Oversize

The Elsie Carper Collection on Extension Service, Home Economics, and 4-H comprises 8.75 linear feet of publications, correspondence, newspaper articles, time management studies, reports, questionnaires, meeting programs, awards and exhibit booklets, photographs, intern reports, music, radio spots, kits, and posters gathered by Elsie Carper during her career and volunteer work with the USDA Extension Service.

The collection includes materials from 1908 through 1994. It contains first-hand recollections of the origin and philosophy of the Extension Service; lectures commemorating its centennial; the history of home demonstration work, earliest agents and clubs; Extension Homemaker's Organization; and the first 50 years of the National Association of Extension Home Economists (1933-1984).

In Series I, "Recollections of Extension History" presents the founding ideas envisioned and service philosophy espoused by Seaman A. Knapp as recounted in three lectures in 1938 by J.A. Evans, one of the original four field representatives appointed in 1904 by Knapp when he introduced Farm Demonstration Work. The lectures in The Development of the Land-Grant Colleges and Universities and Their Influence on the Economic and Social Life of the People commemorate the centennial of the First Morrill Act which authorized the establishment of the land-grant colleges and universities. Important legislation supporting the growth of the Extension Service is also highlighted.

In Series II, numerous publications and news articles, time management studies, reports, and questionnaires divulge the history of the Extension home economics movement and improvements it made for the well-being of homemakers and their families. Mary Nell Greenwood's paper "Extension home economics - a history and future of excellence" presented at the National Association of Extension Home Economists National Meeting in 1984 pays tribute to the importance of the home demonstration workers, later called home economists. Subseries II.D. includes the 50 year chronological history of the National Association of Extension Home Economists (NAEHE).

In Series III, Oscar Herman Benson's personal file includes photographs of George Farrell, his assistant, and Gertrude Warren. It contains correspondence, newspaper articles and publications which emphasize proper home canning techniques to prevent botulism and other illnesses. It includes canning recipes, instructions, tips, and demonstration guidelines for home canning. Some of these papers, created in the 1910s, are signed by prominent national program leaders.

Series III consists of graduate, staff, adult volunteer, and teen leader intern reports for the Youth Staff Development and Training Program, 1972-1981, and national 4-H posters from 1946 through 1982 that illustrate the annual themes and encourage joining 4-H.