 
 course on the home economics movement and with Susannah 
 Usher in 1906 wrote a small text, as previously mentioned. 
 Revised, it was published in 1924 as Home Economics in 
 Education. This book has been valuable to persons charged 
 with the responsibility of interpreting and guiding the 
 destinies of the home economics movement. She dedicated 
 it, "To my girls, who for many years have been my inspira- 
 tion and my pride." Her "girls" were her students, and the 
 dedication of her most important publication reflects her 
 deep regard for them. 
 
 The first sentence of Home Economics in Education 
 states its purpose: to consider the development of home 
 economics and its relation to the higher education of women. 
 Isabel comments that "lack of suitable historic background 
 has often been responsible for wrong ideas in regard to 
 modern movements in education." Dating the idea of voca- 
 tional education back to the sixth century B.C., with skill and 
 discrimination she traces the history of ideas out of which 
 grew the modern conception of home economics. 
 
 Isabel Bevier's careful study of the problems involved in 
 the education of women was evident in every phase of her 
 work. Her awareness of the past enabled her to understand 
 the present more completely and fit home economics into 
 the needs of the twentieth century. 
 
 As early as 1898, two years before coming to the Uni- 
 versity of Illinois, Isabel gave an address before the Domestic 
 
 112 
 
Science Department of the Mechanics' Charitable Associa- 
 tion of Boston which was reported in The American Kitchen 
 Magazine of December of that year under the title, "The 
 U. S. Government and the Housewife." In it she discussed 
 the nutrition investigations then being carried on in the 
 U. S. Department of Agriculture and included some quota- 
 tions from Bulletin No. 28, The Chemical Composition of 
 American Food Materials, an early landmark known to all 
 students of nutrition. Her two closing paragraphs are so 
 revealing of her common-sense attitude that they are 
 quoted here. 
 
 May I be allowed to offer a word of protest here against spending 
 time and money in making marvelous combinations for indigestible 
 desserts? A sort of "food fancy work," with far too much fancy and 
 too little food for human nature's good. Doubtless fancy work has its 
 place in the world, but most people prefer pillows to pillow shams, 
 and a well broiled steak to puff-paste. 
 
 I neither expect nor desire any sudden revolution in reference to 
 our daily diet. Probably your brothers and mine will continue to eat 
 pie, and I see no occasion for hysterics on our part if they do; but I 
 do confidently expect that there will come gradually into all our 
 homes, a domestic science more worthy of the name, and that the 
 American housewife will learn to think in terms of nutritive value. 
 
 Thus her sanity, patience, and good humor brought a 
 statistical paper to a happy close. The paper itself reflects 
 the combination of qualities she was to bring into the new 
 educational movement when in two years she became head 
 of the household science department at the University of 
 Illinois. As a scientist she insisted her information have 
 statistical proof obtained through research, but her in- 
 terpretation and her recommendations were always some- 
 thing the homemaker "could live with," as she often 
 remarked. 
 
 113 
 
Although on various occasions Isabel expressed her 
 feeling that art could be brought into all the practical 
 activities of the home, she perhaps never did so more 
 pointedly than in a talk which she called, "Art in the Home." 
 
 Possibly this subject suggests to many of you that I am about to 
 speak of rugs from the Orient, paintings by the old masters, marbles 
 from Italy, treasures from many lands. 
 
 But for such an undertaking I have neither the requisite 
 knowledge nor the desire. I wish rather to see how the principles of 
 art may be applied in our homes to the daily tasks and the common 
 life. . . . 
 
 The table that looks as if a whirlwind had struck it is not artistic. 
 
 The products of home activities come under these rules of art. 
 The indiscriminate mess of fruit and vegetables sometimes placed 
 before one as a salad, the spanked biscuit, and the lopsided loaf of 
 bread are sometimes found where art is interpreted to mean abundant 
 leisure and an oil painting. That group of people is often more 
 interested in the "The Angelus" in art than in art in the home. 
 
 I have spoken thus because it seems to me the women's clubs of 
 our country can do much in bringing the art spirit into homes and 
 communities if they will turn their attention to it. Lorado Taft said 
 he felt the extension-education women had gone much further in 
 teaching art in common life than the sculptors because they had 
 begun where the rural woman wanted help — in the use of color in 
 her clothing. They had taught her both form and color, largely by 
 showing her how to dress becomingly and furnish her house artistically. 
 
 114 
 
Chapter VI 
 
 Special Opinions 
 
 Men in Household Science 
 
 In a memorandum to the student newspaper, The Daily 
 Illini, 1905, Isabel protested the University catalogs impli- 
 cation that "household science" was for women only. She 
 felt the subject was of value to men as well as to women and 
 important in the whole program of public health. In stressing 
 the idea that physicians should know something of the 
 nutritive values of food, she was advancing an idea new to 
 most people in 1905. She labeled her protest, "A Mis- 
 apprehension." 
 
 The last number of the University Bulletin voices an opinion that 
 is quite too prevalent concerning the work of departments of house- 
 hold science. Most people have rather a hazy and indefinite idea 
 concerning the courses offered in such departments, but feel that they 
 can speak definitely with regard to one fact concerning their work; 
 namely, that it belongs to women only. They apparently forget for 
 the moment the statement that is always made concerning such a 
 department, namely, that it has to do with the affairs of the home, 
 that it deals with the essentials of life, air, water, food, shelter, and 
 clothing. If these statements are kept in mind it is easy to see that 
 courses in this department are not based upon sex lines. 
 
 115 
 
As all human beings need air and water, food and shelter, it is 
 quite desirable that all human beings should have some knowledge 
 concerning these essentials, so courses in domestic architecture are of 
 interest and value alike to men and women. It is quite desirable that 
 both should understand the principles of construction, the require- 
 ments of good building, the principles of decoration. Again, in these 
 days in the treatment of diseases more importance is laid often upon 
 the food given the patient than upon the medicine. It is therefore 
 most desirable that a working knowledge of the selection, preparation, 
 nutritive, and dietetic value of food should constitute a part of the 
 training of the physician. As a matter of fact, medical students of 
 the Massachusetts General Hospital have been known to take such 
 courses. Again, the individual home can realize its ideals of sanitary 
 and esthetic requirements only in an atmosphere of strong public 
 sentiment in this regard. 
 
 There is a strong demand that the question of public health shall 
 be made a part of the training of the youth of the land. One can but 
 feel that if the topics suggested above should be included in the 
 training of college students, both men and women, its results would 
 be seen in better houses, more beautiful surroundings, cleaner streets, 
 and the Board of Health would not so often feel that their entire duty 
 to their municipality had been served when they had provided a 
 pest house, but neglected the question of safe water or the disposal 
 of sewage and garbage. 
 
 Bevier the Writer 
 
 When she was preparing her writing for publication, 
 Isabel edited it carefully. Her conception of formal writing, 
 part of her liberal arts training, made for dignified and 
 forceful prose. But when she was composing a first draft or 
 when she was speaking extemporaneously, she could not 
 repress her humor or her gay disrespect for all that was 
 stuffy and pretentious, especially in educational theory. 
 Among her papers appears a fragmentary, rough draft, with 
 notes penciled between the typing, of her trenchant com- 
 
 116 
 
ments given in Iowa City in 1909 on, "The Trend Toward 
 the Practical in Education." 
 
 The "trend toward the practical in education" is one of a dozen 
 titles under which the disapproval of our present public school system 
 is expressed. Under whatever term discussed, the conclusion seems 
 unfailing that something is the matter with the public schools. I feel 
 assured that you have little interest this morning in tracing the 
 history of the steps by which we have arrived at this condition. As 
 someone says, "It is not necessary for each of us to burn our hands 
 in order to know that fire burns. Our neighbors' scars are often 
 sufficient to convince us." And I am equally certain that I would not 
 have been asked to stand in this place at this time if there had not 
 been in your heart the hope that I might contribute in some small 
 degree to the answer to that other universal question, "What are you 
 going to do about it?" Realizing the limitations of both my experience 
 and knowledge, and feeling assured that no single opinion will be 
 of any great value, such as I have I give gladly, trusting that in 
 intention, at least, I shall not disappoint your hope. 
 
 Bevier's Great Defense of the Schools 
 
 Let me bring to your mind, if I may, two pictures: the interior 
 of a public school building, and the throng outside. 
 
 Inside are the crowded rooms, with all the paraphernalia of the 
 modern classroom — charts, pictures, globes, blackboards, and appara- 
 tus of many kinds — as well as an eager, restless throng of pupils and 
 a somewhat tense teacher. The company represents all shades of 
 thought and feeling, but teacher and pupil alike apparently agree 
 in a desire to get through with the thing in hand so as to be ready for 
 the next to which that bell will certainly call. (Pupils get through 
 with subjects these days or get them off, not in.) 
 
 Little wonder if at the close of the day both are wearied with the 
 chase rather than enriched mentally and morally by the journey. The 
 teacher says, "Oh dear, I didn't get half through with the things I 
 hoped to do." The conscientious pupil thinks with dismay of the 
 failure to recite. The dullard goes with joy to the game he really likes. 
 
 The throng on the outside are loud in their condemnation of what 
 
 117 
 
is being done on the inside. Even though many of them are quite 
 ignorant of what is being attempted, they are sure something is 
 wrong, and apparent proof is given to their statement by the numbers 
 who leave the school before the eighth grade is reached and by 
 inefficiency all along the line. Little wonder if the tension on the 
 inside makes abnormal relations seem normal and if in the din, 
 confusion, and misapprehension of the outside, confusion inside be 
 not worse. 
 
 Comparing Schools with Industry 
 
 Surely this is a time for some thinking, for sympathetic investi- 
 gation, for careful discrimination between essentials and nonessentials, 
 and for a cheerful optimism that realizes how much worse off we 
 might be, in fact have been. We ought to realize, it seems to me, 
 that some of our difficulties are due to growing pains. We hear much 
 fulsome oratory about the tremendous scale in which everything is 
 being done in the United States. Adjectives fail. Industry, art, and 
 science each confesses its inability to keep pace — why should the 
 school system, which is the mirror of this complex life, be expected to 
 keep pace? Why, I have had in my high-school classes boys who 
 grew so much in one night that they could not tell the next morning 
 how far either their voice or their feet would reach if let loose. How 
 could you expect a day school system to care for a nation of them? 
 
 For years we trained the brain, or tried to, as if there were no 
 hands in this body which housed the brain. Some enthusiasts now 
 seem likely to go as far to the other extreme and to act as though a 
 skilled hand could be secured without any reference to the brain to 
 direct it or to the body of which it is a part. "Efficiency" is the test 
 word now. Idealism is pronounced very impractical and culture quite 
 unnecessary. True, some so-called culture always has been and 
 always will be quite unnecessary, but the kind which Dr. Draper 
 thus defines will always be useful: "Culture worth seeking in or out 
 of the schools must come from labor upon things worth doing and 
 from the influence of the power to do and the pleasure of real 
 accomplishment upon the soul of the one who does." 
 
 In the final analysis the world has always wanted and still wants 
 
 118 
 
cultured men and women, capable with brain and hand; with moral 
 backbone enough to do what they believe is right as God gives them 
 the power to see the right, and these men and women have come 
 and will still come from the ranks of the public school. 
 
 What then shall be done with the school programs? 
 
 The things that are in them only because they have always been 
 in them shall be scanned and probably largely eliminated. Illustrations 
 shall be taken from daily life rather than Greece and Rome. Not all 
 forms of the savage state need be illustrated in the work given. Some 
 children pass through several of those stages in a week and some of 
 them better not be illustrated. The briefest allusion to or acquaintance 
 with a cat, a worm, or a fish better not be designated as nature study 
 and classified as concepts or precepts. The child ought to learn to 
 use and appreciate the English language. If he must give himself to 
 the battle of life, to earning bread and butter even after he leaves 
 school, let him have tucked away safely in his memory some words of 
 inspiration for his hour of need. 
 
 Shall we have vocational studies? Surely. Shall we have cultural 
 studies? Surely. Inside this schoolroom we are to have the life that 
 now is on the outside of it, so that the exit to the life outside shall not 
 leave the individual stranded and useless, not knowing how to find 
 his place or do any small part of his share of the world's thinking or 
 doing. It must send him out not only good but good for something. 
 Because these children are human beings, universal human needs 
 must be considered in the program. They must know how to meet 
 the primal needs of food, shelter, and clothing, how to live and work 
 with others. 
 
 So much for general principles. In these days of psychological 
 pedagogy and pedagogical psychology I read that women do not 
 understand how to deal with boys, so I leave them to men and 
 limit the further remarks that I have to make to what may be expected 
 of girls in the public schools. 
 
 The remainder of Isabel's spirited paper on the practical 
 in education has been lost. However, her conviction that a 
 practical education for a girl provides her with an apprecia- 
 tion of her place in life, technical skills in household man- 
 
 119 
 
agement, and a good business sense is evident in the paper 
 she presented before the North Central Association of 
 Colleges and Schools meeting in Chicago on March 25, 1911. 
 "Home Economics in the High School and University" 
 reflects the careful consideration she had been giving to the 
 phases of home economics suited to teaching programs in 
 elementary school, high schools, and colleges. As chairman 
 of the syllabus committee of the American Home Economics 
 Association and the moving spirit behind the syllabus pub- 
 lished by the University of Illinois, she wielded a great 
 influence in shaping teaching programs. Comparing her 
 ideas in the following paper with the contents of the two 
 syllabi convinces one of the close relationship between them. 
 Records of her part in discussion at Association meetings 
 furnish further evidence of the strength of her influence. 
 
 High School and College Homemaking 
 
 As I see it the main purpose of this work in both high school and 
 university is the same, viz., to provide, as an integral part of the 
 girl's training, work with the materials, the processes, and products 
 of the home to the end that the girl may go from both high school 
 and university with some appreciation of the place of woman in home 
 and family life, with a first-hand knowledge of its processes, some 
 technical skill in, and business sense concerning them. The necessity 
 for such work is due, as you all know, very largely to changed 
 conditions, to the pressure of modern life, to the evils of specialization, 
 which provides one teacher to train the head and another the feet 
 of the girl, and yet another to care for her morals. Explain it as you 
 will, the fact remains that the girl in the home even of the middle 
 class knows little of the processes of the home. 
 
 I have thus hastily sketched some tangible results to be obtained by 
 work in domestic science in the high school, but I would remind you 
 that the most valuable results are often those which yield themselves 
 least easily to listing processes — or catalog systems. This seems to me 
 
 120 
 
particularly true of results of domestic science work. Who shall say 
 what inspiration for better living conditions, what aspirations for 
 purer social and personal ambition are fostered by this work? 
 
 When we come to consider the part of home economics in the 
 university, the horizon is widened by the better training of the student, 
 the longer time, the larger liberty of choice in the offerings. In the 
 high school work I put the emphasis upon the art side, upon utilitarian 
 results, upon the things that seemed to me the minimum result in any 
 kind of a high school. Some accomplish much more than was suggested. 
 In the university, home economics seems to me to serve as the latest 
 interpretation of that much discussed question, the education of 
 women. 
 
 Recognizing her audience as college educated and inter- 
 ested in the intellectual progress of women, Isabel, in ad- 
 dressing the alumnae of Glendale College in 1911, made 
 the specialties of women's education her subject. Her talk 
 was published as an article in the Wooster Quarterly of April, 
 1911. In the fifty years since the founding of Vassar it had 
 been proved that women could learn as well as men, and 
 now the question was no longer one of brain power but of 
 appropriate use of brain power. Since she felt that one 
 answer to the problem of distinguishing women's education 
 lay in her field, Isabel entitled her article, "College Women 
 and Home Economics." 
 
 Out of two subjects, each so inclusive, it is difficult to select 
 material for a brief address. Perhaps the time element is the one 
 most easy to use in definite statements. It was in 1865 that Vassar 
 college was founded, so we may say that the procession of college 
 women has been marching for about fifty years and that in the past 
 twenty its numbers have increased many fold. The past two decades 
 have witnessed not only changes in the numbers of this procession, 
 but also in its training, its ideals, its avocations and vocations, its 
 recreations, its social activities, its religious practices. 
 
 As one has said of the college life of forty years ago, "We took 
 four years of our youth and devoted them quite unconsciously to the 
 
 121 
 
intellectual life and to the ethical spirit. We sought and we gained, 
 both from work and from play, each according to his desires and his 
 capacity, an entrance to the intellectual life." Without "sources" in 
 history or literature, without an elective system or research, without 
 laboratories, seminars, or any of the paraphernalia of the modern 
 college, "we acquired, most of us without being conscious of the fact, 
 the rudiments of a liberal education." "We caught a glimpse of the 
 liberating truths, of that wisdom which makes one not wholly alien 
 or ill at ease in the silent society of the leaders of the thought and 
 life of all ages, nor out of place in the company of those whose lives 
 today are guided by the wisdom of the past and inspired by the 
 vision of the future." 
 
