Dress The Journal of the Costume Society of America

ISSN: 0361-2112 (Print) 2042-1729 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ydre20

In Pursuit of Legitimacy: Home Economists and the Hoover Apron in World War I

Joan L. Sullivan

To cite this article: Joan L. Sullivan (1999) In Pursuit of Legitimacy: Home Economists and the Hoover Apron in World War I, Dress, 26:1, 31-46, DOI: 10.1179/036121199805297845 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/036121199805297845

Published online: 18 Jul 2013.

Submit your article to this journal

Article views: 188

View related articles

Citing articles: 1 View citing articles

Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=ydre20

Download by: [James Madison University] Date: 22 May 2017, At: 09:30 Joan L. Sullivan

On April 6, 1917, the United States of one who does manual labor or service. In Pursuit of America joined her European allies in When a woman wears a quasi uniform declaring war on Germany. One of the like the Hoover apron, its value lies in its Legitimacy: critical requirements for America's declaration of the wearer's commitment Home success in this unprecedented to the cause the uniform represents, and involvement in a foreign war was her unspoken acceptance of that Economists and immediate food conservation on the organization's common values and home front. In the extraordinary beliefs, to which the witness agrees and the Hoover voluntary conservation effort that identifies. The uniform becomes the followed, the fledgling profession of "certificate of legitimacy" for the Apron in World home economics played a crucial role, common cause.2 The Hoover apron, as enthusiastically supported by Herbert both apron and uniform, was designed War I Hoover, chief administrator of the United to be the certificate of legitimacy for States Food Administration (USFA). those women pledged to the principles To encourage American women's and directives of the USFA, and the participation in national service and to symbol of professional identity for home promote the USFA's efforts, an official economists struggling for recognition. uniform of the Food Conservation It was the scarcity of basic foodstuffs Division of the USFA was created, known that brought the reality of Europe's as the Hoover apron. This apron became struggle closer to home. During the the symbolic representation of the three years prior to America's entry into professionalization of home economists in the war, there was a great deal of World War I and, by association, the competition for America's food surplus, modem American homemaker. causing rapid increases in prices (as

According to historian Jules David much as 40 percent between July 1916 Prown, "Material culture is just what it and April 1917) which, in turn, provoked says it is-namely the manifestation of food riots in some urban areas.3 In culture through material productions," response, on August 29, 1916, Congress and we study it in order "to discover the enacted legislation to create the United beliefs-the values, ideas, attitudes and States Council of National Defense assumptions-of a particular community (CND) charging it with the "coordination or society at a given time."l The Hoover of industries and resources for the apron, as a material artifact, then can be national security and welfare." used as a field of inquiry for this study to Commodity scarcity and the concomitant discover the "values, ideas, attitudes and rise in prices were not alleviated assumptions" that created it. immediately, but the creation of the Clothing is a visual medium. CND was an important first step in Subconsciously, when a woman wears setting up the organizational stratum for an apron, whole sets of assumptions are the war measures to come. By March 3, implicitly acknowledged by the wearer 1917 the CND was fully organized, and and the observer. A woman's household included a Woman's Committee whose apron, when worn as a protective and overall responsibility was to "provide a serviceable garment, historically new and direct channel of symbolizes the most desirable qualities communication between American of a housewife. When an apron also women and their Government." serves as part of an occupational Included in the ten" departments of Joan Sullivan is an independent scholar uniform, however, the assumptions work" of this committee were "Food currently researching the historical use of change, as they do for a maid or waitress Production and Home Economics" and women's domestic aprons in American culture. when the apron identifies the wearer as "Food Administration."4 The

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 31 organizational infrastructure of the "food dictator." Congress, after several Woman's Committee would be months of political maneuvering, invaluable to the implementation of the eventually legitimized what was national food conservation effort, but it already in progress by passing the Food would not be at the helm. Control Bill (also known as the Lever Instead, the day after war was Act), officially creating the USFA on declared on April 7, 1917, the CND August 10, 1917, with Hoover as its turned to the one person whose chief administrator.8 In an effort to accomplishments in wartime emergency stabilize conditions and curtail abuses, food relief were unparalleled-Herbert the Lever Act gave Hoover and the Hoover.s From 1914 to 1917, working USFA regulatory powers through the from his London office, Hoover had licensing of those food manufacturers, procured and distributed emergency food jobbers, wholesalers, and retailers relief on behalf of the Commission for the whose businesses grossed more than Relief of Belgium (CRB),supplying one hundred thousand dollars a year. "2,500,000 tons of foodstuffs to more than The Lever Act did not include controls 9,000,000 helpless people in Belgium and on primary producers like farmers, or German-occupied northern France." on the average retailer or consumer. Figure 1. Official USFA pledge card. The Hoover's CRB,"a gigantic humanitarian The goal was to control surging food chevron enclosed by a circle of wheat is the undertaking without precedent in prices and create conditions that would same design that was used on the insignia history," saved Belgium's population provide surpluses of foodstuffs for badge. Courtesy, The Brick Store Museum, from starvation when German occupation distribution to European allies. Kennebunk, Maine. and a British naval blockade dramatically Organizationally the USFA chain of reduced their food supply.6 No other command flowed from Hoover's test of the principle of voluntary

person could bring to the food crisis the Washington, D.C. office to the cooperation in modern times."l0 same experience in international food individual states, each of which had a Soon after accepting the executive relief, or have access to, and knowledge food administrator and a director of appointment as food "czar" (as the press of, global resources. home economics appointed by Hoover. liked to call him), Hoover invited When Hoover was called back to the Most state USFA directors of home professional home economists from across United States in May 1917, it is likely economics were recruited from the core the country to meet in Washington to that his plans for food conservation on of established professional home advise him on a practical plan of food the home front were already well economists employed as educators in conservation. Most were nationally formulated. One of the most persuasive state colleges, or as directors of known home economists, and many schemes he presented to President agricultural college extension services. became members of a permanent advisory Woodrow Wilson was for the voluntary This professional group was of committee that reported directly to Ray conservation of food, arguing that particular value to the USFA because Lyman Wilbur, President of Stanford rationing would necessitate the creation its members were experts in food University, and Director of the Home of yet another costly government science and were already familiar with Conservation Division of the Food bureaucracy. To achieve this goal, food the demands and interests of the Administration.ll Out of this early conserva tion promotion and education clientele they served. By December meeting came the plan for a national was" absolutely necessary," as was the 1917, the Washington, D.C. office had pledge campaign which was" an appeal to "'sufficiently intensive organization' of 1,100 USFA employees and close to 200 the women of the country to do national women throughout the country."7 executives, including 81 who served service by enlisting as actual members" of Frustrated by Congress' stalling, and to with no compensation. At its peak in the USFA with the tacit agreement to facilitate the speedy implementation of 1918, the USFA's "mostly female army" carry out its directives.12 "Food Will Win food conservation policies, President was estimated to number three- The War" was the slogan. The Wilson created the American Food quarters of a million part-time propaganda campaign used all Administration (independent of the volunteers.9 The USFA came to be "the communication resources at its command: CND) on May 16, 1917, with Hoover as largest and most successful practical the press, radio, libraries, schools,

