Home Economics Department Records

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0125

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection documents the history of the Home Econonomics Department at Queens College. It contains files of the Home Economics Alumni Association (circa 1950s), including including newsletters, membership information, administrative materials, and notices for programs (box 1); materials documenting departmental activities arranged chronologically from the 1940s to the 1990s, such as clippings, invitations to dinners, photographs, and brochures (box 2); and one file on the Home Economics Club from 1979-1980 (box 2). Additional photographs from the 1940s-1970s in various sizes document faculty, students, events, and classes (box 3-4). Of note, there are oversized photographic prints of the dining hall from the 1940s, as well as a 1942 thank you letter signed by soldiers who were fed in the cafeteria, addressed to the Quantity Cookery Class (box 3). Finally, there is a small amount of curricular materials from the New York City Board of Education in the 1920s on topics such as cooking, textiles, and home making (box 1).

Dates

1921 - 1997
Majority of material found in 1940s-1980s

Conditions Governing Access

Appointments to examine materials must be made in advance. Please email QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

Reproductions may be provided to users to support research and scholarship. However, collection use is subject to all copyright laws. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Historical Note

The Home Economics Department was founded soon after the founding of Queens College in 1937. The department's first chair was Margaret Gram (a mathematician by training), who held the position until 1973. Gram was responsible for supervising the cafeteria in the college's early years when it was in the I building, and later helped design the new cafeteria. During World War II the Home Economics Department's Food Science class was tasked with feeding soldiers who were housed on campus.

In the 1980s, during a period of modernization, Home Economics became the Family and Consumer Sciences Department. In the 1990s Family and Consumer Sciences merged with Physical Education, becoming the Family, Nutrition and Exercise Science (FNES) program.

Historical background compiled by Dr. Elaine Ludman ('67), who had a 40 year career as a Home Economics faculty member starting in 1968.

Extent

3 Linear Feet (2 document cases; one oversized flat box; one small photo prints box.)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Immediate Source of Acquisition

First transfer from FNES to the archives on November 25, 2002. Second transfer in February, 2025.

Related Materials

The Foods, Fashions, and Furnishings Trip Collection documents the experience of eight Home Economics students and their Foods professor, Dr. Helen Volkman, on an educational tour to Europe during the summer of 1973, and also includes materials related to the Home Economics curriculum in the 1970s.

Processing Information

Processing assistance provided by Dr. Elaine Ludman, who helped date materials and identify people in photographs. Ludman's handwritten and printed notes are includes with photographs and in folders for context. She also printed Wikipedia pages on significant faculty members.