 So much by way of explanation of the beginnings. Even the 
 attempt to portray the past shows how alien its spirit is to that of 
 the present day. For already I hear the ever-present question, "What 
 results are there to show for these fifty years in woman's life and 
 work?" In the midst of so much destructive criticism perhaps it is 
 well to recount positive results of these forty years, so well summed 
 up by President Eliot: First, that young women can carry difficult 
 subjects as well as young men can. Second, that the physical vigor of 
 young women is not harmed, but rather improved, by a college course. 
 Third, that neither the morals nor the manners of a young woman 
 are injured by higher education. 
 
 To these it seems to me there might be added a broader outlook 
 on life, a keener perception of its relations, capacity for teamwork, to 
 which numerous social and religious organizations bear witness. 
 
 We all know that along with these practical results has come an 
 entire change of spirit and methods in the modern college. Buildings, 
 endowment, laboratories, students, teachers, equipment of all kinds 
 in a material way are but symbols of the inner change of form and 
 spirit. One has represented the change in these words: "We have lost, 
 the 'sweet serenity of books/ and we have not gained the freedom 
 of pure research. We have lost the independence born of detachment 
 from life and have not gained the poise of practical efficiency. We 
 have suffered and are suffering from that distraction of spirit which 
 always accompanies great and rapidly acquired gains, too large to be 
 quickly mastered or readily put to full and easy use." 
 
 122 
 
So much for the present situation, for the present unrest in the 
 college world. It is well to have this history of forty years for a 
 background, while considering plans for the present and future 
 education of women. It is well to know that women have both brains 
 and strength for the most difficult problems of higher education. Of 
 course women have always known it, but to have proved it is another 
 and quite different affair, one which ought to bear much fruit in 
 school programs. 
 
 Years ago women's colleges felt it incumbent upon them to dem- 
 onstrate this proposition, and so some energy was expended in 
 developing courses of study as difficult as those given in men's 
 colleges, while the women in coeducational institutions were very 
 zealous in keeping step with the men so far as studies went. Gradually 
 the truth dawned upon both men and women that this was not wholly 
 a question of brain power, but of the use of this power, and that it 
 might be desirable sometimes to use it in the same way and some- 
 tim« for very different ends. As Commissioner Brown has so well 
 said, "The battle for woman's education as a simple human need has 
 been fought and won. The integration of women's education has 
 been accomplished, its differentiation has not been." And he regards 
 the latter as a difficult task. 
 
 This question of the suitable differentiation of women's 
 education has long been the occasion for a vast amount of 
 discussion in print and in lectures, forums, symposiums, 
 committee reports, and panels beyond number. Isabel 
 Bevier's clear and straightforward approach to this subject 
 was in sharp contrast to the foggy and unrealistic thinking 
 present in many of these discussions. 
 
 ... This then is the question still unsolved. How shall women's 
 education be differentiated? When and where shall the differentiation 
 begin? I do not hope to solve it, only to give some suggestions con- 
 cerning its solution. As one looks at the splendid achievements of 
 these graduates of thirty and forty years since in home, school 
 church, community life, one feels inclined to advise against radical 
 changes, but as one talks with these women themselves of the devious 
 
 123 
 
ways by which "they have arrived" one finds them asking that other 
 avenues of training be opened. All recognize that life demands from 
 a woman today quite different activities from those of twenty-five 
 years since. 
 
 Wisely or unwisely woman is more in the public eye than 
 formerly, assumes more responsibility in civic life, in philanthropic 
 organizations, has more economic independence, more social power; 
 so there is an insistent call for training that will prepare for entrance 
 into these various fields. 
 
 In coeducational institutions, with the elective system so large a 
 factor, one finds an answer to the call in new courses in applied 
 science, in economics, sociology, the family, social ideals, but for the 
 most part the women's colleges have clung tenaciously to the tra- 
 ditional studies, modified to be sure, but yet not differentiated in any 
 special way, but the industrial spirit bids fair to break all bonds and 
 to make a place for itself in the most conservative institutions. One 
 finds in technical and professional schools opportunities for secretarial 
 training, and for social service workers. Indeed, this latter field seems 
 to attract a very large proportion of present day college graduates. 
 
 One other new departure is making a large place for itself in the 
 minds of students of life and in the school programs outside of 
 women's colleges ;viz., that subject which forms the latter half of my 
 topic, home economics. We have had forty years of college women 
 and ten of organized home economics. Until the past few years, home 
 economics has not found much favor as a college subject with the 
 older generations of college women. Greek has been preferred to 
 dietetics, though the chooser was ignorant of both. It has been ex- 
 ceedingly difficult for women trained in the old regime of family life 
 and family industries to realize how much of their inheritance has 
 gone out of the home life and training and how dire is the necessity 
 that the child have an opportunity to secure this training somewhere. 
 
 It is a mere platitude to say that the industries have gone from 
 the home; quite usual to rejoice that they have gone; yet that is only 
 half the story. Where have they gone? Do machines or men or women 
 or children carry on these industries? Under what conditions of 
 labor? and, perhaps more pertinent still, what is done with the leisure 
 so secured? Where do the individuals get the training they formerly 
 
 124 
 
acquired in these home industries? Family life may express itself 
 differently in different ages and places but its cardinal principles — 
 consideration for others, self-sacrifice, honesty and economy — are 
 unchanged and must be learned somewhere. Where can you find a 
 more suitable environment for comradeship and cooperation for 
 worthy ends than within the family circle? 
 
 I realize that the term home economics is to some a "stone of 
 stumbling," to others "a rock of offense" — that to some it means 
 baking and millinery, to others old wives' tales. But there are people 
 who (while not regarding it as a balm for all the woes of life), see 
 in it a sane and safe program for meeting some of the demands of 
 this industrial age. 
 
 Out of the ninety and nine definitions given for it, let us take a 
 brief one, such as, home economics stands for wise expenditure in the 
 affairs of the home. What does that statement imply? That depends 
 on several things. Your definition of home: What is it? The place to 
 go when the other places are shut? The place to sleep and eat? The 
 place to dress in to go somewhere else? The place to have company? 
 Is it not the center about which family life revolves, to which they 
 come for rest, comradeship, and inspiration, the safeguard of the 
 family and the state? 
 
 Reduced to simplest terms, its material basis is a house. This 
 suggests architectural design and construction. For in the houses we 
 build and furnish we give, perhaps quite unconsciously, our definition 
 of home. Further, it implies a knowledge of the supplies of the 
 home — food, textile fabrics, art, metals — because there can not be 
 wise expenditure without knowledge. Henderson says, "If one does 
 not know where one wishes to go, there is small chance of success 
 in devising a process for getting there." Also it implies a knowledge 
 of household processes and products. This means a fairly large 
 knowledge of science, history, and literature. 
 
 Wise expenditure suggests a knowledge of the principles of 
 economics. It is said that three-fourths of all money expended is 
 expended by women or for women. Why, then, should they not learn 
 how to spend? To be sure, much of this knowledge may be gained by 
 one's self if one lives long enough and works at it assiduously, but is 
 there any good reason why women's colleges, aided and abetted by 
 
 125 
 
their alumnae, should not give themselves seriously to the study of 
 the kinds of education adapted to present day needs? 
 
 Let us quote further the words of Commissioner Brown: "There 
 will be some day preparation for mother-work, for homemaking, for 
 woman's leading part in the finer forms of social intercourse, which 
 will do on the higher academic plane what was done in a more 
 petty way generations ago in popular finishing schools for girls. 
 There is to be further a serious preparation for woman's part in the 
 economic, the industrial, and even the political world." Why not this 
 preparation here and now? 
 
 Women are in the business of homemaking; they are in the eco- 
 nomic and social world, yes, even in the political world. Have they 
 had that training which fits them to bear their part well in all these 
 places? Where have you had opportunity to learn homemaking? In 
 high school? No. Because you were working hard at college entrance 
 requirements. In college? No. You lived in residence halls with little 
 even of home influence. In your own homes? No. Because you were 
 busy in school, in church, in club; besides, you were not expected to 
 do anything at home. The cook presided in the kitchen, in which 
 sometimes, on promise of good behavior, you were allowed to make 
 candy. Mother or the maid cared for the dining room. The laundry 
 disappeared down the chute. Sewing was sent out of the house or to a 
 remote corner. What chance have you had to learn by doing or even 
 by seeing done? You may know how a well kept dining room ought 
 to look, but do you know just how to clean glass, to polish silver, or 
 even to dust well one chair? 
 
 Some of you who are in your own homes can recall, I am sure, 
 the time when you realized that the business of housekeeping was 
 something quite different from a chafing dish supper or fine 
 embroidery. 
 
 Under the present order not all of this knowledge can be acquired 
 in many homes; if it is ever learned, it must be in school. Many of 
 the schools are willing, but hesitate because of the additional expense. 
 Just here, it seems to me, it will be well to correct some misappre- 
 hensions as to this question of expense. 
 
 It seems to me well to begin by seeing what material in the way 
 of equipment at hand can be put to new uses. Good courses in home 
 sanitation can be given with almost no new material in all our 
 
 126 
 
women's colleges — the same may be said for a course in applied art 
 where there is already work in art. The library doubtless affords 
 much material for a course on "the family.** Economics is probably 
 in the curriculum already and can easily be supplemented by a course 
 on family budgets. History and literature courses can be made to 
 yield much data about the place of women in family and public life. 
 Current magazines supply much material for a course on the house — 
 its construction, plan, and furnishing. 
 
 By all these an atmosphere can be created in the college and an 
 attitude of mind which makes students ready for work on the home 
 as a whole. In time a kitchen will be needed, but it need not be so 
 expensive; that is not the chief lesson it is to teach. Rather it is to be 
 a pleasant, convenient workshop, where intelligent people shall prepare 
 food with economy of time, energy, and money; where respect for 
 skilled labor shall be learned; where some of the first principles of 
 the business of housekeeping which so many women work at or wail 
 at shall be learned, so that the girl of today who is the homemaker 
 of tomorrow shall not be so unequal to her task. 
 
 When we can do a thing well, it loses for us much of its terror. 
 Ignorance is responsible for much of the bondage of housekeepers. 
 It is found that by giving about one-fourth of the time usually spent in 
 a college course to work dealing with the activities of the home, the 
 girl may acquire a working knowledge of these affairs and yet have 
 time for history, literature, art, and science. Thus she will leave the 
 college halls better equipped to take her place in the world's life 
 and work, whether she serve in the family circle or in the larger 
 community life. 
 
 127 
 
Chapter VII 
 
 In the Land-Grant College 
 
 IflucH of the achievement in the field of home economics, 
 much of the general progress of women in the academic 
 world and in society should be attributed, Isabel Bevier felt, 
 to the distinctive contributions of the land-grant college. 
 She was always glad to address the Association of Land- 
 Grant Colleges and Universities and what she had to say 
 was invariably well received. 
 
 In 1906, after six years in a land-grant university, Isabel, 
 in the "vernacular of Illinois," told the Association what she 
 knew and what she had seen in home economics. Coeduca- 
 tion, she said, had revealed to women a field of applied 
 science belonging quite as much to them as to men. Aware 
 of the difficulty in obtaining funds for a new department, 
 she explained how little was needed for home economics and 
 how the course work could be arranged to take advantage 
 of that already offered in other departments. 
 
 When we recall that this talk given in 1906 antedated 
 the organization of the American Home Economics Associa- 
 tion by two years, we are again impressed by her original 
 and constructive contributions to the evolution and wide- 
 
 128 
 
spread growth of home economics in the field of education. 
 While thinking primarily of higher education for women in 
 the roles they usually fill, she was always mindful of the 
 important part the man plays in family life and emphasized 
 it again and again. But she was a realist and believed that in 
 most homes it was the woman who set the standards and 
 was the administrator of the household. 
 
 Her address, "Home Economics in a College Course," is 
 likely to be useful and pertinent for a good many years. 
 
 It seems like carrying coals to Newcastle to have one who has had 
 but a brief experience of six years of the work of home economics in 
 a land-grant college speak to those who have been a part of the work 
 for thirty years. However, such as I have, I give unto thee gladly, 
 and if the story seems too personal or savors too much of the vernacu- 
 lar of Illinois, it is because, being neither a prophet nor the daughter 
 of a prophet, it seems best to speak of that which we do know and 
 testify of that which we have seen. 
 
 It is not necessary in this audience to spend time in discussing 
 the name or content of my field. Whether it be called domestic 
 science, domestic economy, home economics, or as one Englishman 
 put it, domestic knowingness, you understand that, reduced to its 
 simplest terms, home economics includes those courses which have 
 to do with the activities of the home along the lines of applied art, 
 applied science, and applied economics. 
 
 This statement shows the work is not limited by sex lines -the 
 facts of economics, science, and art are the same for men and women 
 - the applications may or may not be the same. The home decorator 
 may be of either sex, but must know the principles of art. In these 
 days a knowledge of dietetics is essential for the physician - man or 
 woman. Yet so long as the world is constituted as at present, the 
 administrative side of the home is likely to be largely in the hands 
 of women. It is said that 90 percent of money expended is expended 
 by women or for women. Therefore the subject as a whole is of 
 peculiar interest to women. 
 
 For our present purpose it seems better to consider the subject 
 
 129 
 
under two main divisions: (1) Factors in the development of home 
 economics. (2) Its possibilities. 
 
 It seems to me much of the misconception concerning home 
 economics has been due to the fact that comparatively few people 
 have regarded it in its educational aspect, or considered it in its 
 relation to other subjects of the college curriculum. It has been to 
 many, a stone over which they have stumbled, but have passed on 
 without stopping to consider whence it came. Closer study reveals 
 the fact that home economics as it now exists in our colleges and 
 universities is a part of a general educational movement, that several 
 factors have contributed to its development. I name as some of these 
 factors: education of women, technical schools, coeducation, changed 
 industrial and social conditions, and the land-grant colleges. 
 
 Let us recall briefly some of the steps in the education of women. 
 You realize that inadequate as the training was which was afforded 
 by the reading, writing, and grammar schools that it was provided 
 for boys only. Girls might be taught, but they were not to be 
 admitted to the schools. The Dames* Schools were the only organized 
 agency outside the home for the education of girls and they are said 
 to have afforded opportunities to learn needle work, dancing, and 
 improvement in manners. 
 
 It is interesting to note the steps of progress in the education of 
 girls as evidenced by their admission to the reading and writing 
 schools for one hour per day, of their instruction in the summer in 
 arithmetic, geography, and composition, by their brothers who were 
 Yale students and the various devices by which they were presented 
 "with the crumbs of education. 
 
 While New England led in provision for the education of its 
 girls, some attention was given to their instruction in other parts of 
 the country. The Moravian school at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, is 
 among the earliest. However, it was not until the last decade of the 
 century that they were granted even a part of the privileges of the 
 grammar schools. Special vocational courses at the Michigan and 
 Illinois Industrial Universities were opened to women, while cooking 
 and sewing were introduced into the schools of the Eastern states. 
 The idea of manual training received a great impetus in the Cen- 
 tennial Exposition of 1876 and led in the next decade to the founding 
 
 130 
 
of schools for manual training in most of the large cities, the first 
 being established in St. Louis in 1879. 
 
 By the close of the 19th century it was evident to the student of 
 educational affairs that the industrial spirit in education was a 
 mighty factor; that courses in applied science and applied art (their 
 interpretation and application to the activities of daily life) would 
 have a place in the school programs and that a knowledge of the 
 classics was no longer the measuring unit for educational standards. 
 
 Women Spared Experimentation 
 
 While much is to be said concerning the advantages of being the 
 first to enter a new field there are compensations for being behindtime. 
 The fact that the education of women has lagged behind that of the 
 men has saved much experimenting on the women. The technical 
 schools for men practically settled both the technical and educational 
 value of such training for women. 
 
 It is perhaps difficult now to appreciate just how much coeduca- 
 tion and the technical schools have meant in the development of the 
 education of women, particularly in work in home economics. To be 
 sure, in the early days of coeducation the women were so interested 
 in keeping step, intellectually, with the men that they gave themselves 
 sometimes too strenuously to the joy of that privilege. Again, applied 
 science for men as taught in the technical schools gave a certain 
 definiteness to their work in science, which was much needed in 
 woman's work in those lines. 
 
 A Color, Odor, Explosion 
 
 It is not perhaps too much to say that much of woman's early 
 work in chemistry was a more-or-less indefinite playing with test 
 tubes in which one of three results was expected — a beautiful color, 
 a bad odor, or an explosion. She was not long in discovering that her 
 brother took chemistry and bacteriology not because someone had 
 told him that it ought to form a part of a liberal education, but 
 because he expected to use this knowledge later in his work with 
 soil or in the dairy. 
 
