Film strip, Livable living rooms

This film strip about 'livable living rooms' was produced by the Bureau of Home Economics which was a division of the United States Department of Agriculture. The Bureau supported homemakers from 1923 to 1962 with recipes and information on food and nutrition, sewing patterns and advice on clothing, and encouraged scientific practices in household activities such as cleaning.

The film strip was one of the resources used in the educational programme at the School of Home Science in the University of Otago in Dunedin.

The School of Home Science was established in 1911. Winifred Boys-Smith (1865-1939, United Kingdom) was its first professor. She saw the study of home science at university level as a great force for the higher education of women. Her educational programme sought to lift the status of the domestic arts through scientific education (including chemistry) and technical instruction.

This film strip comes from the period when the school was led by American Professor Ann Gilchrist Strong (1875-1957, USA/NZ), from 1924 to 1940. The previous deans had built the educational programme on a British university scientific foundation, whereas Strong was less theoretical. She developed courses in applied subjects, including food, clothing, household planning and furnishing. She believed that the principles of home science should be applied in every home, and greatly increased the amount of extramural teaching offered at the Home Science School. Lecture and demonstration courses on budget balancing, diet, clothing, and exercise were available to ‘business girls’ in the early 1920s, and the Home Science School worked with the School Health Department to combat child malnourishment.

Strong also oversaw the development of a Home Science Extension Service (HSES) in 1929, extending home science teaching to women in rural areas. The Service was funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for the first ten years, and Strong used her connections in the American home economics movement to get advice and resources. With almost missionary zeal the Extension Service spread the teachings of home science through lectures and demonstrations, radio talks, a box lecture series, correspondence courses, pamphlets, and the press. In 1930, the three HSES tutors delivered 119 lectures a month across 17 towns in Otago and Southland, and more than 100 study groups received boxed lectures with typed lecture material and diagrams.