32 DRESS 1999 churches, film and advertising. As were sold, while 1,172,325 Americans Ellen Richards, founder of the modem Harvey A. Levenstein has suggested, signed the pledge.14 It is difficult to home economics movement.18 Richards while the USFA "took its [basic] message assess the extent of pattern sales because and her successors in the field from the home economists, "it borrowed both Butterick and McCall's pattern incorporated these principles into the the tactics" from an incongruous companies soon offered the pattern for home economics curriculum, eventually combination ... of the prohibition sale, and records from those companies enabling the profession to legitimize the movement and the fledgling advertising are not available. It is also hard to study of home economics, thereby making industry" to form the core of its estimate how many times a pattern was it a partner of the scientific community. conservation campaign.13 The visual used because it could have been shared. Richards' instincts were right, because props for this commitment to national The USFA pattern cost ten cents. The ultimately, home economists' training in service were a pledge card (Figure 1) to be commercial pa ttern companies charged food science engendered national displayed in the window of a participant's th~ same price although their equivalent recognition for the profession. home, a lapel pin, an insignia badge, and a apron patterns sold for twenty cents. The Borrowing from industry's time- pattern for an official USFA food estimated cost for making the apron and management principles, home economists conservation uniform-the Hoover apron accompanying cap was about one dollar. in the early 1900s developed a system of and cap (Figure 2). Adult ready-made aprons with caps were household governance in which women at By June 1917, the Hoover apron and priced from $1.95 to $2.95, girls' at $1.75.15 home and girls at school were taught to be cap pattern was available for sale through Although it was encouraged, women did healthful providers by using modem food the USFA Washington, D.C. office. Sales not have to wear a uniform to participate planning, shopping, and cooking records for the month of August, 1917 in the food conservation efforts. techniques that were influenced by new reveal that 3,068 Hoover apron patterns On June 22, 1917, The New York Times scientific discoveries (such as the chemical announced the first pledge campaign isolation of vitamins and calories in "for the registration of the country's food).19 In the process, the large, open housewives. Every woman member of traditional kitchen of the past was scorned

the administration [who has signed the in favor of a smaller kitchen with discrete pledge] will be asked to wear in her work spaces. kitchen a uniform apron as a symbol of In a 1902 article in The House Beautiful her membership."16 It is probable that entitled" An Ideal Kitchen," Isabel Hoover's advisory committee McDougall suggested that unlike the contributed their ideas to the Hoover kitchen of old, "Everything in her temple apron project, though a July 7, 1917 [kitchen] is clean with the scientific USFA publicity release credits Sarah cleanliness of a surgery." The Field Splint, editor of Today's Housewife homemaker's "temple," she advised, and assistant to Wilbur, with the design should be all white, including its of this official costume.17 appliances, walls, oilcloth, and enamel Two important factors influenced the tabletops. The dizzying array of new design of the Hoover apron. One evolved household technology (indoor plumbing, from the home economists' professional electricity, central heating) and commitment to the new science of appliances (vacuum cleaners, washing housekeeping. In the January 1915 issue machines, refrigerators), accessible in the of the Journal of Home Economics, Annette early part of the twentieth century, J. Warner wrote: "One of the best things coupled with the decline in availability accomplished by ... Home Economics and afford ability of hired help, became Departments has been the dignifying of useful arguments for change. Home all the homely work of housekeeping by economist educators and their students in raising it to the level of a science." This university kitchen laboratories now wore Figure 2. Official Food Administration pattern foundation of applying scientific white uniforms resembling those of their for the Hoover apron. Courtesy, Hoover principles to household tasks such as counterparts in chemistry labs.20 Institution Archives, Stanford University. nutrition and sanitation was inspired by Whether one was a professional home

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 33 LARKIN PREMIUM

economist or a homemaker in her modern kitchen, the conventional apron and cap, as symbols of servitude, were no longer deemed appropriate.21 It was logical, then, for home economists yearning for professional identity to discard that class symbol and instead, choose to associate their work clothing with a legitimate profession. As French historian Fernand Braudel wrote: "Fashion is a search for a new language to discredit the old ."22 For the home economists, the Hoover apron was the material manifestation of their need to discredit the old. The second factor influencing the Hoover apron design was the swiftly changing fashion needs and tastes of American women in the early years of the twentieth century. Home economics professionals and their counterparts in women's clubs had been petitioning for decades for simpler, less restrictive fashions for American women.23 The design of the Hoover apron would have met their criteria for simplicity and ease of House Dresses Anron Sets movement. Its basic form, however, was Figure 3. Larkin Co., The Larkin Factory-to-FamilyPlan: seventy-third catalog (Buffalo, 1915): not a radical departure from the typical 66. Courtesy, The Winterthur Library: Printed Book and Periodical Collection. apron worn by women when doing heavy housework. This was a shapeless shift major newspapers in 1917and 1918 with adjustable waist and no collar or (full length, straight, back closure, with verify the popularity of such collars and cuffs, appeared in a 1916and 1917winter long or short sleeves) called an apron- cuffs, which were used on many different mail-order catalogue from W. & H. dress, coverall or bungalow apron, often forms of women's clothes, from smocks Walker of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. worn with a matching cap (Figure 3). to dresses.24 The innovative front-wrap A cap with a high, wide front brim Under the coverall the housewife might be feature of the Hoover apron allowed the "fashioned after the Russian soldier dressed in her day clothes complete with wearer to overlap one side or the other, model" completed the outfit.25 Public corsetry and stockings, ready to remove switching as one side became soiled. exposure to, and sympathy for, the the apron at a moment's notice in the Mrs. Holbrook's ready-to-wear apron, Russian Revolution of 1917may have event unexpected guests came to visit. though laundered and starched, had been the inspiration for the cap's design. Essentially, the Hoover apron was a permanent stains on one side of the front The cap was also easy to iron and store. full-length, front-wrap style with a belt wrap, indicating the value of this design It was made of two flat pieces: the wide that buttoned in the back, a shawl collar feature (Figure 4). In addition, it must brim (241/2 by 7 inches at center front to and three-quarter-Iength sleeves over have been much more comfortable to put 41/2 inches in back) which snapped in which were buttoned cuffs (or sleeve on a front-closing apron rather than one center back, and the crown, a 13-inch protectors), from wrist to elbow. The that closed in the back, particularly when diameter circle that snapped to the brim. shawl collar and the sleeve protectors putting the apron on over other clothing. Wide brims were common components of were common, contemporary elements of The wrap feature was new, though a popular millinery styles, and were even dress for women's house and office work ready-made "Woman's reversible front included as part of the headdress of a at that time. Fashion advertisements in apron dress" (for seventy-five cents) wedding ensemble worn by a

34 DRESS 1999 Washington, D.C. bride in September 1917.26 Light blue chambray was recommended for the apron and cap body, with white pique for the shawl collar, cuffs, and cap brim. (Mrs. Holbrook's cap was all white.) An insignia badge-a chevron of stars and stripes surrounded by a circle of wheat-confirmed the Hoover apron's official status. The placement of the insignia, one on the top left sleeve, and one on the front of the cap, was reminiscent of military uniform codes. The insignia, an important salient symbol, imparted to the viewer the authority of the USFA and, by membership, the wearer.27 The total visual effect of the outfit suggested a quasi- laboratory / military uniform, which complied with the presumed need for professional identification, and with the contemporary preference for uniforms Figure 5. Mrs. Asbury F. Lever, wife of U. S. worn by women in many branches of Representative Lever, and their eighteenth- World War I wartime service including month old daughter, Mary Katherine. the Red Cross, Ambulance Corps, Courtesy, National Archives, Washington, DC.