 Women were thus helped to see that there was a field of applied 
 
 131 
 
science for women as well as for men. They realized later that the 
 laws of heat could be illustrated by the kitchen range quite as ade- 
 quately as by the steam engine, that the life history of bacteria could 
 be studied in many household processes, and that the chemistry of 
 food was in many cases better suited to their needs than that of stones 
 under the title, "determinative mineralogy." Thus there came into 
 being the applied science side of home economics. Applied art was a 
 later development. 
 
 For more than thirty years some of the land-grant colleges have 
 had work in home economics. Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois were pioneers 
 in this movement and from that early day to the present no one agency 
 has been more effective than the land-grant college. In the past decade 
 the number of such departments has greatly increased in the land- 
 grant colleges until now they number thirty-six. 
 
 No one agency has seen the possibilities of the subject so clearly 
 or laid for it such broad and deep foundations. These colleges are, 
 and have ever been, schools for the people — schools for the home. 
 It has been their particular province to determine and interpret the 
 principles underlying the work and the life of the farm and the home. 
 Agriculture and home economics have had much in common in their 
 development. Both are among the newer subjects of the college 
 curriculum, so they have had to bear the questioning that is bestowed 
 upon any new idea, the indifference of those who feel that "the old 
 way is the best way," and the scorn of the student of the classics 
 for "bread and butter education." 
 
 Home Ec. Not All Hot Biscuits 
 
 The agriculturist has had no difficulty in recognizing the need of 
 the scientific basis in his own field, and he appreciates perfectly the 
 necessity for it in home economics. He never makes the mistake of 
 interpreting home economics as baking and millinery. As a result of 
 the investigation and teaching of these colleges, the old idea that 
 anybody can farm and that anybody can "keep house" has well nigh 
 disappeared; and with it the idea that farming means plowing only 
 and that the activities of the home are fully represented by the 
 making of hot biscuits. Changed ideals concerning essentials in 
 education, and the marvelous development of the work of the agri- 
 
 132 
 
cultural colleges have served as an incentive to better work in home 
 economics, and both agriculture and home economics have steadily 
 made perceptible progress toward better educational standards. 
 
 It has been well for both agriculture and home economics that 
 their origin and their materials have kept them closely in touch with 
 the people and so keenly alive to their needs. The spirit which ani- 
 mated the founding of the land-grant colleges was the spirit of the 
 development of the individual that he might yield better service to 
 the nation so that the nation's interests might be advanced. So the 
 final outcome of either line of work has always meant better homes, 
 better citizens. One great factor in the development of both subjects 
 has been the generous support afforded them and the consequent 
 freedom to try experiments that required time and money that few 
 private enterprises could command. 
 
 It is evident then that in the varying lines of work included in the 
 term home economics there is room for a great variety of agencies 
 and very diverse methods of procedure. It would also appear that 
 there yet remains to the land-grant colleges and the state universities 
 the task which was peculiarly theirs in the beginning, viz., the 
 strengthening and deepening of the scientific basis in the work in 
 home economics. It is theirs to determine the principles which underlie 
 processes with which the world has long been familiar and to elucidate 
 and interpret the newer phenomena in their relations. It is their 
 privilege to dignify labor by sending forth from their halls, not 
 farmers, merely, and cooks, but educated men and women who, 
 because of their knowledge and skill in the practices and principles 
 of the arts of the home, shall be able to use them as a means of 
 expression for their best endeavors in the service of others. 
 
 The possibilities of home economics are limited by: the resources 
 of the institution, the skill and tact of those who plan and conduct 
 the work, and the attitude of those in authority in the college. 
 
 Plus Values in Homemaking 
 
 When one mentions resources, the listener is apt to think of the 
 endowment fund or the legislative appropriation only. Few realize 
 how much of the materials of the work of other departments can be 
 
 133 
 
utilized by the department of home economics or how much illustra- 
 tive material can be secured from manufacturers for the asking. 
 
 As departments are managed in land-grant colleges, that of home 
 economics is not an expensive one to equip or maintain. House sani- 
 tation, for example, can be taught in any reputable college with 
 practically no additional expense. The same is true of chemistry of 
 food. Only the other day the dean of women in a small college 
 regretted that the college was debarred from having such a department 
 by the additional expense it entailed and I felt that she did not 
 appreciate how much might be done with the resources already at 
 hand if utilized, and here may I suggest what seems to me is a 
 frequent mistake in beginning such a department, viz. y the feeling 
 that nothing can be done until an expensive kitchen equipment is 
 secured. 
 
 It seems to me that the average girl in the land-grant college 
 knows more about the food supply in the home than she does 
 concerning the wise use of color and form and fabric in it and that 
 much is to be gained by using the house, its construction and sani- 
 tation as the basis for the study of home and family life. The food 
 supply takes its place then as one of the factors in the home life and 
 work. Her love of beauty, her sense of form and color, the necessity 
 of a knowledge of fabrics and furniture, are all brought into use in 
 the furnishing of this house. And all the while the student is helped 
 to a better appreciation of the meaning of home and family. 
 
 With regard to skill, tact, and knowledge of those who direct the 
 work, out of all that might be said on this subject I prefer to select 
 •only a few points which seem to me general principles. If the field 
 includes applied art, economics, and science the need for specialists 
 is quite evident. No one individual could be expected to have 
 sufficient knowledge. The work of organization leaves little time for 
 the research needed to meet the questions that come to such 
 departments daily. 
 
 Dietetics and Decoration 
 
 Dietetics in these days does not mean fads and foibles about food. 
 It means the latest and best information the chemist, physiologist, 
 and cook can give us about the composition, preparation, and digestion 
 
 134 
 
of food. Decoration does not mean a b'ttle daubing of color on china, 
 but rather a knowledge of the principles of architecture, art, and 
 design, with ability to portray color and form. Henderson says, "If 
 one does not know where one wishes to go there is small chance of 
 success in devising a successful program for getting there." So if one 
 is to apply science one must know pure science. 
 
 It is said that Boston is not so much a place as an attitude of 
 mind. It is particularly true of home economics that it is an attitude 
 of mind. Some college authorities seem to act on the supposition that 
 a thousand dollar kitchen and a two thousand dollar woman will 
 insure a satisfactory department. That is a serious mistake. Within 
 the past month two such women have told me they felt that they 
 were working against a stone wall because of the attitude of their co- 
 laborers. The patronizing smile and the calm indifference are alike 
 deadening to the work. Sympathy, appreciation, and helpful criticism 
 are needed — not "passing by on the other side." 
 
 I speak thus strongly and freely because I have no grievances 
 of my own. No one has had or can have more loyal and generous 
 support than has been given to me in the University of Illinois. In 
 conclusion, then, it seems to me you, as men in authority in land-grant 
 colleges, can best serve the interests of home economics in your 
 institutions by protecting and improving those courses. 
 
 At the semicentennial celebration of Ohio State Uni- 
 versity (October 14, 1920) Isabel gave an address entitled 
 "The Land-Grant Colleges and the Education of Women," 
 which was later published in leaflet form. 
 
 Fourteen years had passed since her address to land-grant 
 administrators, just quoted. Her carefully prepared and con- 
 vincing statements in the earlier talk had borne fruit. She 
 had been called upon to give advice and counsel to some 
 of these college administrators individually, as well as to the 
 women administering the home economics programs. Few 
 of the latter had the kind and quality of college training that 
 Isabel Bevier had, and few had her breadth of experience 
 and her qualifications of scholarship. 
 
 135 
 
In the following talk she speaks with more assurance, 
 having behind her twenty years of successful experience as 
 head of the department at the University of Illinois. Her 
 remarks are of particular interest to anyone wanting to know 
 more about the development of home economics in land- 
 grant colleges and its relation to the education of women. 
 
 The education of women is a subject of perennial interest par- 
 ticularly to men. It has long been the battleground of many conflicting 
 opinions. In order to better appreciate the contribution of the land- 
 grant colleges to the education of women, it may be well to review 
 briefly some salient points in the education of women in the United 
 States prior to the founding of the land-grant college. 
 
 Educational ideals in the early history of the United States con- 
 sisted largely of those transplanted from the mother countries. This 
 fact is clearly shown in the education of men, though it is not so 
 evident in the education of women, because their formal education 
 was about two hundred years behind that of the men. Vassar College 
 was founded in 1865, Harvard in 1635. 
 
 Investigation shows that the present status of the education of 
 women, however interpreted, is the outgrowth of many conflicting 
 opinions. Deep down in their hearts many Americans have a good 
 deal of regard for the German conception of women's education 
 represented by their three K's: Kirke, Kinder, Ktichen. In contrast, 
 the following are the qualities to be cultivated, as given in 1793 by a 
 Philadelphia divine in his Letters to a Young Lady: "A genteel person, 
 a simple nature, sensibility, cheerfulness, delicacy, softness, affability, 
 good manners, regular habits, skill in fancy-work, and a fund of 
 hidden genteel learning." Again, there is the training which President 
 Thwing said transformed the drudge to the doll, and in this con- 
 nection it is well to recall the names of Anne Hutchinson, Abigail 
 Adams, and Susan B. Anthony to show that something more than 
 "fancy-work and a fund of genteel learning" was needed to satisfy 
 some women even in those days. 
 
 Out of many notable contributions to the education of women 
 made by women, three at least deserve honorable mention in this 
 connection. Emma Willard had the vision to see and the courage to 
 
 136 
 
say: The character of children will be formed by their mothers and 
 it is through the mothers that the Government can control the 
 character of its future citizens." So she sought State appropriation 
 for her work. 
 
 Mary Lyon saw all life through religious lens and simplified life 
 by one dominating purpose — the glory of God — but this meant also 
 the best development of the individual and education was a mighty 
 factor in this service. In order that the poor as well as the rich 
 might have the benefit of education, she devised the scheme which 
 we now dignify in our college life by the name of cooperative house- 
 keeping, with the religious element, alas too often, omitted. 
 
 Catharine Beecher, with the prophetic insight associated with that 
 family, supplemented by study and travel, saw the hopelessness of 
 the situation for women unless housekeeping could be made re- 
 spectable, unless it could be connected with the fundamental science 
 for a basis and so interest the brain as a compensation for tiring the 
 muscles. Her desires crystalized in 1852 in the organization of the 
 American Woman's Educational Association "to aid in securing to 
 American women a liberal education, honorable position, and re- 
 munerative employment," or, in the phraseology of today, economic 
 independence for women. 
 
 From this review it would appear that several points about 
 woman's education were settled by 1865. First, that something more 
 than morals and manners and genteel learning must be offered them. 
 Second, the coeducation was a safe experiment. (In this battle Ohio 
 has an honorable record. Oberlin was the first college to open its 
 doors to women.) Third, that the work at Mt. Holyoke had borne 
 fruit and a real college for women (Vassar) was about to be opened. 
 Fourth, the pioneer life had necessitated comradeship in work and 
 made possible comradeship in education. It would appear that the 
 time was ripe for a new instrument of education that should embody 
 these ideals. 
 
 We come now to the work of the land-grant college in the edu- 
 cation of women. 
 
 These colleges were born in the minds of men who had the 
 vision to see life whole and large. The land-grant college was a 
 protest against narrowness in education, as the statement, "while not 
 
 137 
 
excluding the classics, but adding agriculture and mechanic arts," 
 shows. These leaders recognized that a democracy demands that all 
 the people be educated and that a task so great could be met only 
 by national resources. So, it seems to me, the first contribution which 
 the land-grant college made to home economics was latitude in 
 education; breadth. 
 
 A glance at the beginnings of our land-grant colleges shows that 
 in the decade between 1865 and 1875 the greater part of them were 
 founded and that almost immediately the doors of those in the West 
 were opened to women. It is difficult to overestimate the importance 
 of this second contribution to the education of women. It is a far cry 
 from the time when Noah Webster in his Letters to Young Ladies 
 exhorted them "to be content to be women, to be mild, social, and 
 sentimental," to the statement made by the Secretary of Agriculture 
 in his report of June 30, 1897, as follows: 
 
 "Among the educational movements which in recent years have 
 engaged the attention of the public, none has been received with 
 greater favor than the attempt to introduce into schools for girls and 
 women some systematic teaching of the arts which are practiced in 
 the home. Many of the colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts, 
 together with scientific, technical, and industrial schools, now maintain 
 a department of domestic science. Cooking and sewing are quite 
 commonly taught in the public schools, and cooking schools for women 
 have been organized in numerous places. While useful instruction in 
 these lines is imparted, it is generally recognized that much remains 
 to be done before the teaching of domestic science can assume its 
 most effective form." 
 
 On this occasion it seems desirable to give some specific informa- 
 tion about the beginning of home economics in the land-grant college. 
 
 Through correspondence with these colleges it appears that the 
 pioneers in the work were Iowa, Kansas, and Illinois. Iowa and 
 Kansas have maintained some form of work in home economics since 
 1869 and 1873, respectively. Illinois gave courses in home economics 
 from 1874 to 1880, the present department being organized in 1900. 
 The Ohio State University has maintained this work since 1896. 
 
 One recognizes that whether it be in the home, in the corn- 
 unity, or in the nation, an idea requires for its propagation money 
 
 138 
 
 
and equipment. The third great contribution was a place and equip- 
 ment. Sometimes, in the beginning, this meant a basement or an attic 
 room, but the splendid buildings set apart for home economics here, in 
 Wisconsin, in Oregon, are tangible evidence of the willingness of 
 those in authority to share out of their abundance or their poverty 
 for the maintenance and development of home economics ideas and 
 ideals. 
 
 Another contribution to home economics by the land-grant colleges 
 has been courses of instruction. In his report of 1909 the Secretary of 
 Agriculture makes the statement that he is chairman of a committee 
 on courses of education in land-grant colleges, and that his energies 
 have been expended on planning a four-year course in home eco- 
 nomics and a one-year course in animal husbandry. I call special 
 attention to the sense of proportion indicated in this statement. There 
 have been people who would have reversed the order. 
 
 In the early days the land-grant colleges gave not only elementary 
 courses in home economics, but provided for its further development 
 by making a place for it in the graduate schools of agriculture. 
 
 The demand for carrying the instruction of the agriculture college 
 to the farm was soon followed by the request that it be taken also 
 to the home and to the home-maker. It is a marvelous accomplish- 
 ment of which most of us have no adequate conception, that the 
 women throughout the length and breadth of the land may get, 
 through their connection with the land-grant colleges, the latest 
 scientific facts about the problems of their daily life. The extension 
 service with all its faults has made a tremendous contribution to 
 education. 
 
 Until 1914, although the land-grant colleges had made their 
 contributions, had shared with home economics generously for the 
 most part of their talents, their time, and their money, the federal 
 government had not yet risen to the full measure of its obligation. 
 The Smith-Lever Act is a memorable one for home economics because 
 by it agriculture and home economics were written side by side in 
 the records of the nation. Through this means the federal government 
 proclaimed that it realized that the success of farm life was to be 
 judged not only by the number of flocks and herds or bushels of 
 corn and wheat, but also by the character of the home life on the farm. 
 
 139 
 
And so another great door of opportunity was opened for human 
 betterment; another chance was given for men and women, hand in 
 hand, to work at the world's problems. That, to me, has always been 
 one of the very great benefits that the land-grant college has given 
 to our daily life — the fact that the men and women have worked 
 together at the world's problems. 
 
 The recognition of the need of taking care of the women in the 
 home was quickly followed by plans for the improvement of secondary 
 education along similar lines. The Smith-Hughes Bill, to be sure, 
 cannot be credited with having been written for the benefit of home 
 economics, but when it came to put the ideas for which it stood into 
 effect, the leaders found that home economics was recognized as so 
 necessary a part of education for women that its claims could not 
 be ignored. And so through our land-grant colleges we have another 
 fund for bringing to the secondary schools the training of teachers in 
 home economics. 
 
 The land-grant colleges have given not only equipment, courses of 
 instruction, and training of teachers, but a large body of literature of 
 inestimable value to the student of home economics. Scientific studies 
 in the chemistry of food, physiology, specific investigation in meat, 
 milk, wheat, wool, cotton, furnish a wealth of information to the 
 student of home economics. 
 
 The work of the land-grant colleges was multiplied many fold by 
 World War I. We were only fairly well started, speaking by and 
 large, in the field of extension service when there came this sudden 
 emergency which demanded that every man, woman, and child do 
 his bit in meeting the terrible requirements of the hour. Again, the 
 land-grant colleges, through their extension service in home economics, 
 enabled the women of the country, along with the men, to stand in 
 the first line of defense at home and by voluntary sacrifice to save 
 food not only for the boys on the far-flung battle lines, but also for 
 the women and children of other lands. 
 
 So much for home economics in the land-grant college in the last 
 fifty years. What of the present hour? What shall the land-grant 
 colleges do for home economics in this year of our Lord, nineteen 
 hundred twenty? What Robertson says about sacrifice seems to me 
 applicable to the land-grant colleges: "Do right and God's recompense 
 
 140 
 
to you will be the power of doing more right. Give and God's reward 
 to you will be the spirit of giving more." 
 
