#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