YWCA, and Women's League for National Service. The military connotation USFA, it became inexorably intertwined associated with women participating in with Hoover's name. Such was the the food conservation effort Was a power of his name that it became a verb: dilemma for the USFA. Hoover was to "hooverize" meant to conserve. clearly against any military classification Advertising professionals today would and Wilbur did his best to avoid the envy the name recognition Hoover comparison. The press, however, found it enjoyed in his day. Long after World a natural connection, and, inescapably, War I came to an end, the Hoover-style these Hoover-aproned women became wrap apron/ dress appeared in different known as Hoover's "army."28 women's clothing catalogs.30 In addition, Overall, the Hoover apron was a hybrid it continued to be sewn and worn by creation that satisfied diverse cultural some college home economics students, values: it was fashionable in style; it and was promoted for general use in protected the wearer like a coverall apron; extension service bulletins such as by the flat apron and cap pieces made it easy Cornell University in 1918 and 1920.31 It to care for, iron and store; the wrap feature is likely that the popular Sears, Roebuck made it easy to put on; its design suggested & Company "hooverette wrap the authority of a lab technician; and it had housedress" of the 1930s is a derivative the distinction of being an official women's of that original fashion. war service uniform. The first women to be encouraged to Initially, the apron was classified as the wear the Hoover apron were the staff of Figure 4. Hoover apron (1945.1562). Bertha A. Official Uniform of the Food Conservation the Conservation Division of the USFA, Holbrook, donor, Courtesy of The State Section of the Food Administration.29 But the wives of cabinet members and Historical Society of Wisconsin. like everything else associated with the congressional representatives. Many

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 35 elected officials' wives complied, as the publicity photograph of South Carolina Congressman Asbury Lever's wife and United States Food Administration daughter attests (Figure 5). Not everyone FEDERAL FOOD BOARD OF NEW YORK in Washington was enthusiastic about the NEW YORK STATE FOOD COMMISSION USFA's visual propaganda blitz, however. Mrs. Ellen Maury Slayden, wife of Texas Issued by Bureau of Conservation Congressman James L. Slayden, had No.3 May 14, 1918 this to say: For pledging ourselves on cards to do all these things, we can, by sending 10 cents, get a card with the American shield in a CONSUME CORNMEAL wreath of wheat in our windows and show the neighbors that we are patriots; 5 cents Indian corn saved the lives of the Pilgrinl Fathers. will get a button for our lapels, and 85 cents It kept nIuny a soldier in fighting trinl during the Civil an entire costume to wear while we l\Tnr.ltis lllore prized than '\vheat by llliIlions of people conserve. I am going to spend my dollar on 32 ill the ,vorld today'. food and go on wearing my blue apron. But the pledge campaign was only the In selecting \vheat substitutes, sonle of us have neg- beginning. The real work lay ahead. lected corni11eal. "re have not discoyered its delicious "The participation of women on a possibilities. "r e lllust Inake a special effort to use it national scale in food conservation is 1110re freely' as this is our biggest cereal crop rind one imperative," wrote Hoover in June 1917.33

\v'hich cannot be shipped because it spoils too easil)T. Because the Food Administration and the USFA had no authority to impose As far fiS nourishnlent goes, cerenls nre l)racticnlI~? in- rationing, it had to depend upon the terchnngeable. lY"e hare eaten ,,·heat bread because ,,"e wholehearted cooperation of every likeu it better than cornllleal brend-not because of its American, especially the housewives being lllore nutritious. N a cereal is a perfect diet by who were responsible for the purchasing, planning, and preparation of the family itself, but an)" cereal IlIa)" be nInde a large part of n food. For that considerable responsibility perfect diet. "Thent, corn, barley, rice-all of thelll- Hoover turned to the home economists need supplenlenting by Dlilk, fruits and greelr yeg- and the Woman's Committee of the etables. This is just as true of bread Blade fran1 '\vhite CND, now subsumed by the USFA. "rheat flour as of corn bread, and -""hen this is done, For the home economists, the opportunity was ready-made, for now the result,vill be satisfactory if the cereals hnye been they were" called to places of usefulness ,veIl cooked. far surpassing in number and Rell1elnher that a pound of cornnleaI ,,·asted Illeans a responsibility anything heretofore thought possible."34 Their knowledge of IJound of ,vhent take11 froIlI our fig'hters. the new food science had a very real application as they devised substitution POT AIOES, MILK AND CORNMEAL NOW, recipes to replace basic foodstuffs (wheat flour, butter, meat and sugar) that would MEAN MORE FOOD FOR EVERBODY BY AND BY not be readily available, not only for the individual homemaker but for larger institutions as well (hospitals, Figure 6. An example of a typical USFA food bulletin that was distributed during the war. Note the restaurants, schools). The recognition of reference to the historic use of cornmeal in American culture. Private collection. the value of home economists to the

36 DRESS 1999 successful execution of the national food Agricultural Extension Service reported filled the ranks of each state's USFA's campaign and the concomitant visibility that it had given twenty-one "Training Woman's Committees. Club life had laid the groundwork for the profession's School" demonstrations to a total of 4,636 given them confidence in their own post-war career opportunities. attendees, who then went back to their abilities and taught them the considerable Using all the communication and communities to teach canning classes speaking and organizational skills that educational tools available to them, the through local organizations, like the they brought to the food conservation USFA spread the food conservation Grange.39 Aside from the immediate benefit efforts. By the turn of the century, the message. At center stage were the home to the USFA food conservation programs, new scientific approach to domesticity economists, led by Sarah Field Splint.35 The the enduring advantage for the home coupled with women's political United States Department of Agriculture's economics profession was the universal experience, had taken the Victorian home (USDA) Office of Home Economics had set expansion of its sphere of influence. from refuge to participant in the modem up an experimental kitchen in Washington, While the home economists met the world. This reservoir of women's energy D.C. several years earlier, but the war challenge of instituting a wartime diet, and commitment to the larger community necessitated immediate expansion of space the statewide Woman's Committees of was the catalyst for their service in World and personnel, which was accomplished in the CND /USF A were the midwives to War r.41The work of the St. Louis, a building across the street from the west the birth of this unprecedented effort, Missouri Women's Central Committee wing of the USDA building. Staff from both fulfilling the CND mandate to be the serves as a good example. the USFA Home Conservation Division and direct channel between American women "No other city of the United States has the Office of Home Economics operated the and their government. In the years such an extensive organization dealing kitchen where the home economics leading up to 1917, home economists with food conservation and education professionals created and tested new food were only one group of educated middle- and various kinds of machinery for the substitution recipes that were eventually class women competing in an enforcement of the Food Administration published in pamphlet form for distribution increasingly heated public arena for Rules and Regulations, as has St.

to individuals and institutions (Figure 6).36 political and professional attention Louis."42 Typical of many state The state USFA directors of home (labor, suffrage, and temperance organizations, the St. Louis Women's economics and state extension service movements to name a few). Throughout Central Committee on Food agents were the field workers who provided the nineteenth century, women had Conservation co-opted by the USFA educational material (from the District office participated in politics through metamorphosed from the Woman's and some state offices) and taught classes on organizations that worked to correct Committee of the CND, to become the food preservation, including the planning of what they defined as injustices toward Women's Central Committee (WCC) on community gardens. What the Smith-Lever women and children. By the Progressive Food Conservation for St. Louis on Act had mandated in 1914,in the expansion era they had become ardent and active November 24, 1917. Like their of domestic science education through club members, using group membership counterparts elsewhere, the leadership of cooperative extension services, was now as a vehicle through which they could the St. Louis WCC was drawn from local implemented at full speed.37 But as the find expressive power and political clubwomen with memberships in demand for classes in food preservation effectiveness. Beginning in the 1880s national and local women's exceeded the numbers of trained extension "and flourishing between 1900 and 1915, organizations. Using the city ward service personnel available, volunteers from prodigious political mobilization by system as the organizational divisor, the community at large had to be recruited middle class women formed the largest they set up chairmen in each ward, and and trained by home economists (estimated coalitions that broke through the malaise then each precinct within the ward. to be 27,000women attending 450 schools) and restructured American social and "The city was combed from block to who were then sent out in force to spread political priorities at the municipal, state block, from street to street, until a head the word.38 In St. Louis, for instance, under and federal levels," exemplified by the and two assistants were found for each the aegis of the Women's Central 800,000-strong membership of the precinct," making 500 in all.43 Committee, food experts from illinois and national General Federation of Women's From April 19, 1917 to May 10, 1918, Missouri state universities taught an Clubs, founded in 1910.40 these women completed a remarkable intensive three-week course in 1917that It was the experienced and active number of activities on behalf of the netted an additional 103volunteer teachers. clubwomen, longtime supporters of home USFA. They established "Food Centers" In the same year, the University of Maine economics education themselves, who in each of the city's twenty-eight wards;