 Four things, it seems to me, the land-grant colleges must do in the 
 very near future for home economics. They will, I am sure, give more 
 money, more investigations of wheat, meat, cotton, wool. They will 
 work at the problems of food because the demand is so insistent, 
 but I want them to work, and I believe they will work, more 
 definitely than ever before on the problems of shelter, of art, and 
 of research. 
 
 Our country life must be not only attractive in its material 
 setting, but there yet remains much to be done in bringing to the 
 dweller in the country an appreciation of the beauty of that en- 
 vironment. The child must be taught a love for country life and for 
 country activities. The war has emphasized the part that recreation 
 plays in a well-ordered life. Our land-grant colleges and home eco- 
 nomics have much to do in the way of glorifying the daily task and 
 showing the possible beauty of its setting. We may not paint great 
 pictures nor see the painter's work on canvas, but let us at least learn 
 to look for and to find in the beauty of earth and air and sky that 
 which shall lift us above the pettiness and littleness of the daily round. 
 Let us make life satisfying, comfortable, and inspiring. This is to be 
 no superficial contribution, but one that can come only from careful, 
 thorough research. The world has been too uneasy, has lived too 
 much in crowds in the past four years for the cherishing of productive 
 work which requires time for thought. All of us need more or less to 
 sit alone with ourselves, to have time "to think but one good 
 thought." 
 
 So I believe the land-grant colleges will meet with increased 
 appropriations and more careful consideration the demands made 
 upon it. And, greater yet, it will give what has always seemed to me 
 its greatest contribution — the attitude of mind, the willingness to 
 investigate and to experiment, to separate the false from the true, to 
 evaluate life and to enrich it. 
 
 In the early days of my own work, I very soon learned to dis- 
 tinguish whether passing visitors, of whom there were many, belonged 
 to the land-grant college or to the traditional classical school, by the 
 response which they made to my statement: "We are working at the 
 
 141 
 
problems of the home from the scientific basis." The man from the 
 land-grant college said: "Yes, the home opens up a very interesting 
 field for the application of science." The man from the classical 
 school looked at me a little questioningly and said: "Yes, yes — are 
 we a little late for breakfast? Are the biscuits gone?" In other words, 
 the former understood my language. He had worked at having people 
 understand that the activities of the agricultural college were not 
 explained solely on the basis of plowing. Having spent $10,000 for 
 investigations in the breeding of corn, he could appreciate that it 
 might be desirable to spend $1,000 in the study of the home. 
 
 It would appear that the land-grant college, in addition to the 
 task to which it has responded so generously, namely, the strength- 
 ening and deepening of the scientific basis for the study of the home, 
 must undertake to teach something more of the art and the beauty 
 as developed in the social and economic aspects of our common life. 
 The land-grant college must send forth men and women who shall 
 be eager and able to use their knowledge of and skill in the practices 
 and principles of the arts of the home as a means of expression for 
 their best endeavors and so enrich country life not only in material 
 ways, but also in the finer and less tangible things of the spirit. 
 
 142 
 
Chapter VIII 
 
 Adults 
 
 Isabel Bevier believed in adult education. She con- 
 tributed to its progress through her work in the extension 
 service of the University of Illinois, through her articles for 
 popular magazines, and through her talks to community 
 groups and women's clubs. To her, extension work seemed 
 the most effective means. Of the Smith-Lever Act she said 
 that it "unified, multiplied, and organized scattered efforts 
 into one mighty force for adult education." 
 
 On November 12, 1919, she presented in Chicago at a 
 meeting of the Association of Land-Grant Colleges and 
 Universities, a paper on "The Illinois Scheme for Extension 
 Work with Women." Aware that for many women World 
 War I had meant excitement and activity and the feeling of 
 participation in a great movement, she planned her extension 
 program to fill in the post-war vacuum. Reading seemed to 
 her a substitute for knitting but knowing that some women 
 would want the social outlets that war work had provided, 
 she suggested they concentrate their energies on civic 
 improvement. 
 
 It seems better that I should call attention to the points of dif- 
 
 143 
 
ference in the work in Illinois. There are a few points in which we 
 attack the problem a little differently. 
 
 First, in regard to organization: 
 
 The men and women in Illinois have separate organizations. 
 The County Home Bureaus are incorporated under the state laws; the 
 treasurer is bonded. We feel that the advantages of this method are 
 that women are put upon their own responsibility to do business and 
 must, therefore, learn business methods, so that they do get con- 
 siderable practice just in maintaining their organization. Women are 
 rather loath to undertake business and yet it is very essential that 
 they should, and this method gives them practice. It is something of 
 an undertaking to get incorporated. The women who go through it 
 know quite a little more than they did before about business and on 
 the principle that "every little helps," we think this plan has many 
 advantages. 
 
 This is just another way of saying that the conception of the work 
 has been too narrow. Home improvement is a very large subject, not 
 to be measured in terms of recipes or meetings attended, so a special 
 effort is being made this year to have the housewife work at the 
 problem as a whole. And we are helping them to that vision by 
 organizing the work in our own office under general heads, namely: 
 organization, food, health, household equipment, clothing, and school 
 lunch. We had time in the summer to really study our problem to- 
 gether, and this plan is the result of that study. 
 
 Then we called in our county advisers and conferred with them 
 regarding the plan. The county adviser is supposed to show in her 
 own office the benefits of orderly organization of work. The fact that 
 almost every adviser brought with her one of her board members 
 helps her in getting this vision of the work as a whole into her 
 county. The county adviser and her board decide the ways and times 
 in which these different parts shall be studied, and when they are 
 studied the relation of the part to the whole is carefully considered. 
 For example, in the food work we are not giving a recipe, neither 
 are we giving demonstrations as such. We are talking about food, 
 first through Doctor Langworthy's chart of the great classes and 
 functions; then we may have a lesson on milk, on vegetables, on meats. 
 But in every case the class, the use, the cost and the relationships 
 are shown. 
 
 144 
 
So much for the machinery of the task. There remains yet the 
 third point, namely, the purpose of it all, and that is perhaps summed 
 up best in the words: the glorification of the daily task, the growth 
 of the individual, and the general betterment of life. 
 
 All of us realize how restless and unsettled conditions are 
 throughout the world. The housewife has not escaped this general 
 atmosphere. She had had a good deal to do in the past two years with 
 "drives" and crowds, Red Cross groups, conservation groups, and 
 child welfare groups. She has had many calls to take her outside the 
 home. Now the banners have ceased to wave, the "drives" have been 
 given up, the Red Cross rooms are deserted. Yet there are three 
 meals to be prepared, and there is housekeeping to be done, but 
 without the stimulus of competition. Nobody is going to check the 
 housewife's product. It is to be eaten perhaps without a word of 
 appreciation, to be taken as a matter of course. A very large question 
 is, shall she be able to keep this spirit of service, this inventive 
 ingenuity. What is to be done with the time that she has been giving 
 to war work? Some county advisers have put this question directly to 
 their women. All of us have that question to answer, and upon the 
 way we answer it depends very much the atmosphere of our home, 
 the benefit to us and our community. 
 
 Two suggestions are at hand. Part of the women's time probably 
 should be given to rest. A good many women's nerves have been 
 badly worn, and the first need is to get them in better condition. 
 The second is to substitute reading and thinking for war work. With 
 the problems that are pressing now for solution (and they will be 
 determined in some degree at least by votes), it is necessary that 
 women should learn to use this right of suffrage wisely, and that 
 cannot be done without study and thought. 
 
 The community idea of service is growing and needs to be 
 encouraged. Women can really gain a good deal of knowledge about 
 the way in which their use of suffrage can be made effective, or 
 defeated by studying the politics of their local community. Many 
 women are totally ignorant of what agencies are used to get, for 
 example, a safe water supply, clean milk, and sanitary markets in 
 their own neighborhood. The question of civic improvement has many 
 angles. It is for the women to decide not to attempt everything at 
 
 145 
 
once but along which line their efforts can be made most effective. 
 The old motto, "Here a little, there a little," is to be made, "Here 
 a little and then more in the same spot." 
 
 In a letter written to Isabel while she was in California 
 in 1922, Dean Davenport commented, "What has interested 
 me more is the recent development at Washington to which 
 you refer, by which I understand the Department is putting 
 together in one office the administration of the county ad- 
 visory work in agriculture, the home bureau work, and the 
 boys' and girls' club work. I understand they are trying to 
 induce all the states to effect a single organization, putting 
 all three of these lines of work together. I have made faces 
 at this proposition as being thoroughly outrageous, par- 
 ticularly in home economics. I should like to know what you 
 think of it." 
 
 He was not long in finding out and in a hand-penned 
 letter using some of her characteristic expressions. She said 
 in part: "Seems to me that is just Yankee Smith's (in charge 
 of the Washington office of Extension) lack of vision. The 
 Washington men are evidently hard pushed to retrench and 
 being old-fashioned gentlemen fall to on the women. 
 
 "I'm inclined to think in the immediate future Smith 
 will win but I believe in the end he will lose. After all 
 women are going to have and keep a place in the world's 
 work and the quicker men and women agree to work at the 
 job together the better it will be for the world. I believe the 
 Illinois plan educated the women and teaches them by 
 making them bear the responsibility for their deeds — good 
 and bad. 
 
 "Another chapter of the same kind has been written by 
 Judge Payne, new head of Red Cross. They need to retrench. 
 Without consulting anybody he sent a note dispensing with 
 
 146 
 
the department of nutrition. The one new department which 
 was proved so necessary. 
 
 "Fortunately Surgeon General Ireland said he would no 
 more think of doing without a dietetian in the army hospitals 
 than a nurse. But even after a two-hour conference the 
 'Judge was of the same opinion still/* 
 
 Partly because of her early life on a farm and her later 
 relation to the college of agriculture in a land-grant college, 
 but quite as much because of her broad human sympathy, 
 Isabel had a great interest in farm people. She wanted rest 
 and recreation for the whole family, and, for the farm wife, 
 pretty clothes, an attractive home, and the right to spend a 
 little more than the butter-and-egg money. In 1917 she 
 spoke to an audience in Ohio on "Problems of the Farm 
 Family." 
 
 I can but feel that those who have had no association with some 
 spot of earth in their childhood days have missed much from life's 
 memories. Many farm couples who have left the land that was 
 consecrated by their best efforts that they had as it were bought 
 with the price of their own toil, have found the new house in town, 
 notwithstanding all its new modern conveniences, an empty shell, 
 because it lacks all the associations that had enriched the farm home. 
 
 To be sure, one may find a very different kind of reference to the 
 farm. It is sometimes used as a symbol of all that is crude and 
 undesirable, a fair field for the would-be social uplifter. 
 
 Modern Farm Life — 1917 
 
 In the midst of these conflicting statements, it is perhaps well to 
 stop and seek for an answer to a few questions: What do the new 
 farming and the new housekeeping mean? What ace the problems and 
 ooportunities of farm life in this year of our Lord 1917 in this state 
 or Ohio? 
 
 The new farming does not mean that men must cease to plow or 
 
 147 
 
sow or reap. The new farming means that these processes are to be 
 carried on more intelligently because the farmer knows more about 
 the character of the soil, more about the needs of different crops, 
 and can secure helpful machinery. The new farming means, too, 
 that business principles are to be considered in the work of the 
 farm. The plowing and sowing are to be mixed with brains as well 
 as brawn — with the latest discoveries about plant breeding and 
 animal feeding. 
 
 Electric Dishwashers and Irons 
 
 We hear much in these days of farm organization. Farming has 
 passed the stage when its bookkeeping was kept in a discarded copy- 
 book and its valuable papers kept on the clock shelf or in the clock. 
 The new housekeeping does not mean that dishes will not need to be 
 washed by hand. No one, so far as I know, has invented a dish- 
 washer for the family that compares in efficiency with the work of 
 the daughter. Beds will still have to be made, even if the sheets are 
 washed and ironed by electric power. At least 1,095 meals will have 
 to be prepared and served unless the family are invited out a 
 great deal. 
 
 New housekeeping and new farming does not mean a discarding 
 of the old just because it is old. It means rather an interpretation of 
 all that was best in the old order into the new forms. For example, 
 we shall not use less water, but more water. "The old oaken bucket, 
 the moss covered bucket" is replaced by the wind-pump and the 
 piping which brings the water into the house and so there is less 
 moss, fewer tired muscles, and more water. 
 
 Attitude of Mind 
 
 The new farm life means an attitude of mind that recognizes 
 that land owners are trustees of a valuable inheritance which they 
 should pass on unimpaired. It recognizes that people are more than 
 land, more than machines — that the purpose of the farm home and 
 the farm life is to produce healthy, happy, useful individuals who 
 shall find their satisfaction, their means of expression, their place of 
 contributing to the world's joy, bearing their share of the world's 
 
 148 
 
sorrow, doing their share of the world's work on the farm or in 
 the farm home. 
 
 Now for the problems. 
 
 The problems of the farm family, as of any other family, are 
 connected with food, shelter, clothing, work, rest, recreation, citizen- 
 ship, and higher life. Here, too, as with other people, undue emphasis 
 is often placed on the first three, while the other three are neglected. 
 
 The farm home usually has plenty of food. It may lack variety 
 from meal to meal. The menu may always read "bread, meat, 
 potatoes." One woman told me three things always appeared on 
 her table — onions, catsup, and crackers! This combination goes with 
 the statement of the woman, "Planning of meals — nonsense, I have 
 bother enough to get them without planning them." Here again the 
 new housekeeping teaches that ten minutes with brains, paper, and 
 pencil will save hours if it yields a plan of work. The food may 
 lack greatly on the vegetable side, it often does. Too much meat 
 and too few vegetables is the common criticism. 
 
 The farmer's family shares the common problem of securing 
 clothing — suitable and adequate clothing. The love of dainty, pretty 
 dresses is not peculiar to the town dweller. Some farm mothers, just 
 as town mothers, have denied themselves adequate suitable clothing 
 that their children might have what other children have. Someone 
 has said, "If clothes do not make the man, they make him look a 
 deal better after he is made." 
 
 Women as Spenders 
 
 It is said that women do not know how to spend money, to sign 
 a check. Neither would the man if he had never had a chance to do 
 either. Women have been taught to save, not to spend, and they 
 understand saving the quarter or the dollar. The one pocketbook that 
 belongs to father is the source of more heartaches and little decep- 
 tions than any other single element of discord. 
 
 Much yet remains to be done in the way of convenience and 
 comfort as regards the farm home. It provides shelter from the 
 summer's heat and winter's cold, perhaps in from two to four rooms, 
 but it is still true, as the school boy said, that he understood the 
 meaning of the frigid and temperate zones by his home. Statistics 
 
 149 
 
show that a very large majority of homes are not at all equipped for 
 comfortable and efficient living. 
 
 The next problem in the series named is rest, and I think this a 
 more real problem on the farm than many people realize. The tra- 
 ditions are all against it, and so are the long summer days. One 
 must get into the fields early before the sun makes it hot, and one 
 must stay after sundown when it is "cool and nice," and so the 
 opportunity for rest is taken away from both ends of the day, and 
 the noon hour is shortened to half an hour, and the overstrained 
 muscles and exhausted nerves make men and women on the farm 
 during the rush of the harvest season irritable and touchy. Sundays 
 and rainy days are precious boons just from the standpoint of giving 
 an opportunity for rest. 
 
 The farm affords an opportunity for early rising, for a fourteen- 
 hour day if one wishes it. There are farm homes where the women 
 haven't time to comb their hair before breakfast because no matter 
 how early it is ready, "a little earlier would have been better;" 
 neither is there time before dinner which must come before eleven, 
 and so the day goes in one great "gasp to catch up." It was of this 
 kind of a home that the boy remarked it was always either time to 
 get up at home or if one were up it was time to "hurry now and do 
 the chores." 
 
 It has never been clear to me why the laborer in town could keep 
 his family by working eight hours per day, while the country dweller 
 needed fourteen. I can but feel that a six-to-six day would mean 
 happier, healthier living, avoiding the strain of rush and the nagging 
 of hurry. 
 
 Recreation on the Farm 
 
 The term "recreation" is not a familiar one in the vocabulary of 
 the average farmer. It never occurs to him as one of the essentials of 
 life. Rather, it suggests weakness, waste of time, something quite 
 unnecessary, and so no provision is made for the natural God-given 
 instinct of play, and the farm boys and girls, left to their own devices, 
 find recreation in undesirable places and form bad associations. 
 
 The crowds that gather every Saturday night in the villages are 
 a standing proof of the desire for comradeship and recreation. We 
 
 150 
 
need community centers which shall study the needs of that com- 
 munity, who shall bring together the forces for good and make them 
 serve the needs of old and young alike. 
 
