Martha Van Rensselaer and Flora Rose taught at what became the College of Human Ecology, then the Home Economics program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Van Rensselaer and Rose created this program together in 1907, designing courses that taught students, all women, how to run an efficient home. Their Home Economics featured practice houses where students lived and implemented their lessons from the classroom. These homes relied on a team of equal partners who shared housework and other domestic responsibilities, much like Van Rensselar and Rose’s own relationship in their shared home. The two women were collectively called “Miss Van Rose” and lived together from 1908 to 1932.

back