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 37 and local political divisions for the organization and implementation of the USFA programs. Interestingly, Mrs. Bertha A. Holbrook's name, though President of the Woman's Club of Wisconsin from 1918 to 1920, does not appear on any of the Milwaukee Women's Committee rosters for USFA work.45 Whether she, a household staff member, or another family member wore the Hoover apron remains a mystery. All over America, trained Hoover- aproned volunteers using the home economists' education materials appeared on the backs of trucks, at the Grange, in schools and schoolyards, Sunday school rooms, and department stores in cities and rural areas, teaching the principles of Figure 7. Mrs. Mina C. Van Winkle of Newark, NI, president of the Woman's Political Union of New food substitution and conservation Jersey, shown in a demonstration classroom. She served as head of the Lecture Bureau for the USFA. (Figure 7). Even train coaches were used Courtesy, National Archives, Washington, DC. as demonstration classrooms. The Long Island (NY) Food Reserve Battalion had a arranged for donated space and Romance" set in a blue and white kitchen, Food Preservation Instruction Train. In

equipment for food preservation classes; with the actors wearing "Hooveralls;" Pennsylvania, the Food Conservation gave cooking lessons in the city's ten held classes for war gardens to be planted Train traveled the state in the autumn of "Food Districts" using extension service in schoolyards, homes and vacant public 1917 and throughout the summer of 1918, demonstrators; and created a land; and registered St. Louisians visiting 150 cities and towns, reaching "Household Show" with exhibits of two citywide in the two pledge campaigns approximately 100,000 people. This train "Demonstration Kitchens, a Thrift (2,000 workers in the first campaign). had three coaches, two for demonstrating Garden, and Model Poultry Yard." They solicited retail grocers' cooperation cooking and preserving methods, and one They equipped "War Bread Trucks" for with USFA price and commodity for food-related exhibits, all run by a staff demonstration baking to travel the city; guidelines; arranged for USFA speakers; of eight. When some New Jersey women set up a "Patriots Kitchen" in downtown distributed USFA leaflets (as well as their could not get an equipped coach for their St. Louis where five extension service own publications) on food conservation use, they substituted a discarded workers gave daily food conservation through city political organizations, "Side-Door Pullman," or freight car. demonstrations; paid six "Visiting libraries, motion picture houses, The home economics staff of the Good Housekeepers" to tour homes of "certain merchants, churches, and schools; Housekeeping Institute wore the Hoover families [who] were making a failure of arranged for mass meetings that reached apron in the Institute's kitchen. The their household management," carrying audiences of 100,000; solicited free press magazine ran its own pledge campaign with them a kit containing the "necessary coverage of USFA activities; and for "Kitchen Soldiers" and offered many utensils, and the Hoover Uniform, which incredibly, found the time and staff to USFA approved recipes in its magazine.46 they wear at work;" established a maintain records of their activities!44 Canning clubs sprang up everywhere. "Neighborhood Kitchen" to provide It was no small feat for the Woman's The Ladies Home Journal photographed healthful food on a "Cash-and-Carry" Committees of the CND to build these aproned USFA volunteers teaching a Girl plan in a factory area where most of the statewide machines in forty-eight states Scout troop to make jam, which was then wor kers were women; and held a mass and territories. In Wisconsin, the Food distributed to the troops or to hospitals.47 meeting for "cooks and mistresses." Production and Conservation In Danvers and Boston, Massachusetts, They designed posters; presented a Departments of the Women's Committee temporary community canning facilities vaudeville sketch called" A Patriotic followed the same model, using the state were set up on village greens. In Wenham,

38 DRESS 1999 path at 9 and 1:30 ... Mrs. Bryce Allan on incident, and interpreted Wilson's smile the dot wearing so well the blue uniform somewhat differently. Hastily put into a and stiff cap with the U.s.A. seal, and no Hoover apron, "which trailed on the one could pack faster or more perfectly."48 ground and had to be pinned up," Guerrier The Mother and Daughter Canning Club was one of several women carrying the of Wichita, Kansas, became the liaison for oversized flag in the parade. "I think that bringing together food producers and smile was for our aprons-it must have canners. When participants did not wear looked a little strange to behold a lot of the whole uniform because of choice or kitchen maids trotting along with a huge cost, they often at least wore the cap with American flag."s2 the insignia badge, as students did in On November 3, 1917, a Women's many schools and some college home Conservation Parade was held in New economics classrooms.49 Orleans, Louisiana. All seventeen city Early on in its propaganda campaign wards were represented. "Women, who the USF A called upon the new motion all their lives before had never given a picture industry to produce publicity thought to saving food, marched side by films for them. Motion "picturettes," side with those who, by necessity, have proselytizing the food conservation practiced the strictest economy for message, were shown to the public at years." Leading the parade were the theaters and public events. A feature officers and the executive committee film, "Little Miss Hoover," was made in members of the Women's Committee of

1917 with actress Marguerite Clark in a the CND, 1/ garbed in the Hoover costume Hoover apron demonstrating food of blue and white."s3 As the United States' involvement in

conservation in a modern kitchen. so Parades were also an effective the war deepened in 1918, so, too, did the promotional venue. Hoover's food visibility of the Hoover apron, which conservation army (thirty women in made its appearance in national food Hoover aprons) made its dramatic public product and appliance ads in national appearance in the September 4, 1917 women's magazines (Figure 8). So clearly mobilization parade in Washington D.C., did this apron become a symbol for the honoring the first army draftees (28,000 food conservation movement that hand- strong). The USFA's participation in this illustrated William Tell Flour ads showing parade was a last-minute public relations a child or her mother wearing the Hoover Figure 8. Good Housekeeping Magazine, decision by Ray Wilbur, who rounded apron appeared consistently in a March, 1918. up clerical staff members, found Kennebunk, Maine, weekly newspaper in Massachusetts, a cannery was established uniforms for them, and lined them up 1918, and as late as 1919 (Figure 9).54 By on the top floor of a garage on a private for the long walk. Leading the USF A May 1918, the Ladies Home Journal could estate, organized by the Wenham Village contingent was Herbert Hoover: say with conviction that "Everyone now Improvement Society and aided by the knows the Hoover uniform, which in less As he strode past the reviewing stand, the county Public Safety Committee. Using than a year has penetrated to the farthest diffident Food Administrator blushed, food grown by the Garden Club of corners of the country and is worn dropped his hat, and kicked it as he tried to America, harvested and transported by retrieve it. The President of the United wherever women are organized for war the young women of the Junior League, States grinned. It was but a momentary service under our food-saving program."ss volunteers worked three days a week in mortification. As he proceeded with his It is impossible to know how many shifts to clean, prepare, and can produce, 'army' up Pennsylvania Avenue, Hoover women wore the Hoover apron and for donating the finished products to received thunderous applause.51 what occasions. Mrs. Holbrook's apron is Massachusetts's North Shore hospitals. a good case in point. Athough she Mrs. Edward B. Cole remembered "the Edith Guerrier, director of USFA Library donated the apron to the State Historical procession of workers coming up the Food Facts Bureau, did not see the Hoover Society of Wisconsin, there is no evidence