 If the purpose of living is kept clearly in mind, if suitable rest 
 and recreation are planned for, much is already accomplished toward 
 the higher life. 
 
 At an annual meeting of the American Country Life As- 
 sociation held in St. Louis in November, 1923, Isabel 
 presented a paper on family life. Although the topic was not 
 of her own choosing, she gave it a great deal of thought, and 
 what she said was well received. In commenting on the role 
 of parents in maintaining high ideals in family life she 
 stated emphatically that the father's interest and affection 
 as well as the mother's is important to the character building 
 of children. As was often the case, her common sense and 
 perceptiveness led her to conclusions later established 
 through research in psychology and education. The subject 
 assigned her was "Suggestions as to the Contributions and 
 Problems of the Father and Mother Necessary for the 
 Maintenance of High Ideals in Home and Family Life." 
 
 The Modern Farm Parent 
 
 This you all recognize is a difficult and delicate question to discuss 
 because at every point the discussion touches questions regarded in 
 all ages as private and personal. Even in these days of "the repeal of 
 reticence" many a man and woman resents, as an invasion of private 
 affairs, any question of home and family concern. 
 
 The maintenance of high ideals is quite a different matter from 
 having an idea of high ideals. Heroes often seem very far from that 
 role to their valets. Most of us can live at our best for a little while 
 but far too few maintain a high level day in and day out. 
 
 I name as the first prerequisite to the maintenance of high ideals 
 of family life by the father and mother, the attainment of high ideals 
 in their individual lives. One cannot give to another that which he 
 
 151 
 
does not possess himself. As someone has well said, "It all works 
 round to just this: you can't have quality, you can't have charm in 
 your material environment unless you put them into it yourself." 
 
 As the second prerequisite I name a recognition of the magnitude 
 of the undertaking. I would have the fathers and mothers understand 
 that this is a war in which there is no discharge, no summer vacation 
 or eight hour day. 
 
 The Mother's Part 
 
 I would also have it understood that it is a mutual responsibility. 
 Many men are quite willing to hold their religion and church mem- 
 bership in their wives' names. Many fathers are quite willing to let 
 mother attend to the daily and hourly character building of the 
 family and too frequently heed the call of business when adjustments 
 of rights among the children need attention. Comradeship in work, 
 play, love, worship, property rights, and responsibilities of fathers 
 and mothers is yet to be worked out before there can be any adequate 
 conception of the mutual responsibility in family life. 
 
 Tradition and custom have long assigned to the mother the 
 heavier responsibility for the upbringing of the family. Training for 
 parenthood even now is usually interpreted in terms of the training for 
 the woman rather than the man; for the mother, not the father. I am 
 not pleading for the same kind of responsibility but that, in so far as 
 possible, they shall share and share alike in the sense of responsibility. 
 
 So much by way of stating the situation. Let us turn to consider 
 some contributions of the mother to family life. Helen Bosanquet 
 assigns to the wife the function of manager and spender of the family 
 income, and the care of home and children. Further, the mother is 
 responsible for so ordering the household that every member of it 
 may have a home life which is physically healthy and morally whole- 
 some; a well-ordered household she regards as a woman's first duty 
 toward the partner, her husband. 
 
 Lita Bane's statement is: To have every home . . . 
 Economically sound 
 Mechanically convenient 
 Physically healthful 
 Morally wholesome 
 
 152 
 
Artistically satisfying 
 
 Mentally stimulating 
 
 Socially responsible 
 
 Spiritually inspiring 
 
 Founded upon mutual affection and respect. 
 Another writer calls attention to the fact that "the mother and 
 child form the first social group within the loose association of the 
 herd; the first group to develop by virtue of its conscious relationship, 
 the sense of trust and the habit of service of the stronger to the 
 weaker/' This writer names six points as recognized essentials in child 
 care: (1) protection; (2) provision of necessities for the young; (3) 
 drilling in physical habits and personal behavior; (4) teaching the 
 child to walk, talk, obey, and imitate; (5) interpreting group morals; 
 (6) formal education in folklore, vocational skill, and social arrange- 
 ments. 
 
 I have spoken thus at length about the woman's part in the mate- 
 rial development of the family life because it seems to me a prime 
 essential. The knowledge of the technique of household processes by 
 the mother is a very large element of satisfaction, not only to her but 
 to all of her family. 
 
 Because of my life-long interest in home economics, you may feel 
 that I am likely to stop a long time at this point to discuss the value 
 of home economics training, but that seems to me quite unnecessary. 
 I think it is quite generally understood how valuable this training is 
 for every woman. What I do want to say is that the girl should 
 recognize early her relation to family life and make provision for it 
 in every possible way. 
 
 It is time we begin to teach the child the beauty and normality 
 of family life. He ought to breathe it in from his earliest days. Physi- 
 cal, mental, and moral health are not three distinct entities, but one 
 in the ideal life. Family life must be spoken of as something to be 
 prepared for, cherished, cultivated as a delicate and beautiful plant. 
 
 A 1923 View of Communism 
 
 We are not in Russia but I was interested in this statement about 
 Russia given in a recent magazine, "Another questionnaire circulated 
 
 153 
 
among young people working in one of the large Moscow factories 
 dealt with their attitude toward family life. Several of the replies 
 indicated considerable confusion in the young persons' minds as to 
 what a family really was. Some confessed that they did not know. 
 No one spoke of a family as a circle dear to one's heart where one 
 lives among kindred who understand and love him. Most of the 
 replies indicated little tenderness for the mother. She is defined as 
 'an educator,' or a 'person having authority,' or 'a cook.' Fifty-four 
 young persons gave the last of these definitions. If the answers 
 showed little evidence of affection for the mother, they showed no 
 indication whatever of this sentiment for the father. In every instance 
 he was defined as 'the family manager,' 'the food provider,' 'the 
 worker,' or by some kindred term. Communists interpret these an- 
 swers as proof that children brought up under modern industrial con- 
 ditions never learn what family life and family sentiment are. Critics 
 of the present regime in Russia attribute the character of the replies 
 to the fact that young workers spend most of their time, when not 
 at the factory, at their clubs and in other Communist organizations, 
 and not only see little home life, but grow up in an atmosphere un- 
 favorable to its development." 
 
 Individualism is to be cherished and developed but not at the 
 expense of family life; club life and community life are not to be 
 indulged in to the detriment of family life. 
 
 So much for the present as to training the woman for her task — 
 now for the man's part. 
 
 The Father's Part 
 
 These same authorities quoted before ascribe to the man responsi- 
 bility to the community of which he is a member for proper main- 
 tenance, and the upbringing of the family which he has called into 
 existence. 
 
 It is a far cry from the absolute power and authority for life and 
 death of the patriarchal father to the modern ideal. His authority is 
 still great in determining the basis of family life, the scale upon which 
 the household is to be organized, the kind of education for the chil- 
 dren, and the place in which the family is to reside. His pocketbook, 
 
 154 
 
his occupation, his personal habits are recognized factors. About these 
 extraneous matters there is quite general agreement; but alas, too often 
 the preparation stops here. 
 
 What boy is trained for family life? The successive steps of ado- 
 lescence and coming of age might be made sacred and beautiful 
 portals to a new life if fathers and mothers worked to that end. The 
 boy might be taught what the use and abuse of these new powers 
 meant and how far reaching were the results in either case. For the 
 adult man it seems to me the adjustment to the new order is even 
 more difficult than for the woman. He has not had her training in 
 adjustment, in diplomacy. From very early days woman has had 
 long schooling in learning how to secure what she wished from her 
 lord, master, husband. Power through money, politics he understands 
 but this attitude of mind that the woman has equal right to self- 
 development is as far as the poles from his daily thinking. 
 
 To summarize, the maintenance of high ideals in family life by 
 the father and mother requires: the embodiment of these ideals in 
 the individuals themselves; an appreciation of the magnitude of the 
 task; instruction of the children in the normality and beauty of family 
 life, its sacrifices and rewards, as a proper goal for their best en- 
 deavors; an appreciation by both men and women of what is implied 
 in economic, civic, and social equality as applied to present day 
 family life and problems." 
 
 In a talk given in 1910 Miss Bevier urged that the 
 women's clubs, with their interest in developing "attractive 
 and capable women," work toward bringing the home and 
 home economics closer together. She recognized that in the 
 twentieth century problems resulting from the industrial 
 revolution were facing women in the home as well as men 
 in industry. Many of the small industries, once the work 
 of women and children, had gone outside the home, yet the 
 responsibility of management and a major share of the work 
 remained for the homemaker. No girl, she contended, should 
 be left in ignorance of the skills she would need as a wife 
 merely because her labor as a child was no longer needed. 
 
 155 
 
Written when she had had ten years of experience as 
 head of the Home Economics Department at Illinois, "Home 
 Economics and the Home" carried weight then and is almost 
 as pertinent today. 
 
 However much our opinions may differ in regard to the processes 
 of education of girls I feel assured that there are essential points of 
 agreement concerning the final product desired. The world has always 
 needed and still needs attractive women, capable women — women 
 who are able to do and to bear their share in the world's work, to 
 give their part to the world's joy, to relieve some part of the world's 
 misery. The place where they shall do this work may vary from time 
 to time, may be in the home or out of it, but the qualities that make 
 for efficiency in one place are valuable in general in all places, the 
 incompetent woman at home may possibly conceal her incompetency 
 for a longer time than the woman out in the world, but in the end 
 "unequal to her task" is the label written large over both. 
 
 Let us inquire then what are the agencies by which these desirable 
 products are to be obtained. The home, the church, and the school 
 have ever been and still are vital factors in the education of the young. 
 Each supplements the work of the others; each in turn is blamed 
 for failure to perform its part. Just now one finds in current literature 
 more of blame than praise for all of them. It is not ours either to 
 blame or praise; rather to see with clear vision possible combinations 
 of effort that shall make for efficiency. Somewhere every girl should 
 learn the lesson of independence of action, of responsibility for her 
 deeds, some knowledge of the essentials of living, power over environ- 
 ment, self-control, and ability to work with others. 
 
 A Plea for Religious Faith 
 
 I am aware that the influence of the church is discounted in some 
 homes, neglected in others, and scorned in others. It is not my mission 
 to defend the church. She needs no defense, but as one associated 
 with young people, in helping them to a philosophy of life I am frank 
 to say it seems to me most desirable that they be taught that certain 
 fundamental principles are part of every life, that respect for author- 
 
 156 
 
ity, for the rights of others, individual responsibility, the recognition 
 of a power outside of and beyond oneself are some of the marks 
 which distinguishes man from the lower animals; that the Ten Com- 
 mandments still furnish a working basis for life. It seems to me infin- 
 itely better to have a God to fear than to have none at all. Great 
 indeed is their loss if they know not the majesty and beauty of the 
 Psalms and of Isaiah, nor the comfort and inspiration of the words 
 of Christ for their hour of need. 
 
 1910 Home vs. Pioneer Home 
 
 Let us glance at the work of the home in education. In earlier 
 days the home was the center of a number of industries; the child 
 had the opportunity of seeing these processes, of participating in them, 
 and so gained a knowledge of them as well as an appreciation of the 
 labor, skill, and ingenuity needed in doing them. Spinning and weav- 
 ing were familiar processes one day, and when these went from the 
 home the business of housekeeping — washing, ironing, sewing, bed 
 making, cooking, sweeping, and dusting — was still the work of the 
 family in which each daughter had a share. 
 
 Now the clothes go to the laundry or are sent down the chute to 
 the basement, and the daughter knows nothing about them until she 
 sees them clean in her room again. The cook presides in the kitchen, 
 and the daughter is sometimes permitted to make candy in it. All 
 the sewing possible is put out of the house; the rest of it is done by 
 the seamstress in a room in a remote corner of the house. 
 
 The daughter is busy in school, in club, in society, but not with the 
 affairs of the home — her interests are largely outside of it. She is 
 exposed to judgment and taste far beyond her skill to emulate. When 
 the real responsibilities of life actually confront her, no wonder she 
 stands appalled at the task. It may be that by sheer grit and a strong 
 will in a well body she is able to do and to learn until she has con- 
 quered her task, but how many fail and how many are made physical 
 and nervous wrecks? Meantime housekeeping appliances and help 
 too ignorant to manage them increase. 
 
 Certainly the mother who has had this experience will say, "My 
 daughter shall have her chance at home and at school to learn and 
 
 157 
 
to do those things which are so certainly to be a part of her life." That 
 does not mean that history, literature, science, and art shall not be 
 studied and enjoyed for their own sake, but that along with them 
 shall be taken work in lines that shall serve to make household proc- 
 esses and products familiar. 
 
 An omelet lesson in the school kitchen may serve as an application 
 of the laws of heat to food materials, while it gives real skill in manipu- 
 lation, control over materials and savory food useful to the family. 
 A simple gown, well designed, neatly put together, of good color, 
 combines knowledge of materials, of form, color, of wise expenditure 
 that is well worth while to the woman in her home. 
 
 I am not pleading for a trade school, a technical school, or a voca- 
 tional school — these are special forms of education. I am talking 
 about women and their business of housekeeping and homemaking 
 and the part that girls ought to have in it. It seems to me very much 
 yet remains to be done before we women can feel that we are making 
 a very creditable showing and, I ask, is it not time that the woman 
 in the home and the woman in the school combine to make better 
 the living conditions for all people by both better homes and schools? 
 Let us have cleaner streets, more parks and better ones, do away with 
 the unsightly billboard, the ugly bridge, the smoke, and the noise. 
 But let us also have better bread, less canned meat and bric-a-brac, 
 more real art and beauty. 
 
 Opportunity Lies at Home 
 
 Let those who have leisure, executive ability, and means go out- 
 side the home and better the environment, but let many of us stay 
 inside until we have made these places real homes, not places to sleep 
 in, nor to dress in to go somewhere else, but the real center of the 
 activity of the family — the place of noble inspirations, of rest, and 
 of peace. Let the lessons at school be practised in the home. Do not 
 make the high school girl feel that home and school are working for 
 entirely different results. 
 
 Where shall this cooperation begin? In the elementary grades — 
 for many a girl will leave before she reaches even the seventh grade. 
 You know how much a ten-year-old daughter does in many a home. 
 She is housekeeper, nurse, and general caretaker. It is possible for 
 
 158 
 
her to learn in the public school how to use a needle, how to cut and 
 care for clothes, how to buy and prepare well-cooked food. It is pos- 
 sible for her to be taught to do some intelligent thinking about it, to 
 get an attitude of mind concerning such work. And in that she is 
 often far ahead of her older and richer sisters. 
 
 I wish the homes to do elementary work too. Some of them are 
 suffering greatly from a wrong attitude of mind. This business of 
 living belongs to rich and poor, high and low alike. The tools may 
 differ, but the business remains, and the apprenticeship should be 
 served in all homes. If we could have for ten years the right attitude 
 of mind about housework in home and school, I can but feel that 
 we would have fewer girls of fourteen eking out a bare existence in 
 any kind of an office or store rather than working in a kitchen. 
 
 It seems to me we had better spend money on prevention than 
 attempt to cure after the harm is done. Businessmen agree that neither 
 the boy nor girl is worth much to them in office or shop at fourteen. 
 They have neither physical endurance, skill of hand, nor business 
 sense. Then let us keep them in school, care for their bodies, teach 
 them skill of hand, develop their power of mind, and so equip them 
 better for the battle. Let mothers and teachers together study the 
 business of living in their respective localities. 
 
 I do not mean by this a mothers' association that shall meet and 
 relieve their minds by saying all the adverse things they can about 
 the schools, draft a constitution and by-laws, and begin a gentle 
 nagging process. Many associations need to have secret meetings for 
 six months and learn how to work with each other and plan some 
 definite thing to do before they can have anything worth presenting 
 to the public. 
 
 Let mothers and teachers study the problems of living and the 
 means by which the elementary and high schools can help in the 
 business. Do not let the college take four years of your daughters 
 life and send her back to you less able and far less willing to take 
 her place in the family life than before. 
 
 Women's Colleges 
 
 I can but feel that some day the women's colleges will see that 
 they lost a great opportunity to be leaders in the education of women 
 
 159 
 
when they ignored the fact that it was their privilege to go out into 
 new fields of learning and find those that should enrich and ennoble 
 the lives of women rather than blindly imitate the colleges for men. 
 It is not a question of more brain power or of less brain power, but 
 it is a question of a different life and therefore of a different prep- 
 aration. 
 
 "The functions of men and women in society are different in many 
 ways. Do those differences lie wholly beyond the range of education? 
 I am confident that they cannot permanently be left outside of the 
 range of education, but the task of bringing them under educational 
 treatment is one of the greatest difficulty. It calls for the highest 
 exercise of inventive skill and patience. 
 
