HomeFinding Aids#9016 Rowan Home Demonstration Clubs Collection

#9016 Rowan Home Demonstration Clubs Collection

Rowan Home Demonstration Clubs Collection

MSS #9016

June 1995

Abstract: Nineteen scrapbooks maintained by the Rowan County Home Demonstration Clubs (1953-1990), a program maintained by the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service. The collection is composed primarily of newspaper clippings regarding club activities and articles by home economics agents Edith Hinshaw and Eleanor Southerland. Also present are issues of the Tar Heel Homemakers (1974-1989) and two documents cases of loose materials relating to Home Demonstration Clubs from throughout North Carolina, some from Juanita Lagg, past statewide president of the Home Demonstration Clubs..

Online catalog terms:

Hinshaw, Edith

Home Demonstration work--North Carolina--Rowan County Home Economics--North Carolina--Rowan County, N.C.

Lagg, Juanita

North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service

Rowan County Home Demonstration Clubs

Southerland, Eleanor

Women--North Carolina--Salisbury--History

Size: Approximately five linear feet. (Nineteen scrapbooks in fourteen scrapbook boxes)

Provenance: Gift of Rowan County Home Demonstration Clubs.June 1995

Access: No restriction.

Copyright: Retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. Introduction

Begun in the early 1900s as Tomato Clubs, Home Demonstration Clubs were devised to carry information about nutrition and the efficient management of a household to women in rural areas. Trained in college programs, home economics agents create and guide community clubs as a means of dispersing a variety of personal, home, and community improvement ideas, information, and programs. In its earliest days, the Tomato Clubs would plant tomatoes, can them, and sell the resulting product to local merchants. The entire process, from planting to selling, was based upon model procedures. In 1920, the Tomato Clubs, which had been given official status by the Smith-Lever Act of 1914, were renamed Home Demonstration Clubs, a name that lasted until 1967 when they became the Extension Homemakers Association. Home demonstration programs targeted at Rowan County's African Amercan community began in 1935 with programs emphasizing nutrition, food preservation, clothing, and health and sanitation. In 1965, the white and black clubs of the county merged. In that year there were forty three clubs in Rowan County with a membershp of 1,087. Since Maggie Julian Canup began demonstrations in Rowan County on a part-time basis for a dollar a year in 1912, the home demonstration clubs have addressed a variety of issues. In 1954, some programs included "Eat to Keep Young," "Make Good Cornbread Better," "Care of Houseplants," "Use of a Bank," "Many Ways to Serve Cheese," "Pruning Tomatoes," and "Dry Flower Arrangements." In later years, Rowan home demonstration clubs have supported CPR courses, leadership clinics, school improvement efforts, local candidates' election forums, and blood pressure checks.

Series Descriptions

Series I. Scrapbooks

1953-1990

Arrangement: chronological

The Home Demonstration Club information in this collection is composed primarily of newspaper articles clipped from the Salisbury Post and the Daily Independent (Kannapolis) and pasted into scrapbooks maintained by the County Publicity Chairmen. The articles include columns by the county home economics extension agents, Eleanor Southerland and Edith Hinshaw, as well as club news. The latter contained program topics, number of women present, brief listings of those taking part in the program, and the hostesses for the next meeting. There are also some programs from the annual achievement dinner.

Box List:

Box 1. 1953-1954; 1954 special

Box 2. 1954-1955; 1956-1957

Box 3. 1959; 1960

Box 4. 1961; 1962

Box 5. 1963; 1964

Box 6. 1965; 1966

Box 7. 1967; 1968

Box 8. 1969; 1970

Box 9. 1971; 1972

Box 10. 1975-1976; 1977-1978

Box 11. 1979-1980; 1981-1982; 1989-1990

Series II. Tar Heel Homemakers

1974-1989

Arrangement: chronological

The newsletter of the North Carolina Extension Homemakers Association, Tar Heel Homemakers, covers home extension news on a state level. Unbound, the newsletters cover fifteen years, at first being published quarterly and later every other month. There are a few issues missing in the run.

Box List

Box 12.

newsletters

Series III. Loose Materials

1921-1978

Arrangement: Chronological

Programs from state, district, and local home demonstration events; agenda of meetings; some correspondence; newspaper clippings; certificates of commendation; and black and white photographs of events and dmonstration crafts. Some of the material seems to have come from Mrs. Juanita Lagg during her state-wide presidency of the home demonstration clubs. There is also one folder of materials (including photographs) filed together showing African American involvement in extension activities.

Folder List:

Box 13.

Folder 1. 1920s

Folder 2. 1928-1938

Folder 3. 1946; 1954

Folder 4. 1958-1963

Folder 5. 1964

 

Folder 7. 1966-1967

Folder 8. 1968

Folder 9. 1969

Folder 10. 1970

Folder 11. 1971

Box 14.

Folder 12. 1972

Folder 13. 1973

Folder 14. 1974

Folder 15. 1975

Folder 16. 1976

Folder 17. 1977

Folder 18. 1978

Folder 19. undated materials

Folder 20. African American materials