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 39 By and large, we discovered that the women, particularly the women in the home, were the ones upon whom we could rely for the best results. I am convinced that the American woman did just as important work in winning the war . .. as did the American soldier on the other side .... It was her denial and her intelligent choices for her family that built up the reserves that were sent abroad .... She worked not only in the home but with all the other organized bodies of the community from the school children Up.56

The war ended on November 11,1918 and after archiving its records, the USFA disbanded. Hoover continued his food relief work for war-torn Europe. His experience and visibility on the national and international scene during World War I, and his work as Commerce Secretary in the Harding and Coolidge administrations, certainly set the stage for his successful bid for the presidency

in 1928. With the right to vote granted to women in 1920, it is not surprising that Figure 9. William Tell Flour advertisement. Eastern Star, Kennebunk, Maine, 20 September 1918. estimates show that three-quarters of the Courtesy, The Brick Store Museum, Kennebunk, Maine. women who voted in the 1928 election cast their ballots for Hoover.s7 in the state or city USFA records or in was in its continued use (without the Home economists and their the Holbrook family archives that USFA insignia) among home economics profession also gained national indicates if or when she wore it. The educators and their students into the prominence and credibility as a result of photographic and news media records 1920s, as mentioned earlier. their efforts during the war. A 1930 from the period best attest to the As a bureaucracy, the USFA was Brookings Institution publication on the Hoover apron's use. These records unique in its inclusion of women. history of the Bureau of Home

suggest that home economics In every state in the union a professional Economics reported that 1/ A potential professionals, extension service home economist had been put in charge element in this increased activity in personnel and their trained of the USFA food conservation program, home economics was the stimulus to volunteers, university home many of whom worked directly with the food research which came about as a economics educators and their leadership in the Washington office. result of the World War. The war called students, and middle-class women, No other government department attention to the value of home like Wenham's Mrs. Bryce Allan, wore during the war employed as many economics and the need for further the uniform for the public activities women in executive capacities as did the research as no other situation had ever associated with food conservation USFA. For the home economists in done.lIs8 Many women involved in the work. It is unlikely that most particular, this rare opportunity to be a USFA went on, as Sarah Field Splint did, homemakers replaced their traditional part of a crucial national effort was to work as consultants for advertising household apron with the Hoover empowering. Wilber had this to say agencies (J. Walter Thompson apron. The enduring testimony to the about the millions of American women Company) and electrical appliance value of the Hoover apron in the on the home front who made the USFA industries, eager to have their input on professionalization of home economics food conservation program a success: ways to attract buyers in the emerging

40 DRESS 1999 consumer culture. The home economists Director of The Brick Store Museum for successfully intervened on behalf of were the new authorities in the domestic generously providing the opportunity to study the 200,000 Americans stranded in sphere. They had finally achieved an actual Hoover apron. Europe without access to cash or professional status. transportation home. Hoover was a Dress is a powerful presentation of 1 Jules David Prown, "The Truth of retired mining engineer living in self. In the study of material culture, Material Culture: History or Fiction?" Britain at the time. His unqualified clothing can be "a means by which in History From Things, Essays on success with that effort led to his cultural categories and principles are Material Culture, Steven Lubar and W. recruitment as organizer and director encoded and made manifest."59 For David Kingery, eds. (Washington, DC: of the Commission for the Relief of millions of American women, the Smithsonian Press, 1993),1. See also Belgium in 1914. As director of CRB wearing of the Hoover apron during Grant McCracken, Culture and he was asked to divest himself of all World War I announced to the world at Consumption: New Approaches to the his investments (he was a large their commitment to and Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods millionaire), which he did with the identification with the largest women's and Activities (Bloomington: Indiana exception of one mine. See also: club in wartime America, the USFA. For University Press, 1988),60-61; Thomas Frank Surface and Raymond L. Bland, professional home economists, the apron J. Schlereth, Material Culture Studies in American Food in the World War and represented enlightened domesticity as America, 1876-1976(Nashville, TN: Reconstruction Period, Operation of the well as the certificate of legitimacy for AASLH, 1982),2-3. Organization Under the Direction of their emerging profession. For the 2 Nathan Joseph, Uniforms and Herbert Hoover 1914-1924(Stanford: USFA, the apron was an effective visual Nonuniforms, Communication Through Stanford University Press, 1931),3. propaganda icon for the common cause. Clothing (New York: Greenwood 7 Nash, Life of Herbert Hoover, 15. By investigating the intrinsic cultural Press, 1986), 10,13,49-79. Hoover's testimony to the Senate, May value of the Hoover apron, its 3 William Clinton Mullendore, History of 8 and 9, 1917,is quoted in Nash. As he

relationship to the user and the larger the United States Food Administration, did when he was director of Belgian society, it is possible to "discover the 1917-1918(Stanford: Stanford relief, Hoover did not accept a salary beliefs-the values, ideas, attitudes and University Press, 1941),4,48-49. or expenses for his services. assumptions-of a particular community 4 Newton D. Baker, Secretary of War 8 Nash, Life of Herbert Hoover, 15, 17,21, or society at a given time," and Chairman of the Council of 71. Congressman Asbury Lever was as Prown suggested. The Hoover apron National Defense, First Annual Report chairman of the Agriculture becomes a material culture document of the Council of National Defense, Committee and worked tirelessly on through which the social history of the November 20,1917 (Washington, DC: passage of the bill. Hoover also times can be revealed. U.s. Government Printing Office), 6, celebrated his 43rd birthday on 46. To forestall confusion, the national August 10, 1917. Hoover was referred committee for the CND was called the to affectionately by his staff as "the Acknowledgements "Woman's Committee." Some state chief;" United States Food The author is indebted to the Winterthur USFA conservation groups called Administration Collection, Hoover Museum and Library for the award of a themselves the "Women's Institution Archives (Stanford: research fellowship which was an invaluable Committee." The organization titles Stanford University, nd), 1H-5H, Box asset to the development of this project. Special given in this paper are correctly 1. The USFA, as a temporary wartime thanks go to: George H. Nash, Herbert Hoover recorded for each individual group. government agency, replaced the biographer; the reference staffs of the Fogler 5 George H. Nash, The Life of Herbert American Food Administration but Library at the University of Maine at Orono; Hoover, Master of Emergencies 1917-1918 the latter's bureaucracy was subsumed the Hoover Institution Archives and Stanford (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996), by the USFA. For purposes of clarity University Archives, Stanford University; the 4; "Hoover Called on to Head Food USFA has been used to refer to all the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, West Board," New York Times, 8 April 1917,5. food conservation efforts. Branch, Iowa; the Hagley Museum and 6 Nash, Life of Herbert Hoover, 4. 9 Nash, Life of Herbert Hoover, 28, 161-62. Library, Wilmington, Delaware; and to Leslie Hoover's skills at negotiating an Many of Hoover's business friends as Bellais, Curator of The State Historical international crisis were well proven well as colleagues and former students Society of Wisconsin, and Marcene Modeland, when, at the outbreak of the war, he from Stanford University joined the