 "In coeducational institutions, under a system of free election, the 
 problem tends to solve itself by the gravitation of women toward 
 certain courses and of men toward certain other courses, while still 
 other courses are common ground. But this solution is only partial 
 and unsatisfactory. Some practicable scheme of preparation for 
 mother-work will, we cannot doubt, be devised in the course of time. 
 There will be, some day, an education for homemaking and for 
 woman's leading part in the finer forms of social intercourse, which 
 will do on the higher academic plane what was done in a more petty 
 way, generations ago, in popular finishing schools for girls. 
 
 "But this, too, is only a part. There is to be, further, a serious 
 preparation for woman's part in the economic, the industrial, and even 
 the political world. What the all-round solution of this problem will 
 be I cannot tell nor even guess. But if it meets the need, it will be 
 an educational invention of the highest order of excellence."* 
 
 Note on Sociology 
 
 It seems to me reasonable to believe that many of these young 
 women college graduates full of zeal to enter schools of philanthropy, 
 be dignified with the title of social workers, and have experiences in 
 slums and dancehalls, would do much more effective service if they 
 had served an apprenticeship as social workers within the circle of 
 their own family, and so "tried out" some of their theories. 
 
 It must be clear to you that I still expect the home, the church, 
 
 *Dr. Elmer E. Brown, U.S. Commissioner of Ed., published in 
 Science N.S., Vol. 26, p. 168, Aug. 9, 1907. 
 
 160 
 
and the school to educate the girl, but I ask for closer cooperation: 
 that they shall learn not only history, literature, science and art, but 
 the place of woman in the family life, the essentials of food, clothing, 
 and shelter, acquire skill of hand, business sense by the actual work 
 in public school, home, and within the college walls; that they may 
 be able to serve with the hands in ordinary household process, while 
 they fail not in keenness of intellect or in the finer things of the spirit. 
 
 Several paragraphs from an article, "The Development 
 of Home Economics" Good Housekeeping (October, 1910), 
 are inserted here because they emphasize Isabel's conviction 
 that through home economics women can be educated both 
 to be aware of their power in modern society and to use it 
 intelligently. 
 
 To the woman in her home, interested in her kind and in the 
 betterment of the common life, the story of the development of home 
 economics in the United States is full of inspiration and significance. 
 Because the apparent machinery — conferences and publications — of 
 home economics of the present day is more largely in the hands of 
 teachers than homemakers, this woman in the home sometimes fails 
 to realize how mighty a factor she has ever been, and still is, in the 
 real progress of the subject. The unnumbered words that have been 
 spoken, the countless articles that have been written in the past year 
 about the cost of living, may not reduce that greatly, but they have 
 shown, beyond the shadow of a doubt, the power of the woman as 
 an economic factor in the home, and the imperative necessity that 
 she be so educated as to understand her task. 
 
 Many factors have contributed to the development of what is now 
 included in the term "home economics." In a general way, the facts 
 of its development are to be sought in the life history of those men 
 and women who have been able to discover the signs of the times 
 in reference to home and family and have given of their knowledge 
 and skill for the betterment of the life of their fellow-beings. 
 
 In the West the land-grant colleges have been the great agents in 
 the extension of this knowledge of the home. Perhaps no other agency 
 
 161 
 
has seen so clearly the need of the scientific basis for the work or 
 been so insistent in the demand for it. The present-day farmer real- 
 izes the importance of science in agriculture, so it is easy for him 
 to understand that many of the problems of the home must have the 
 aid of science in their solution. It is the growth of this sentiment that 
 has made possible and sustained the department of home economics in 
 state universities. 
 
 Technical schools for men increased the content of education, 
 showed the value of special training, gave a certain definiteness to 
 such training, and, indirectly, an impetus to the development of 
 women. If the man could find special use for his physics, bacteriology, 
 and chemistry, the woman realized that the same privilege was hers, 
 and soon discovered that the kitchen stove was a more satisfactory 
 and accessible instrument for her use in illustrating laws of heat than 
 the steam engine; that while the bacteria of the soil were interesting, 
 those of the kitchen cupboard were nearer and more important to 
 her, and as for chemistry, soap, stains, food, dirt, an unnumbered host 
 of illustrations could be taken from her daily life. 
 
 Coeducation gave to woman not only entrance to a large field of 
 knowledge, but also a comradeship with her brother in this larger 
 life and broader outlook which helped her to see more clearly where 
 her peculiar field of effort lay. When once she had the freedom and 
 the knowledge to choose her kingdom she preferred the home to the 
 office, factory, or the platform; and a voluntary choice of subjects 
 suited to her needs followed a better appreciation of her place in the 
 world's life. 
 
 Sometimes impatient with what seemed to her the super- 
 ficial activities of women's clubs, Isabel Bevier often ex- 
 pressed the thought that women might better begin at home 
 to improve the health and happiness of the world. But that 
 did not mean she had lost sight of women's civic opportuni- 
 ties and responsibilities. Far from it. She thought it was 
 both possible and imperative for women homemakers to be 
 constructively active in civic affairs. In a brief paper written 
 in 1919, she gave her ideas of what citizenship should mean 
 
 162 
 
to women. The constitutional amendment giving women 
 the right to vote had just been passed. Realizing that many 
 women were still confused about their new role, Isabel 
 looked squarely at the responsibilities and opportunities of 
 "The Woman Citizen/' 
 
 We are accustomed to the idea of woman as mother, wife, burden 
 bearer, caretaker in the home, promoter of numerous activities outside 
 the home, particularly in church and philanthropy. But the com- 
 bination woman citizen is a new one and, it seems to me, a good one. 
 Doubtless the term will suggest different ideas, varying all the way 
 from the militant suffragette to the mildest of womankind. 
 
 To me it means that this woman who has been for many years 
 an honorable citizen is to have the legal right to be called by that 
 name. We all understand that women who have been interested in 
 their homes and community have been in a very real sense women 
 citizens. 
 
 To be sure, there are many who have not realized their oppor- 
 tunity and so missed the preparation and development which it offered. 
 Those women are therefore not so well prepared for the obligations 
 which the new order imposes. These women need to take heed of 
 their ways. The right of suffrage for which some women have fought 
 for years is not to be lightly esteemed nor carelessly used. 
 
 Citizenship means first and foremost an enlargement of vision to 
 see at least beyond your own threshold. You are not assured of safe 
 water and milk inside your own home unless somebody has guarded 
 the source of supply. These good housekeeping practices are to be 
 extended to your community, health of mind and body is to be 
 promoted in the school as well as in the home, good morals and good 
 manners are to be promoted in the community. Wholesome recrea- 
 tion, attention to health of the children, clean markets, clean railway 
 stations, comfortable restrooms, are a few of the activities just over 
 the threshold. A pooling of ideas, a carefully-thought-out plan of pro- 
 cedure, one step at a time, and considerable overtime work here await 
 the woman citizen. So much for the small inner circle. 
 
 For state and national questions, a serious study of the issues is 
 involved, and particularly of the relationships. The war showed that 
 
 163 
 
women could find much time for knitting or for any work with a 
 real need behind it. I realize that it is much easier to knit than to 
 think, but now the need is for some careful thinking. The soldier is 
 not the only person who finds it difficult to settle down to the daily 
 task now that bands and banners are no longer in evidence. But I am 
 sure health for the individual and the community lies in the way of 
 attention to the daily task. 
 
 Surely we as women cannot feel that we have progressed very 
 far so long as the woman's page in our public press consists only of 
 recipes, directions for making beads, or designs for clothes that make 
 caricatures of the human figure. Go home and get your local paper 
 to omit the woman's column or at least put in it one question of 
 particular interest to the woman citizen." 
 
 In 1947 the university honored Isabel Bevier's memory 
 by naming a building for her. In a ceremony on April 17, 
 the Woman's Building became Bevier Hall, "Old Agricul- 
 ture" became Davenport Hall, and "New Agriculture" be- 
 came Mumford Hall for the two deans, Eugene Davenport 
 and Herbert W. Mumford. Under the general title "Three 
 Great Leaders as We Knew Them," a program consisting 
 of three talks was given. A part of the tribute to Isabel 
 Bevier is included here. 
 
 Isabel Bevier 
 
 J. Lita Bane 
 
 It was my good fortune to know Isabel Bevier first as a teacher, 
 for I was one of her students, then as an administrator — as a member 
 of her faculty, and later as a "retired professor," so called — and 
 through the years a warm-hearted, generous, loyal, constructively 
 critical professional and personal friend. As you know, she never 
 really retired from any of these roles excepting in name, when she 
 became Professor Emerita. 
 
 Well do I remember one of the last senate meetings she attended 
 when she was about 80. She was in her place when I arrived. Char- 
 acteristically, she commented that she thought our President, who 
 was a specialist in ventilation, should see to it that the room where 
 
 164 
 
the senate was asked to meet was "aired out" before meeting time. 
 "I even opened one of the windows myself," said she in the stage 
 whisper to which she was addicted. Nor did she forget to speak to 
 the President about this matter, and his good-natured reply reassured 
 her. The well-being of the University continued to be her great con- 
 cern, whether it involved proper ventilation or far-reaching educational 
 policies. 
 
 [Review of career — omitted here.] 
 
 "Miss Bevier's" high courage, great tolerance, and keen insight 
 were illumined by a quick and kindly humor. She was distinguished 
 for the superiority of her intellect, the accuracy of her judgment, the 
 fine flavor of her words, and the greatness of her generosity and 
 kindliness. 
 
 In commenting upon the failure of one of her associates she said: 
 "I believe it came about because she never had a great sorrow and she 
 never had a great love. In her hour of trial she was found wanting." 
 Isabel Bevier had a great love, a great sorrow, and in her hours of 
 trial she was not found wanting. Her deep, abiding religious faith 
 was always a source of strength. 
 
 Through the years, she had a continuing interest in her former 
 students and affection for them. She kept in touch with them in all 
 parts of the country and enjoyed their confidence to a remarkable 
 degree. They could count on her understanding sympathy and her 
 joy in their achievements. She had an unusual capacity for forming 
 lifelong friendships. Quoting one of her Wooster classmates, "It was 
 the genius of her professional life to train talented young women for 
 similar positions in colleges and universities. To finish one's life with 
 the assured gratitude and affection of a larger American womanhood, 
 and with the consciousness of a multitude of uplifted homes is a 
 consummation devoutly to be wished. For our friend, it was an 
 achievement honorably acquired." 
 
 Finally, the charge she gave to young home economists in one 
 of her later talks represents, I believe, what she would say to us on this 
 occasion: "Revalue not only your material assets and liabilities, but the 
 social and spiritual contacts also, and answer the call of this new day 
 for women of courage and ideals who shall fashion for this new day 
 the new home fitted to the needs of these changing times." 
 
 165 
 
Chapter IX 
 
 "As We Knew Her" 
 
 | can paint the executive, the woman, or the scholar. 
 Which shall it be?" That was the question Louis Betts, the 
 portrait artist, asked Isabel Bevier when in 1920 at the in- 
 sistence of her friends at the University of Illinois she pre- 
 sented herself to have her portrait painted. 
 Her prompt reply was, "The woman!" 
 
 To those of us who knew her intimately this reply was 
 the expected one. I have known few people who could give 
 to that word "woman" the dignity, the warmth, the depth 
 of meaning she gave to it. 
 
 Her choice led to the painting of a portrait that is one 
 of the prized possessions of the University. A good likeness, 
 it reflects the noted artist's skill and the appreciation he felt 
 for Isabel Bevier. She chose a becoming dress of blue velvet 
 and Betts added a white lace scarf. The whole composition 
 is a very satisfying one. The portrait pleased Isabel, as it 
 did most of her friends. This portrayal of the kindliness, 
 the calmness that bespeaks faith, will be enjoyed by gener- 
 ations who never knew "Miss Bevier" in her exactitude as a 
 teacher or in her vigor as an administrator, but who will 
 always feel pleasure in this beautiful portrait of the Woman. 
 
 166 
 
The presentation to the University, "in grateful recog- 
 nition of the achievements of Professor Isabel Bevier during 
 twenty-one years of distinguished service as pioneer and 
 director in Home Economics," took place at a Home Eco- 
 nomics celebration on May 21, 1921. 
 
 The portrait now hangs appropriately in Bevier Hall, 
 which Isabel conceived and planned as the "Woman's 
 Building," which she contributed so many ideas, and in 
 whose halls she presided for so many years, not only as 
 head of her department but often in a social capacity. 
 
 The universal appeal of the painting gave rise to one 
 of the stories she liked to tell. Reproductions were made 
 and some were framed and displayed in the window of a 
 campus bookstore. The usual prints of Whistler's portrait 
 of his mother appeared in the same window just before 
 Mother's Day. When a student wanting a gift for his mother 
 said he'd like one of the pictures in the window, the clerk 
 naturally reached for the Whistler. "No," said the young 
 man, "that other lady. I like her better." 
 
 Each of her friends finds in the portrait the qualities he 
 most loved and admired. When Dr. Henry C. Sherman 
 visited the campus in 1945 to give the first Isabel Bevier 
 lecture, he stood quietly for some minutes before the portrait 
 and then said, "She won that look of serenity and strength. 
 Few people know as I know the difficulties she overcame 
 in her lifetime." The portrait appears facing page 176. 
 
 Something of a word portrait may help to sharpen the 
 focus, and with that in mind the comments of several of us 
 who knew her have been included. 
 
 Lita Bane's Report 
 
 She was tall, a little stooped when it was my turn as a 
 
 167 
 
student to know her. She was strongly built but not heavy. 
 Her hair was white, her skin delicate, the kind that carries 
 a pink flush even in the years past middle age. Her hands 
 were expressive, gentle hands, revealing as hands often do 
 the traits frequently disciplined out of facial expressions. 
 She sometimes wore rings — not, as I learned later, because 
 of their intrinsic value but because of their association with 
 people or places that meant much to her. Her eyes were 
 blue and she often wore shades of blue that set off her 
 white hair, the color in her cheeks, and the blue of her eyes. 
 She wore comfortable shoes and moved a little bent forward 
 with a determined step that made us feel that she knew 
 exactly where she was going, was on her way, and meant 
 to be there on time. 
 
 Her course, "The House," in which I was enrolled was 
 a revelation to me. As a high school student I had planned 
 to major in mathematics in college. However, my friendly 
 high school principal advised against it, saying, "It's not 
 fair and I don't pretend that it's fair, but a woman in mathe- 
 matics has to be ten times as good as a man to get anywhere. 
 It's not yet a suitable field for a woman. Why not try this 
 new subject, domestic science?" I had never before heard 
 of the subject, and after two discouraging college years cook- 
 ing tiny bits of food and making miniature garments for a 
 model book, I was willing never to hear of it again. At this 
 point I transferred to the University of Illinois and was fortu- 
 nate enough to register in Isabel Bevier's course. Within a 
 few weeks I found myself saying, "If this is household sci- 
 ence, I'm certainly for it." 
 
 She reminded us that the house is not the home as the 
 body is not the Spirit. Yet the house can be made to enhance 
 and enrich home life just as the body can ennoble spiritual 
 
 168 
 
life. From there she led us to see some of the important 
 phases of home life and what science and art can contribute 
 to more satisfying, healthful, and inspiring family living. 
 She thus gave us the educational philosophy underlying the 
 household science curriculum as it was planned for us. And 
 to me, the purposes of household science, far from seeming 
 much too petty for college work, now seemed much too 
 large to be encompassed in a four-year course. I have never 
 since doubted the value of home economics as Isabel Bevier 
 interpreted it. 
 
 In class, her humorous remarks were spontaneous and 
 unexpected, and since she enjoyed them herself, they served 
 to keep both her and her listeners in good humor. 
 
 Students found her intolerant only when they were un- 
 willing to put forth their best efforts. When she felt the 
 occasion called for severity, she could speak sharply, as she 
 did to a student who tiptoed into class after the bell had 
 rung. As the girl maneuvered toward her seat, Isabel inter- 
 rupted her lecture to say, "You might as well walk naturally. 
 We all know you are late." 
 
 Her severity was only for the moment. She did not 
 cherish resentment and did not expect her students to. The 
 heart of many a girl was warmed and encouraged in time of 
 stress by an unsolicited letter of understanding and sound 
 advice, signed, "Isabel Bevier/' 
 
 She believed in her students. If she gave one of them a 
 job, she had faith the girl would accomplish it. Consequently, 
 her students seldom failed her if it was humanly possible for 
 them to succeed. Often she inspired achievement far beyond 
 anything they themselves dared expect. One of her girls, 
 on being elected president of the Home Economics Club 
 went to her and asked to be excused. "I cant face so much 
 
 169 
 
responsibility," she pled. Urging her to try, Isabel was on 
 the front row at the first meeting of the club to give support 
 and encouragement. This student, later a home economist 
 of national importance, looks back to Isabel's faith in her 
 as the beginning of her professional self-confidence. 
 