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 41 staff; for example, Ray L. Wilbur, to President Wilson, 2 June 1917, USFA implementation, and by early President of Stanford, and Ben S. Allen, Collection, Hoover Insititution November the war was over. who worked for the Associated Press Archives, (Stanford: Stanford 17 Press release, USFA Collection, in London. Allen was recruited by University), Box 367, FI1915-1917, 3. Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford: Hoover to direct the USFA Education 13 Harvey A. Levenstein, Revolution at the Stanford University) July 7, 1917, Box Division. Other prominent men and Table: The Transformation of the American I, FI 9. Splint succeeded Wilbur when women who volunteered for the USFA Diet (New York: Oxford University he had to return to his duties at Speakers Bureau were William Press, 1988), 138-39. Stanford in September 1917. Martha Jennings Bryan, Jane Addams, George 14 "List of Patterns-Buttons-Pledges- Van Rensselaer, Director of Home Foster Peabody, Ida Tarbell, and Dr. and Money Received," 17 July -17 Economics at Cornell University, Anna Howard Shaw (director of the August 1917; USFA Collection, Hoover replaced Miss Splint on March 1, 1918. Woman's Committee of the CND) to Institution Archives (Stanford: Stanford 18 Annette J. Warner, "Art in the Home," name a few. Marcy Robson Dickson, University), 5-H, Box 2. Journal of Home Economics, January 1915 The Food Front in World War I 15 Patterns included "Official Uniform (quoted in Pundt, AHEA, 13). Caroline (Washington, DC: American Council Especially Designed for the Women of L. Hunt, The Life of Ellen H. Richards on Public Affairs, 1944),92-100. the Food Administration of the United (Boston: Whitcomb & Barrows, 1912), 10 Eugene Lyons, Herbert Hoover, A Biography States," 101t (Washington, DC: 1917); 81-90. Ellen Richards received her BA (New York: Doubleday, 1964),101. USFA Collection, Hoover Institution and MA from Vassar in 1873, and was 11 USFA Publicity release, National Archives (Stanford: Stanford the first woman to study chemistry at Archives (Washington, DC, nd), RG 4, University), 5-H, Box 2; Butterick MIT. Richards' focus on the Series G, Box 7. Wilbur referred to the Fashions, November 1917,# 9507 for the application of science to housework home economics committee as his "Official Food Conservation Uniform," was the result, she said, of a U'munitions department' because we and #106636 for the transfer pattern of challenging question posed to her in the expect it to supply material;" Ray the USFA seal to be embroidered on cap 1870s which she "never succeeded in

Wilbur speech, USFA Collection, and sleeve (Butterick was the only one to banishing" from her ears: UWhat good Hoover Institution Archives (Stanford: offer the seal embroidery transfer); do you expect this [chemistry] to do in Stanford University, nd), Box 1, 1H-5H, McCall's Patterns, McCall's Magazine, the kitchen?" (178). Her rationale for F19; "News from the Field," Journal of July 1918, "Official Conservation the" scientific" aspect was to "help the Home Economics 9, no. 8 (August 1917): Uniform", #7970,44. Ready-to-wear housewife to regain control over her 391-92; "News from the Field,u Journal advertisements included The Washington kingdom." Laura Shapiro, Perfection of Home Economics 10, no. 3 (March Post, July 12, 1917,Woodward & Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of 1918): 145. Among the women who Lothrop advertisement, "The Official the Century (New York: Farrar, Straus & served in an advisory capacity at Kitchen Uniform of the Food Giroux, 1986),40. various times at the USFA D.C. office Administration," priced at $2.95, 7; The 19 Mrs. Leah D. Widstoe, "Home were: Abby Marlatt (University of National Money Saving Style Book, The Economics as a Profession," Journal of Wisconsin) also Wisconsin's USFA National Cloak & Suit Co., 1918-1919 Home Economics 9, no. 1 Oanuary 1917): Home Economics Director; Isabel offered a girls' ""Hoover' Dress and 29. Mrs. Widstoe wrote: "Home Bevier (Household Science, University Cap," costing $1.75, 39. In The Bellas Hess Economics stands for the ideal home of Illinois); Isabel Ely Lord (Pratt Catalog 28, Spring/Summer 1918, "The life for today unhampered by the Institute School of Household Science New Conservation Dress and Hat" for traditions of the past." The course and Arts); Alice P. Norton (Journal of women was priced at $1.98,30. requirements included botany, Home Economics); Bertha Shapleigh 16 "Plan for Women's Aid," New York bacteriology, zoology, physiology, (Columbia University); Dean Sarah Times, 22 June 1917, 3. The first pledge chemistry, physics, domestic Louise Arnold (Simmons College); campaign ran July 1 to 18, 1917. A architecture and decoration to name a Katherine Blunt (University of second pledge campaign was launched few (Shapiro, Salad, 179, 183). A good Chicago); and Elizabeth C. Sprague in October and November of 1917. example of the emphasis on science in (University of Kansas). A third pledge campaign was planned the curriculum can be seen in a 12 Hoover's" sketch" of the proposed for the late fall of 1918, but the workbook which includes fully Food Administration to be submitted influenza epidemic postponed its diagrammed and written pages on

DRESS 1999 household plumbing technology. Work and Wages" (Good Housekeeping, 27 Joseph, Uniforms, 20-21. Frederica Shanks, Domestic Arts, 27 September 1890),255. Because she 28 Letter to Wilbur from Hoover's office, Roxbury Massachusetts High School did not want to wear the mantle of USFA Collection, Hoover Institution 1905-1906,Joseph Downs Collection of servitude represented by the apron and Achives (Stanford: Stanford University, Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera, cap she turned down the job. Heavily nd), Box 1, F18. The letter begins: "The (Delaware: Winterthur Library), starched aprons and caps were also part words Food Control Army have too Document 45. See also Pundt, AHEA, of the uniform for female factory many ludicrous connotations ... army 26. To clarify the restructuring process workers, cooking school students and is absurd .... There is the suggestion of the home economists, after the Lake household staff in this period. amazons." Placid meetings in 1899, created a 22 Fernand Braudel, Capitalism and 29 It was called the "Hoover-all" ("Women "tripartite terminology:" "household Material Life 1400-1800 (New York: Wear 'Hoover-AIls'," New York Times, arts" described primary school work; Harper & Row, 1973),236. 31 July 1917) and the "Hoover Uniform" "domestic science" described secondary 23 Ethel Ronzone, "Standardized Dress," ("Report of the Women's Central school courses; and "home economics" Journal of Home Economics 9, no. 9 Committee on Food Conservation of applied to college and graduate work. (September 1918): 426-28. New York Saint Louis," 1918, 14),but it is Sarah Stage & Virginia B. Vincenti, eds. City's Sorosis Club Freedom of Dress historically known as the Hoover apron Rethinking Home Economics, Women and Committee and the New England and for the purposes of this paper the the History of a Profession (Ithaca: Cornell Woman's Club both petitioned for USFA Conservation Uniform will be University Press, 1997), 6. "healthful, beautiful, serviceable and referred to as the Hoover apron. See R. 20 Isabel McDougall, "An Ideal Kitchen," simple garments" for women as early Turner Wilcox, Dictionary of Costume The House Beautiful, December 1902,27. as the 1870s, and suggested that it was (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, See Levenstein, Revolution at the Table, "women of science" who should 1969),174: " 'Hoover apron' - with a 18-19. The questionable legacy of this instruct the respective designers of reversible front, first popular during

view of domesticity was demonstrated women's clothing to meet those needs. World War I when Herbert Hoover was in my interview with Nancy Andrews Karen Blair, The Clubwoman as Feminist, Food Administrator." Hunter, 8 April 1997. When Nancy True Womanhood Redefined, 1868-1914 30 Thomas' Register of Manufacturers for 1957 was a home economics student at the (New York: Holmes & Meier Publishers and 1982 includes "Hoover" aprons in Farmington campus of what is now the Inc., 1980),30,34-35. its listings. Pictorial Review Patterns (New University of Maine in the 1950s, she 24 Advertisment "A Sale of Fashionable York: Summer 1923), offered a "Hoover "wore a white uniform and the mark of Smocks," Gimbel Brothers, New York apron," #1550; 69. For "Hooverette" the day was to keep the white uniform Times, 1 July 1917;ad for The Silk housedress see 1935 Sears Roebuck & clean." Teachers would check the Association of America, New York Times, Co. Catalogue, 72. uniform at the end of classes to see 8 April 1917. 31 Exhibit photo of a student Hoover-style "how untidy you were," which, for 25 Publicity release, 1917, National apron worn by home economics Nancy, had the effect of greatly Archives, Washington, DC, USFA, RG4, students at Michigan State University in diminishing her interest and Series G, Box 7. Mrs. Arthur T. the 1920s. The only departure from the enthusiasm for cooking. Nancy had Holbrook (Bertha A.) donor of the original is that this uniform has short always worn aprons for kitchen work Hoover apron (Wisconsin: State sleeves. College of Human Ecology prior to this experience but never wore Historical Society of Wisconsin). The (East Lansing: Michigan State one afterwards. printing on the size label at the center University, 1999). Apparently home 21 Christine Terhune Herrick, The Expert back neckline is no longer economics students at Michigan State in Maid Servant (New York: Harper & distinguishable but measurements the 1920s made the apron in sewing Bros, 1904),88. Helen Campbell records indicate it was probably a bust size 36. class, then wore it for cooking class. a maid-servant's interview: "But when I All Hoover apron patterns and ready- Conversation with Associate Professor, asked not to put on the cap and apron, to-wear were sold by bust size. Sally Helvenston, 2 November 1999. Mrs. L__ got very red and said, 'You 26 Wedding announcement for Mrs. R. See also "Elementary Garment must remember that if you take a Taylor Winsted, "Bride of Navy Making," Cornell Junior Extension servant's place you have to accept the Commander," The Washington Post, 2 Bulletin 2 (Ithaca: Cornell University, limitations of a servant;'" "Woman/s September 1917. 1918) and photograph, "The Home

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 43 Laundry," The Cornell Reading Course for Economics, Its History, Activities and Milwaukee County Historical Society the Home, Lesson 137 (Ithaca: Cornell Organization (Washington, DC: (Wisconsin: Milwaukee), Box 13, FI105. University, October 1920), cover. Institute for Government Research, The 46 "War Winning Women," Ladies Home 32 Ellen Maury Slayden, Washington Wife, Brookings Institution, 1930), 10. Journal, March 1918;"'1 Should Like to Journal of Ellen Maury Slayden from 39 Gephart, W.F., "Report of the Women's See Somebody Do It,'" Ladies Home 1897-1919 (New York: Harper & Row, Central Committee on Food Journal, June 1918; "Blue Ribbon 1962), 308-09. The "85 cents" may refer Conservation of Saint Louis" (St. Louis, Women," Ladies Home Journal, August to the cost of making one. No evidence Missouri: USFA, 1918), 12. Annual 1918; "The Ration and the Kitchen to date has been found to suggest that Report of the Maine Agricultural Soldier," Good Housekeeping, June a ready-to-wear Hoover apron was Extension Service, Extension Bulletin 1918; "Tested and Approved Recipes available for that price. No. 114 (Orono: University of Maine, for War-Time Saving and Economy," 33 "Sketch". USFA Collection. Hoover February 1918), 26, 27. Good Housekeeping, May 1918. For Institution Archives (Stanford: Stanford 40 Kathryn Kish Sklar, "The Historical information on trains, see Pennsylvania University) June 7, 1917, Box 367, FI Foundations of Women's Power in the Food Conservation Train brochure, 1915-1918. Creation of the American Welfare USFA Collection, Hoover Institution, 34 Hoover's letter to the AHEA quoted in State, 1830-1930" in Mothers of a New (Stanford: Stanford University), 6-H, Pundt, AHEA, 21. World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins Box 24. Many state Woman's 35 Photo publicity release, July 7, 1917, of the Welfare State, Seth Koven & Sonya Committees used trains as mobile National Archives (Washington, DC) Michel, eds. (New York: Routledge, food conservation classrooms. With USFA, Box 7, Series G. Marcy Robson 1993),45; Blair, Clubwoman as Feminist, the cooperation of the Missouri Pacific Dickson in her history of the USFA 73-74; Paula Baker, "The Domestication Railroad, the "Women's Patriotic wrote that "the two best organized jobs of Politics: Women and American Special" train with "six officers of the on the Food Administration were Political Society, 1780-1920,"American Food Committee and the head of the directed by women - Sarah Field Splint Historical Review 89:3(June, 1984):640-42. home extension service of the

in the Home Conservation Division and 41 Blair, Clubwoman as Feminist, 118-19. University of Missouri" taught home Gertrude B. Lane in the Magazine and The reports of the General Federation canning in more than twenty counties Feature Section." Dickson, Food Front, 63. of Women's Clubs for 1910 reported in the state. Gephart, "Report," 12.

36 Jean G. MacKinnon, "The Office of that "During the last two years 720 47 Helen J. Ferris, "What Can I, a Girl, Do Home Economics and the United States clubs held one or more sessions on for My Country?" Ladies Home Journal, Food Administration," Journal of Home Home Economics; 371 clubs have February 1918;"War Winning Women," Economics 10, no. 6 (June 1918): 280-8l. Home Economics departments; 278 Ladies Home Journal, March 1918. Mullendore, History, 10l. have regular lectures, demonstrations, 48 "'Reminiscences,' Hamilton and 37 The Smith-Lever Act, which provided or short courses; 257 helped materially Wenham Cannery, WWI," (probably for cooperative extension work through in creating sentiment that established from the summer magazine North Shore land grant colleges, greatly facilitated Home Economics in the public schools; Breeze), June 19, 1942 (Wenham, MA: by the USFA efforts, spreading and 104 did some ...philanthropic or Wenham Museum Archives). exponentially the work of the home educational work in Home Economics 49 Irma Gross, "A Food Conservation Drive economists. Isabel Bevier believed this in cities." Betters, Bureau, 7. in a High School," Journal of Home Act provided great opportunities and 42 Gephart, "Report," Introduction. Economics 10,no. 2 (February 1918):7l.

I "serious obligations" for the field. 43 Gephart, "Report," 4. ' Gross wrote that on the second day the Isabel Bevier, "The Development of 44 Gephart, "Report," 4-5, 10-18. girls wore cooking aprons and "Food Home Economics," Journal of Home 45 Mary A. Mariner "Report of the Administration caps." On the third day Economics 9, no.1 (January 1917): 6. The Women's Word and District they went from classroom to classroom war did become the catalyst for Organizations, Milwaukee Council of asking fellow students to pledge: "21 fulfillment of the mandate of the Smith- Defense, from July 1917 to December wasteless meals, 7 wheatless meals, 10 Lever Act, greatly expanding the 1918." Milwaukee County Council of meatless meals, 2 candyless days and 1 extension service nationwide, which Defense (Milwaukee: State Historical ice creamless day" each week! remains in place today. Society of Wisconsin), Series 1649, Box 50 Dickson, Food Front, 132-35. 38 Paul V. Betters, The Bureau of Home 17, F16;Holbrook Family Collection, 51 Nash, Life of Herbert Hoover, 152.