 No narrow course of study devoted largely to household 
 skills satisfied Isabel Bevier's conception of household sci- 
 ence, although she realized the value of skills. Day after 
 day we found our horizons extending and our interest be- 
 coming more keen. To a student who suggested political 
 science as an elective, her answer was "good," just as it was 
 when another chose a course in Shakespeare taught by 
 Stuart Pratt Sherman. 
 
 When in my senior year the time came for me to consider 
 a position, one offered by a city Y.W.C.A. teaching home 
 economics attracted me. Her comment was, "I suppose you 
 think you're doing missionary work because you're with the 
 Y.W. If taught the way it ought to be, home economics is 
 missionary work no matter where it's taught." When after 
 a year's experience I said to her that I had learned more in 
 one year's teaching than in any two years in college, her 
 calm rejoinder was that she always expected her students 
 to. In college, she said, you were directed to reliable sources 
 of information; but when you had to teach the material, you 
 really learned it. 
 
 Soon feeling the need of more study, I came to Urbana 
 to sit with Isabel on her front porch and discuss my prob- 
 lem. Study would be costly and my savings were limited. 
 When I asked whether I was worth a master's degree, she 
 answered, "You are one of my girls I hoped would marry 
 and have a home of her own. Since apparently you're not 
 going to, yes. I do think you're worth the investment. And 
 
 170 
 
I know what you mean by your question. I've seen the ones 
 whose money was wasted in advanced study." 
 
 World War I was upon us before my graduate study at 
 the University of Chicago could be completed, and I was 
 persuaded it was my patriotic duty to do "war work." My 
 particular responsibility with the U. S. Department of Agri- 
 culture was to go from city to city urging the use of cottage 
 cheese to save meat. When Isabel learned of this, she ex- 
 pressed her disapproval in no uncertain terms. There were 
 plenty of people, she told me, who could work in the govern- 
 ment's nutrition campaign. My own state had a greater 
 need of help in its new extension program. Persuaded, I 
 became a member of the extension staff when she was head 
 of the Home Economics Department and vice-director of 
 home economics extension. 
 
 She soon dropped the teacher-student relationship — we 
 were now professional co-workers. 
 
 It did not take long to see what an influence she was 
 exerting in the new extension development. Her sense of 
 values, her own farm experience, and her faith in the com- 
 petence of women were being reflected throughout the pro- 
 gram. The work would be of better quality, she said, and 
 more able leaders would be attracted to it if in the local 
 organizations women were allowed to do their own manag- 
 ing and planning. In this she was whole-heartedly supported 
 by the farsighted dean of the College of Agriculture, Eugene 
 Davenport, and the equally farsighted vice-director of the 
 Agricultural Extension Service, Walter Handschin; and the 
 first county home bureau in the United States managed en- 
 tirely by women came into being in Kankakee County in 
 October, 1914. 
 
 In those days the choice of extension workers was made 
 by a committee. On one occasion, after listening to objec- 
 
 171 
 
tions to a certain candidate based on her not having lived 
 on a farm, Isabel brought a quick decision by saying, "I'm 
 not so much interested in whether the young woman has 
 lived on a farm or in town as I am whether or not she has 
 lived. I think this woman has." 
 
 Only projects requiring the use of a woman's mind, with 
 or without the use of her hands, met Isabel's standards for 
 an extension program. Proposals for programs devoted al- 
 most entirely to skills — and skills of little importance — were 
 brushed aside despite urgings by some of the leaders in the 
 national extension office and by some state offices. Isabel's 
 favorite example of these trivial projects was one to make 
 aprons from the tails of men's worn-out shirts. This, when 
 there were so many worth-while things needing to be done. 
 
 My conception of the role of home economics grew as I 
 worked with Isabel Bevier, and so did my appreciation of 
 her as an administrator. Her great vitality enabled her to 
 do many things and do them well; she directed her energies 
 constructively and expected equally discriminating judg- 
 ment from her faculty. One morning I went into her office 
 just as another of her faculty was leaving, and she gave 
 me a postscript to their conversation. Her comments on 
 such occasions were half to herself and served as interludes 
 between conferences. This time she said, "She sat up until 
 two o'clock this morning, she told me, reading everything 
 that has been said on the subject she's teaching her foods 
 class today. I suppose she wanted sympathy, but I didn't 
 give her any. A person with her training who has taught 
 as long as she has should know who are the authorities on 
 her subject and not feel she has to read all the others." 
 
 She valued the talents of her faculty beyond their use 
 
 172 
 
in the classroom. It was her habit, and we found it a flatter- 
 ing one, to take advantage of them in her personal problems. 
 She asked the clothing instructor to go shopping with her 
 when she bought clothes, the home furnishing specialist to 
 help with the choice of rugs, pictures and furniture, and the 
 engineering research professor for help when her furnace 
 misbehaved. She never questioned the propriety of her re- 
 quest, nor did her faculty. Many were the stories they had 
 to tell of these "larks," as Isabel called them, for what to 
 others might be merely commonplace to her had in it the 
 spirit of adventure. 
 
 She relished celebrations of all kinds — birthdays, holi- 
 days, or parties given for some special event such as success- 
 fully passing a doctoral examination. For years after such 
 festive events those who were there loved to talk of Isabel's 
 pungent and picturesque conversations. Once she had the 
 floor and knew her audience was sympathetic, her flood of 
 comment and anecdote about staff members, wartime expe- 
 riences with Herbert Hoover, and Trips to Europe grew in- 
 creasingly delightful and often hilariously gay. 
 
 Occasionally faculty members who did not know her well 
 felt her speech was too brusque or resented the dominant 
 role she played in a conversation. She was given to diverting 
 the conversation with great firmness and abruptness from 
 channels she thought unworthy or that did not interest her 
 to topics of her own choosing. Those unaccustomed to this 
 habit sometimes needed a moment to land on their conver- 
 sational feet, but the new subject was always an interesting 
 one and lively talk continued. 
 
 Her associates sometimes found disconcerting Isabel's 
 way of expecting one to know what she was talking about 
 when she began in the middle of things. Conscious solely 
 
 173 
 
of the important points, she often hit only the high places 
 in her conferences. Anyone associated with her had to be 
 alert and something of a mind reader. She once called a 
 faculty member to her office to ask, "What have you done 
 with the paper that man left here last summer?" Not being 
 able to recall having seen either the man or the paper, the 
 teacher was nonplussed. Isabel looked at her keenly and 
 said, "You stand there looking as if you never heard of the 
 man. Don't tell me you haven't. I know you have." The 
 bewildered faculty member walked out into the outer office 
 and asked the secretary what it was Isabel wanted. The 
 secretary produced the manuscript. When it was placed on 
 her desk, Isabel said with satisfaction, "Now I knew you 
 had it and would find it." 
 
 There was a personal magnetism and queenliness about 
 Isabel that drew a coterie of personal and professional admir- 
 ers. So marked and impressive were some of her character- 
 istics of manner and speech that they were often uncon- 
 sciously imitated. More than once a faculty member could 
 be overheard saying to another who had spoken with unusual 
 decisiveness or unexpected humor, "Now that's Miss Bevier." 
 
 Religion she felt should be put into use. During her 
 residence in Urbana she was a loyal member of the Presby- 
 terian Church. Her church life was a natural and unaffected 
 part of her existence. One of her pastors referred to her as 
 "a superb specimen of an intelligent Christian." She was 
 not effusively emotional about her religion. She expressed 
 it in generosity and thoughtfulness and believed it was 
 needed to make life whole. 
 
 Many of her associates became her life-long friends. An 
 experience that one of them had as a young member of her 
 faculty is worth recording here, revealing as it does her 
 
 174 
 
courage, integrity, and faith during a time when her work 
 was being attacked and her position at the University en- 
 dangered. 
 
 Isabel had come to the University of Illinois with the 
 understanding that she was to establish a department at the 
 college level, one that would merit the respect of the entire 
 university. She saw in home economics a discipline with 
 cultural and professional values and she set about to build 
 a department that would offer it as such to college women. 
 In so doing she disregarded the insistent demands of the 
 large and politically powerful group in the Farmers' Insti- 
 tute. This group had played an important part in establish- 
 ing the department at the University, but saw it as a source 
 of homemaking courses open to women regardless of their 
 previous training. Institute leaders were not interested in a 
 college department as such; they became critical of "imprac- 
 tical" courses in science, impatient with teacher training, 
 and dissatisfied with the non-credit short courses offered. 
 
 During the first few years, criticism of the department 
 and of its chief simmered. But in 1909 it boiled up and 
 there was strong pressure to force Isabel to resign. Without 
 doing anything to appease her critics she left on an overdue 
 sabbatical leave. She had built as best she knew and asked 
 only to be judged by her work. 
 
 A young faculty member, witness of her courage in this 
 crisis, wrote: 
 
 "Unwittingly I was in the midst of the conflict. ... I 
 went to the University as a graduate student in the fall of 
 1908, found the work was what I wanted and worked hard 
 to earn my degree. The next year Miss Bevier was to be on 
 leave and she knew that opposition to her return would be 
 at its height, led by the Farmers' Institute group. Yet, just 
 
 175 
 
as I was finishing my year's work with her she asked me to 
 join the faculty for the next year and to represent her 
 department in extension work, which at that time was done 
 largely in connection with the Farmers' Institute. She did 
 this in face of the fact, or, I like to think, because of it — 
 that I was born in Illinois, as were my parents; that I had 
 attended and taught in the State Fair School of Domestic 
 Science under the auspices of the State Farmers' Institute; 
 that I knew many of her severest critics personally and had 
 been entertained in their homes; that I must know of their 
 criticisms and would certainly, in my work with them, be 
 subjected to subtle pressure to accept their view that she 
 had failed to build the kind of department the people of 
 Illinois wanted. 
 
 "I was young and inexperienced, but she did absolutely 
 nothing to influence my opinion of the work of the depart- 
 ment beyond that which I might have formed during my 
 year as a student. Nor did she discuss the criticisms of her 
 work, or ask my position in the controversy. The fact that 
 I did support her position and was loyal to her department 
 rather than to her personally (I had known her only a year) 
 is unimportant here. It was wholly characteristic of the Miss 
 Bevier I came to know that she asked only to be judged by 
 the facts and had faith that right would prevail. But the 
 trust she placed in me personally, making no effort to influ- 
 ence my judgment when she placed me in a position where 
 I might have done her grave injustice, has left me with a 
 loyalty and devotion to her that I have no words to express." 
 Fortunately for Illinois and for home economics, when 
 Isabel returned home she found opposition fading, and in 
 the end some of her critics became her strong supporters. 
 Isabel Bevier had a talent for warm friendship. As a 
 
 176 
 
Wooster classmate and life-long friend once commented, 
 "There was more in her life than the distinguished scholar 
 and teacher — there was a woman of character, of force 
 and tenderness, the loyal comrade and co-worker, the sincere 
 friend." 
 
 Many people shared the friendship that Isabel gave so 
 generously. Its quality and constancy are well illustrated 
 by her never-failing interest in the family of a friend who 
 had been her college roomate. The friend died leaving two 
 young daughters, one of whom lived with Isabel during her 
 four years at the University of Illinois. Isabel used to say 
 that as she looked across the breakfast table she could forget 
 the years separating them, for the young woman looked so 
 much like her mother. Her friendship survived the friend's 
 death by forty years. And it was a friendship that went be- 
 yond sentiment; she helped both daughters financially until 
 they completed college and remembered them as generously 
 on special occasions as if they had been her own. 
 
 Her friendships and her more casual encounters with 
 people provided Isabel with her greatest recreation. With 
 her home, her church, her books, concerts and plays, they 
 so filled the hours not devoted to work that she needed no 
 lobby. Unless, of course, one were to call her enthusiasm 
 for travel a hobby. And even travel was for her closely asso- 
 ciated with a love of people and of good conversation. The 
 travel companions she chose were always interesting and 
 her trips afforded her a fund of anecdotes to be shared later 
 with her friends. Wide reading along many lines kept her 
 informed about scientific progress, current events, and gen- 
 eral literature. Her keen observations on what she read and 
 saw gave her an endless variety of subjects for the conver- 
 sations that gave her so much pleasure. As her hearing be- 
 
 177 
 
came impaired her face took on first a troubled and then 
 an almost tragic look that told the observant that she was 
 not hearing and what it meant to her to find herself out of a 
 conversation, one of her chief sources of enjoyment. 
 
 But her fondness for travel, her interest in people, and 
 her ever-present sense of humor carried her, in the course 
 of her work, through experiences which would have proved 
 trials for many women. She traveled about the state before 
 the days of good roads and automobiles, when railroad 
 connections were either poor or non-existent. The local 
 freight, with a combination baggage and passenger car at 
 the end, or possibly only a caboose, the long drive across 
 country in bitter winter weather, perhaps with "three men 
 in bearskin coats" as her companions, even the poor country 
 hotel whose popovers were "raw holes burned on the out- 
 side," did not upset her. A hotel without modern conveni- 
 ences was not a pleasant place to dress for a journey at four 
 o'clock on a zero morning, and yet she managed to be a 
 cheerful companion at breakfast. 
 
 Her great vitality, her good humor and, above all, her 
 deep desire to improve rural homes helped her rise above 
 creature comforts. Afterwards, in the warmth of her home 
 her hardships became adventures, transformed by her keen 
 wit and her gift for story-telling into amusing tales for her 
 friends. 
 
 There were many other trips in addition to her extension 
 work — trips to Chicago to shop for the department, and 
 longer journeys for lectures or conferences that led to the 
 four corners of the United States, to Canada, and even 
 abroad. Yet the approach of vacation time usually found her 
 consulting with friends or travel agents, studying maps, and 
 planning a trip. 
 
 178 
 
She once bought a lot at a Michigan summer resort, popu- 
 lar at that time with the University faculty, thinking she 
 might like to settle down there for her vacations. In com- 
 pany with a friend who had bought an adjoining lot, she 
 went once or twice to this resort. With the aid of a map 
 and the guidance of a real-estate salesman, the two located 
 their respective holdings in the woods upon a hillside over- 
 looking the lake. They sat upon a fallen tree trunk while 
 they critically eyed their trees and their soil. They admired 
 the view and enjoyed the lake breezes, but neither of them 
 ever built a cottage there. They agreed there were too many 
 interesting places to investigate to tie themselves down to 
 a single spot year after year. 
 
 Four times Isabel went to Europe, twice during vacation 
 from college work and twice after retirement. On her first 
 journey in the summer of 1897, just after leaving Pennsyl- 
 vania State College for Women, she made the trip alone. But 
 her sociable nature could not long endure solitude, and on 
 the second day at sea she addressed a group of her fellow 
 passengers in this way: "I come from a respectable family; 
 I have neither murdered anyone nor stolen anything. I'd 
 be pleased to enter into conversation with someone if there 
 is anyone here so inclined/' She was alone no more. 
 
 In 1907 she went again, this time with friends. Some 
 conference, about which she later was purposely vague, gave 
 her an excuse for the trip. The objective was not allowed 
 to overshadow the recreational aspect of the journey. Her 
 friends were amazed at her ability to combine shopping, 
 serious sightseeing, and amusement in one day's program 
 and yet appear at dinner full of energy, ready to give a gay 
 account of her experiences. While in London, "to give her 
 traveling companions a rest," she enlisted the services of 
 another friend as guide for part of the time. 
 
 179 
 
There were neighbors and church friends, trades people, 
 students, and staff members who found pleasure in their 
 frequent associations with Isabel Bevier. They saw her life, 
 colored by her remarkable personality, in small intimate 
 portions. They loved her but could not always estimate her 
 greatness. There were others, for she had friends of many 
 and varied interests just as she herself had such interests, 
 who saw her life comprehensively against the background 
 of her remarkable career. 
 
 Dr. Henry C. Sherman's Report 
 
 One of the friends who saw her life in its full setting 
 was Dr. Henry C. Sherman. He was closely acquainted with 
 her entire professional life, their friendship beginning in 
 1898, when he was a young assistant in Dr. W. O. Atwater's 
 laboratory in Weslyan University at Middletown, Connecti- 
 cut, and she was a student there. They remained not only 
 professional friends, colleagues in the field of chemistry of 
 foods and nutrition, but warm personal friends as well. When 
 he expressed his affection by coming to Urbana to lecture 
 in the Bevier series in 1945 he was Mitchil Professor of 
 Chemistry at Columbia, a member of the National Research 
 Council, and at work on one of his books, Foods: Their Val- 
 ues and Management. 
 
 Dr. Sherman once pointed out that as Louis Pasteur 
 contributed through chemistry to medicine, so Isabel Bevier 
 contributed through chemistry to home economics. Trained 
 as a chemist and experienced as a teacher, she saw and 
 seized the opportunity of extending the service of chemistry 
 to the college education of women, first as household science 
 and later under the broader term of home economics. 
 
 It was characteristic of Isabel Bevier, Dr. Sherman re- 
 
 180 
 
marked, that she thought it best to organize this new depart- 
 ment at the University of Illinois in close coordination with 
 the established departments of science. Her students were 
 taught the same foundation courses as other University stu- 
 dents of science. No watered-down courses for Professor 
 Bevier. Dr. Sherman also observed that no indication of 
 any lingering desire to remain puristic appeared to bias the 
 socially minded development of her new type of training. 
 He added that she set the stamp of sterling quality upon 
 the new coinage, and the scientific esteem in which home 
 economics is held in any institution comparable to Illinois 
 is closely proportional to the fidelity with which it has fol- 
 lowed the standards set by Isabel Bevier. 
 
 Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel's Report 
 
 Another of her distinguished friends in the field of nutri- 
 tion was Dr. Lafayette B. Mendel of the faculty of Yale 
 University. When I first met Dr. Mendel he said, "You are 
 one of Miss Bevier's girls, aren't you?" After speaking briefly 
 of his admiration and affection for her, he said, "I'm going 
 to use an adjective about her that I rarely use about anyone 
 or anything — sweet. But I sincerely mean it about her. It 
 seems exactly the right word." In his judgment Isabel be- 
 longed to that important group of American women trained 
 in an atmosphere of science who ventured to give direction 
 to the new home economics movement in a modern, con- 
 structive way. She was one of the pioneers who endeavored 
 to translate current scientific research into the language of 
 everyday life. This course called for courage in the face of 
 traditional resistance to change, for vision and faith in what 
 seemed unwarranted innovations, and for real leadership. 
 
 And so we have something of a word picture of Isabel 
 
 181 
 
Bevier, the woman, the scholar, and the administrator. Like 
 all portraits this one is not complete, but it will perhaps 
 sketch the general outline in such a way as to give those 
 who read these pages some idea of the deep satisfaction 
 and pleasure that knowing and working with a great person 
 gave to so many. 
 
 It is the portrait of a vital, intelligent, resourceful, dedi- 
 cated pioneer in the home economics movement. Blessed 
 with excellent health, an abundance of humor, great capac- 
 ity for strong and lasting friendships, equipped with an un- 
 usually good education, she made noteworthy contributions 
 to the rapid growth of a movement that was to become 
 worldwide. 
 
 182 
 
And Finally 
 
 Looking back through the years of my association with 
 Isabel Bevier, I find two of her favorite quotations recurring 
 to me. One from the Chambered Nautilus of Holmes: 
 
 Build thee more stately mansions, 
 
 O my soul, 
 
 As the swift seasons roll! 
 
 Leave thy low-vaulted pastl 
 
 Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
 
 Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 
 
 Till thou at length are free, 
 
 Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea! 
 
 And one from an essay by Cornelia A. P. Comer: 
 
 "Here we have no continuing city. But when I am making my 
 house live, I and no other, putting into it as I best may something 
 of the serenity of Athens and the sacredness of Jerusalem and the 
 beauty of Siena, then it is taking its place beside my greater loves. 
 Then I am creating a home, not only in this world, but in the next. I 
 have put something over into the eternal world that fire cannot burn, 
 nor floods destroy, nor moth and rust corrupt. It is safe, even from 
 myself, forever! No Heaven can be holy to me if I have not made 
 this spot holy. I shall not ask, even from the mercy of the Merciful, 
 a heavenly mansion if I have failed to make this earthly dwelling live. 
 Eternity begins beside my hearth, shaped by my will. A woman 
 knowsT 
 
 183 
 
Both of these reflect her own spirit and ideals. 
 
 "Gracious womanhood" was Isabel's constant goal, and 
 many were the subjects of study she felt would speed young 
 women toward that goal. She saw as an important part of 
 her work the finding of courses that would be most effective 
 in the shortest time, for four years is a brief period for study 
 directed to so large a goal. 
 
 At this point, I find my mind going back to the day when, 
 in 1912, as seniors at the University of Illinois, our class met 
 with her for the last time and we heard her say: "But the 
 final aim is gracious womanhood." The closing bell rang, 
 "Miss Bevier" rose from her desk, and the lecture on "aims 
 of household science" ended. The class in methods of teach- 
 ing went its way. Some of us went far away, geographically, 
 from the elm-shaded campus of the University of Illinois. 
 
 In the years intervening since that last class, the methods 
 of making muffins that we were taught have been radically 
 changed, the number of the then-known chemical elements 
 has been added to considerably, vitamins have found their 
 way into our vocabularies, styles in dress have changed and 
 changed again, and "household science" has become home 
 economics. But Isabel's goal of "gracious womanhood" still 
 remains the final aim of all home economics teaching. 
 
 184 
 
PUBLISHED WORKS 
 
 Following is a list of Isabel Bevier's major published 
 writings. It reflects the areas in which she was most active 
 and the points at which she placed her emphasis. Her early 
 interest in research is noteworthy, as was her resourcefulness 
 in preparing laboratory manuals and texts where none ex- 
 isted, her attacks on such pressing problems of homemakers 
 as baking bread and roasting beef, and also her ability and 
 willingness to translate research findings into practical sug- 
 gestions. 
 
 Books 
 
 The House, 1907. Revised in 1911. Published by the American 
 
 School of Home Economics, Chicago. A compilation of lessons 
 
 used in a correspondence course. 
 Home Economics in Education, 1924. Revised in 1928. J. B. 
 
 Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 
 Home Economics Movement (with Susannah Usher), 1906. 
 
 Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston. 
 
 Laboratory Manuals 
 
 Selection and Preparation of Food, 1907. Revised 1915. With 
 Anna R. Van Meter. Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston. 
 
 Food and Nutrition (with Susannah Usher), 1906. Revised 
 1915. Whitcomb and Barrows, Boston. 
 
 Research Bulletins 
 
 Office of Experiment Stations, U. S. Department of Agriculture 
 
 Nutrition Investigations at Lake Erie College, Ohio (with 
 Elizabeth Sprague), 1900. Bui. 91. 
 
 Dd2tary Study of Negroes in Eastern Virginia in 1897-98. 
 Bulletin 71. 
 
 Nutrition Investigations in Pittsburgh, Pa., 1894-96. Bulle- 
 tin 52. 
 
 185 
 
University of Illinois 
 
 Roasting of Beef (with Elizabeth Sprague), 1903. Circular 71 
 of the Agricultural Experiment Station. 
 
 Some Points in the Making and Judging of Bread, 1913. 
 Bulletin 25. 
 
 Planning of Meals, 1914. Bulletin 30. 
 
 Practical Suggestions for Food Conservation, 1918. Bulle- 
 tin 22. 
 
 Magazine Articles 
 
 Journal of Home Economics 
 
 "Development of Home Economics." January, 1917. 
 
 "Experiments in Teaching Food Values/' September, 1917. 
 
 "Reconstruction Days in Home Economics." August, 1922. 
 
 "Recollections and Impressions of the Beginnings of the Depart- 
 ment of Home Economics at the University of Illinois." 
 May, 1940. 
 
 Other Magazines 
 
 "Home Economics: Its Opportunities and Obligations." School 
 and Society. May 20, 1916. 
 
 "Development of Home Economics." Good Housekeeping. Octo- 
 ber, 1910. 
 
 "Twenty-five Years of Homemaking." Pictorial Review. Novem- 
 ber, 1924. 
 
 186 
 
Index 
 
 Adams, Abigail, 136 
 
 Addams, Jane, 93, 94 
 
 Agricultural College of Utah, 39 
 
 Allen, Lou C, 31, 32 
 
 American Association for the Ad- 
 vancement of Science, 79 
 
 American Association of Univer- 
 sity Women, 83 
 
 American Home Economic Asso- 
 ciation, 71, 77, 78, 120, 128 
 
 American Country Life Associa- 
 tion, 151 
 
 American Men of Science, 79 
 
 American School of Home Eco- 
 nomics, 78 
 
 American Woman's Educational 
 Association, 137 
 
 Anthony, Susan B., 136 
 
 Appointment at University of Il- 
 linois, 24, 25 
 
 Association of Land-Grant Col- 
 leges and Universities, 78, 79, 
 128, 143 
 
 Atwater, W. O., 18-20, 22, 28, 
 34, 111, 180 
 
 B 
 
 Bailey, Liberty Hyde, 25 
 Bane, Lita, 152, 164, 167 
 Beatley, Bancroft, 100, 104, 105 
 Beatty, Miss, 47 
 Beecher, Catharine, 137 
 Bennefield, Eva, 60 
 Betts, Louis, 15, 166 
 Bevier, Andreas, 15 
 Bevier, Caleb, 15 
 Bevier Hall, University of Illinois, 
 164 
 
 187 
 
Bevier house, 14, 15 
 
 Bevier, Louis, 14 
 
 Bibliography of Bevier's works, 
 
 185, 186 
 Birthplace, Bevier's, 13 
 Bosanquet, Helen, 152 
 Brinkerhoff, Cornelia, 15 
 Brinkerhoff, Henry Roeliff, 15 
 Brinkerhoff, Joris Dircksen, 15 
 Brooks, Fannie, 62, 63 
 Brown, Elmer E., 160 
 Bunch, Mamie, 59, 60, 63 
 Burrill, Dr., 30, 35, 36, 40 
 
 Davenport Hall, University of 
 
 Illinois, 30, 164 
 Death of Bevier, 97 
 DeGarmo, Mary, 62-64 
 Department of Household 
 
 Science, University of Illinois, 
 
 36 
 Dewey, Melvil, 71, 72 
 Dewey, Mrs. Melvil, 71 
 Draper, Andrew Sloan, 24, 25, 
 
 29-35, 46, 48, 50, 54, 97, 118 
 Dunlap, Henry, 48 
 Dunlap, Mrs. Henry, 43, 48 
 
 California teaching assignment, 
 
 81 
 Carnegie Foundation, 53 
 Carriel, Mrs., 44 
 Carter, Mrs., 43 
 Case School of Applied Sciences, 
 
 17 
 Centennial Exposition of 1876, 
 
 130, 131 
 Chicago Schools of Medicine, 
 
 Dentistry, and Pharmacy, 33, 
 
 34 
 Chittenden, Professor, 52 
 Clark, T. A., 65 
 
 Colorado Agricultural College, 39 
 Columbia University, 53, 98, 99 
 Cornell University, 25, 27 
 Council of National Defense in 
 
 Illinois, 62 
 
 Davenport, Eugene, 11, 13-15, 
 24, 29-37, 40, 43, 54, 55, 60, 
 63, 66, 67, 146, 164, 171 
 
 Eightieth birthday celebration, 95, 
 
 96 
 European trips, 83, 84, 89-91, 
 
 179 
 
 Farmers' Institute, 43, 44, 53, 59, 
 
 86, 175, 176 
 Farm life, 147-151 
 Federation of Women's Clubs, 46 
 Fitch, James Marston, 105 
 Fleming, Georgia E., 63, 64 
 
 Gibbs, Charlotte, 50 
 Glendale College, 121 
 Goldthwaite, Nellie E., 52 
 Gregory, J. M., 31, 32 
 Grindley, H. S., 36 
 Guthrie, Jr., A. B., 3 
 
 H 
 
 Handschin, Walter, 60, 171 
 
 188 
 
Harvard Medical School, 16 
 Harvard University, 100, 136 
 Home Economics in Education, 
 
 81 
 Home Economics Movement, The, 
 
 81 
 Hope, Leona, 63, 64 
 House, The, 78 
 Household science 
 
 defined, 44, 45 
 
 origin of, 13 
 Huff, C, 65 
 Hunt, Ada, 62 
 Hunt, Caroline, 74 
 Huntington, Helen, 48 
 Hutchinson, Anne, 136 
 
 i 
 
 International Committee of 
 Women of the League of Na- 
 tions, 91 
 
 International Congress of Agricul- 
 ture, 84, 91 
 
 Iowa State College, 39, 79 
 
 Ireland, Surgeon General, 147 
 
 James, Edmund Janes, 49-51, 54, 
 
 55, 57, 66 
 Johnson, Lilian W., 49 
 
 K 
 
 Kansas State Agricultural College, 
 
 39 
 King, Mrs. S. Noble, 43 
 Kinley, David, 54, 55, 66, 88 
 Kluckhohn, Florence, 100-103 
 Lake Erie College, 23, 25, 28, 30, 
 
 38 
 
 Lake Placid Conference, 34, 36, 
 
 73 
 Land-grant colleges, 39, 42, 132- 
 
 142, 162 
 Langworthy, Dr., 19, 20, 144 
 League of Women Voters, 94 
 Leland Stanford University, 72 
 Lyon, Mary, 137 
 
 M 
 
 Magazine articles by Isabel 
 
 Bevier 
 
 "Development of Home Eco- 
 nomics, The", 161 
 
 "U. S. Government and the 
 Housewife, The", 113 
 Mann, Dean, 60 
 Marvin, Cloyd, 82 
 Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
 nology, 21, 33, 34, 38 
 McCormick, Medill, 63 
 McDonald, Sir William, 40 
 Mechanics Charitable Association 
 
 of Boston, 113 
 Mendel, Lafayette, B., 52, 53, 
 
 181 
 Meredith, Virginia, C, 18, 19 
 Michigan State College, 39 
 Mineral Waters Committee, 19 
 Montana State College, 39 
 Moore, Ernest Carroll, 81 
 Morrill Act, 12 
 Morrow, Mary, 94 
 Mt. Holyoke College, 52, 137 
 Mumford Hall, University of 
 
 Illinois, 164 
 Mumford, Herbert, W., 85-88, 
 
 164 
 
 189 
 
N 
 
 National Educational Association, 
 76,79 
 
 Nelson, Mabel, 48 
 
 North Central Association of Col- 
 leges and Schools, 120 
 
 Oberlin College, 12, 137 
 
 Ohio State University, 22, 39, 78, 
 
 135, 138 
 Omicron Nu, 79 
 Opium Conference, 91 
 Oregon State College, 39 
 
 Packard, Bessie E., 63, 64 
 Palmer, A. W., 36 
 Payne, Judge, 146 
 Pennsylvania College for Women, 
 
 17, 19, 22 
 Phi Beta Kappa, 79 
 Philadelphia Museum, 43 
 Phi Upsilon Omicron, 5, 79 
 Plunkett, Sir Horace, 40 
 Professor emerita, 88 
 Purdue University, 78 
 Putnam, Professor, 18, 19, 21 
 
 Ricker, Dean, 36, 37 
 Roberts, Mary, 72 
 Rockefeller Institute of Medical 
 Research, 52 
 
 Sedgwick, W. T., 21, 23, 33, 38 
 Sherman, Henry C, 98, 167, 180, 
 
 181 
 Sigma Delta Epsilon, 79 
 Sigma Xi, 79 
 Simmons College, 100 
 Simon, Cornelia, 46, 47 
 Smith, Albert W., 17, 20, 22, 23, 
 
 34 
 Smith College, 12 
 Smith-Hughes Act, 61, 140 
 Smith, Janice M., 100 
 Smith-Lever Act, 58, 61, 139, 
 
 143 
 Smith, Yankee, 146 
 South Dakota State College, 39 
 Sprague, Elizabeth, 23, 24, 38 
 Stanley, Louise, 84 
 Strain, Elmer, Bevier's fiance, 16 
 Swain, Frances L., 99, 100 
 
 Turner, Jonathan B., 44 
 
 Ravenhill, Alice M., 45 
 Raymond, Mrs., 43 
 Religion, 42, 156, 157, 174 
 Resignation, 66-70 
 Retirement, second, 88, 89 
 Richards, Ellen Swallow, 12, 21- 
 
 23, 33, 34, 36, 38, 58, 72, 99, 
 
 111 
 
 u 
 
 University of Arizona, 82 
 University of California, 80 
 University of Chicago, 20, 74 
 University of Wisconsin, 74 
 United States Bureau of Home 
 
 Economics, 84 
 United States Chemical Labora- 
 tory, 19 
 
 190 
 
United States Department of 
 
 Agriculture, 28 
 Usher, Susannah, 48, 112 
 
 Van Meter, Anna, 78 
 
 Vassar College, 12, 121, 136, 137 
 
 w 
 
 Wardall, Ruth A., 48, 85 
 Wellesley College, 12 
 Weslyan University, 180 
 Western Reserve College, 21 
 Wheeler, Ruth, 63, 64 
 
 White, James M., 36, 58 
 Who's Who in America, 79 
 Willard, Emma, 136, 137 
 Windsor, P. L., 29 
 Woman's Building, University of 
 
 Illinois, 27, 48, 55, 57, 58, 61, 
 
 65,66 
 Wooster University, 12, 16, 79 
 World's Fair, 18-20 
 World War I, 61, 62 
 Wright, Frank Lloyd, 106, 107 
 
 Yale University, 181 
 
 191 
 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 C005 
 
 THE STORY OF ISABEL BEVIER. PEORIA 
 
 3 0112 025404762