44 DRESS 1999 52 Edith Guerrier, We Pledged Allegiance: BIBLIOGRAPHY Stanford University Press, 1941. A Librarian's Intimate Story of the United Herbert Hoover Archives, USFA States Food Administration (Stanford: Baker, Newton D., Secretary of War and Collection. Hoover Institution: Stanford University Press, 1941), 10. Chairman of the Council of National Stanford University, California. 53 "Thousands Pledge Loyalty to Cause Defense. First Annual Report of the Herrick, Christine Terhune. The Expert in Food Parade," The Daily Picayune Council of National Defense, November Maid Servant. New York: Harper & (New Orleans, LA), 3 November 1917, 20, 1917. Washington, DC: U.S. Bros., 1904. Front page. Government Printing Office. Holbrook Family Collection, Milwaukee 54 "Hotpoint" appliances advertisement, Baker, Paula. "The Domestication of County Historical Society: Ladies Home Journal, June 1918; "Victory Politics: Women and American Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bread! Make It With Yeast Foam," Political Society, 1780-1920." American Hunt, Caroline L. The Life of Ellen H. Yeast Foam advertisement, September Historical Review 89:3 (June, 1984): Richards. Boston: Whitcomb & 1918; "Doing Your Share At Home," 620-47 Barrows, 1912. Royal Baking Powder, Good Betters, Paul V. The Bureau of Home Joseph, Nathan. Uniforms and Nonuniforms: Housekeeping March 1918; "Morton Economics, Its History, Activities and Communication Through Clothing. New Salt," May 1918; "William Tell Flour," Organization. Washington, DC: York: Greenwood Press, 1986. Eastern Star (Kennebunk, ME), Institute for Government Research, Ladies Home Journal. February- September, November, December, The Brookings Institution, 1930. September 1918. 1918, March 1919. Young girls were Bevier, Isabel, "The Development of Levenstein, Harvey A. Revolution at the propagandized too. See "Betty Home Economics." Journal of Home Table: the Transformation of the American Bonnet's Household Servants," Ladies Economics 9, no. 1, (January 1917): 1-7. Diet. New York, Oxford: Oxford Home Journal, March 1918, that Blair, Karen J. The Clubwoman as Feminist, University Press, 1988. included a Hoover-aproned doll figure. True Womanhood Redefined, 1868-1914. Lyons, Eugene. Herbert Hoover: A Biography.

55 "The New Day For Women," Ladies New York: Holmes & Meier New York: Doubleday, 1964. Home Journal, May 1918. Publishing Inc., 1980. MacKinnon, Jean G. "The Office of Home 56 "Margins of Time," Ray Lyman Wilbur, Braudel, Fernand. Capitalism and Material Economics and the United States Food Personal Papers, Stanford University Life 1400-1800. New York: Harper & Administration." Journal of Home Archives (Stanford: Stanford Row, 1973. Economics, 10, no. 6, (June 1918):280-81. University), Binder 5, Chapter II, 57. Campbell, Helen. "Woman's Work and Mariner, Mary A. "Report of the Women's 57 Lyons, Hoover, 175. Herbert Hoover's Wages." Good Housekeeping, Ward and District Organizations, respect for the home economics September 1890. Milwaukee Council of Defense, From professionals was evident in his Dickson, Marcy Robson. The Food Front July 1917 to December 1918." continued recruitment of them for in World War I. Washington, DC: Milwaukee County Council of Defense. national service. When he was American Council on Public Series 1649, Box 17, FL 6. The State president he appointed three home Affairs, 1944. Historical Society of Wisconsin. economists as chairmen of three Gephart, W.F. "Report of the Women's McCall's Magazine. July 1918. committees for the proposed Central Committee on Food McCracken, Grant. Culture and Conference on Home Building and Conservation of Saint Louis," Consumption: New Approaches to the Home Ownership in 1931. Two of the Committee for St. Louis, United States Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods three had worked with him for the Food Administration. St. Louis, and Activities. Bloomington: Indiana USFA; Abby Marlatt (University of Missouri: USFA, 1918. University Press, 1988. Wisconsin), and Martha Van Rensselaer Good Housekeeping. March-June 1918. McDougall, Isabel. "An Ideal Kitchen." (Cornell University). Pundt, AHEA, 83. Gross, Irma. "A Food Conservation The House Beautiful, December 1902. 58 Betters, Bureau, 31. Drive in a High School." Journal of Mullendore, William Clinton. History of 59 Grant McCracken, Culture aJid Home Economics 10, no. 2, (February the United States Food Administration, Consumption: New Approaches to the 1918):71-72. 1917-1918. Stanford: Stanford Symbolic Character of Consumer Goods Guerrier, Edith. We Pledged Allegiance: A University Press, 1941. and Activities (Bloomington: Indiana Librarian's Intimate Story of the United Nash, George H. Master of Emergencies, University Press, 1988),60. States Food Administration. Stanford: The Life of Herbert Hoover 1917-1918.

DRESS 1999 Volume 26 45 New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1996. Warner, Annette J. "Art in the Home." "News From the Field," Journal of Home Journal of Home Economics 7, no. I, Economics 9, no. 8, (August 1917): 391-92. (January 1915):8-16. "News From the Field," Journal of Home Wenham Museum Archives, Economics 10, no. 3, (March 1918): 145-46. "'Reminiscences,' Hamilton and Prown, Jules David. "The Truth of Material Wenham Cannery, WW1." Wenham, Culture: History or Fiction?" In History MA: 19 June 1942. From Things, Essays on Material Culture, Widstoe, Mrs. Leah D. "Home Economics edited by Steven Lubar and W. David as a Profession." Journal of Home Kingery. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Economics 9, nO.1 Ganuary 1917): 29-32. Press, 1993. Wilbur, Ray Lyman. Personal Papers, Pundt, Helen. AHEA: A History of Stanford University Archives, Excellence. Washington, DC: American "Margins of Time." Hoover Home Economics Association, 1980. Institution, Stanford: Stanford Ronzone, Ethel. "Standardized Dress." University, nd. Journal of Home Economics 9, no. 9, Wilcox, R. Turner. Dictionary of Costume. (September 1918): 426-68. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1969. Schlereth, Thomas J. Material Culture Wisconsin State Council of Defense, Studies in America, 1876-1976. World War 1. Records of the Women's Nashville, TN: AASLH, 1982. Committee, 1917-19. Series 1649. The Shapiro, Laura. Perfection Salad. Women and State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Cooking at the Turn of the Century. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986.

Sklar, Kathryn Kish. "The Historical Foundations of Women's Power in the Creation of the American Welfare State, 1830-1930." In Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of the Welfare State, edited by Seth Koven & Sonya Michel. New York: Routledge, 1993. Slayden, Ellen Maury. Washington Wife: Journal of Ellen Maury Slayden from 1897- 1919. New York: Harper & Row, 1962. Stage, Sarah and Virginia B. Vincenti, eds. Rethinking Home Economics, Women and the History of a Profession. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997. Surface, Frank and Bland, Raymond L. American Food in the World War and Reconstruction Period, Operation of the Organization Under the Direction of Herbert Hoover 1914-1924. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1931. Thomas' Register of Manufacturers. New York: Thomas' Publishing Co., 1957 Thomas' Register of Manufacturers. New York: Thomas' Publishing Co., 1982.

46 DRESS 1999