Elsie Carper Collection on USDA Extension Service, Home Economics, and 4-H

The National Association of Extension Home Economists (NAEHE) began in 1934 as the Home Demonstration Agents' National Association. The mission of this organization was "to promote the interest of home demonstration work." NAEHE also had a goal of helping to improve the skills of its members in the areas of home economics and adult education.

In 1965, members of the National Negro Home Demonstration Agents Association (NNHDAA) merged with the NAEHE. The NNHDAA had been founded seven years earlier, and specifically focused on home economics in the African-American community. In 1995, the NAEHE once again changed its name, this time to the National Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences. This change reflected the evolutionary shift of the profession toward family and consumer science.

This collection, which documents some of the history of 4-H and Extension Service programs and includes the papers of many individuals, was assembled by Elsie Josephson Carper. Educators Seaman Knapp, Oscar Herman Benson, and Gertrude Warren figure prominently in the development of the Extension Service, 4-H, and the Home Economics movement. These individuals and Elsie Carper were inducted into the National 4-H Hall of Fame in 2002 as a tribute to their lasting contributions. All are briefly described here.

Elsie Josephson Carper (1920-2003) Elsie Josephson Carper was employed by the USDA Extension Service in 4-H from 1944 through 1983. She started her Extension work with the Home Demonstration and 4-H Youth Development Unit. Upon retirement, she volunteered at National 4-H Council as an historian in the 4-H Reference and Resource Center. She was actively involved in the purchase and development of the National 4-H Center in Chevy Chase, Maryland, as the permanent site for National 4-H Conference.

Over the years, Carper collected and organized materials saved by program leaders and Extension specialists. From the state 4-H statistical data, she devised a national enrollment report beginning in the early 1960s. She worked with the 4-H Subcommittee of the Extension Committee on Policy (ECOP) tracking 4-H policy developments. Carper conducted the majority of the background research for the 1980 history of the 4-H program, the 4-H piece of the Cooperative Extension System's 75 year history and the National Association of Extension 4-H Agents' (NAE4-HA's) 50th anniversary.

In 2002, Carper was presented with 4-H's most prestigious honor, the National Partner in 4-H Award. She was chosen as the National 4-H Hall of Fame winner in 2002 for her positive, lasting influence on the 4-H program.

Oscar Herman Benson (1875-1951) A significant part of the 4-H Series in this collection is comprised of Oscar Herman (O.H.) Benson's collection of photographs, correspondence, news articles and publications covering botulism outbreaks and home canning safety. Originally a schoolteacher and later Wright County, Iowa, school superintendent, Benson started in the Farmers' Cooperative Extension Work office in 1911 and one year later became the first federal agent in the Office of Farm Management responsible for developing boys' and girls' club work in the North and West. Along with promoting the use of the four-leaf clover symbol for 4-H, he is credited with state youth cooperative program agreements that integrated youth work into the 1914 legislation creating the Cooperative Extension Service.

The Four-Leaf Clover as the Symbol of 4-H The idea of using the four-leaf clover as an emblem for the 4-H program is credited to Benson. When Wright County school superintendent Benson dropped by to visit a one-room school house near Clarion, Iowa, the students outside for recess presented him with a good will gift of seven just-picked four-leaf clovers. This simple gesture inspired Benson to select the four-leaf clover for the 4-H emblem. Benson and Jessie Field awarded three-leaf and four-leaf clover pennants and pins for students' agricultural and domestic science exhibits at school fairs that Benson promoted.

When Benson reported to the Farmers' Cooperative Extension Work office in Washington, D.C., he was instrumental in making the 4-leaf clover with an "H" on each leaf synonymous with 4-H work. Benson chose the original four "H's" to represent head, heart, hands, and hustle. He wrote "A leader with head trained to think, plan, and reason; with heart trained to be true, kind, and sympathetic; and with hands trained to be useful, helpful, and skillful; and the hustle to render ready service, to develop health and vitality..." Oscar B. Martin, charged with developing club work, convinced Benson to change the word hustle to health. Encouraged to use their Head, Heart, Hands and Health equally in serving their families, clubs, and communities, 4-H boys' and girls' club leaders adopted the four-leaf clover emblem in the spring of 1911.

Seaman Knapp - Father of Cooperative Extension Seaman Knapp envisioned what is now known as the Cooperative Extension Service and Agricultural Experiment Stations. Knapp authored the bill that became the Hatch Act of 1887 establishing agriculture experiment stations at agricultural colleges. The 1914 Smith-Lever Act establishing the Cooperative Extension Service is the posthumous legacy of Seaman Knapp. He originated the concept of county agents. His early clubs for boys and girls evolved into today's 4-H Clubs.

Gertrude Warren - Mother of 4-H Gertrude Warren was the first to use the term 4-H Clubs for Extension youth clubs in a 1918 federal document, "Organization and Results of Boys' and Girls' Club Work." Warren, a former Columbia University Teachers' College home economics teacher, was appointed by the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1917 to lead the development of USDA canning programs for girls. She promoted sewing, cooking, and school hot lunch programs as well as devised the 4-H club project prototype. Warren helped establish the National 4-H Foundation and National 4-H Center. Following extensive overseas travel, she developed the International 4-H Youth Exchange (IFYE) program promoting 4-H in foreign countries.

The following is a brief history of the USDA Extension Service and two of its component programs: Home Economics and 4-H. Because the collection contains no materials on the Extension Service agricultural programs, they are not described here.

Extension Service The Cooperative Extension Service is an educational agency of state land-grant colleges and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created in the early 1900s to address rural agricultural issues. The agency, which started at a time when more than 50 percent of the U.S. population lived in rural areas and 30 percent of the workforce was engaged in farming, provided information on agricultural and home economics subjects and taught people how to use this information.

The basic philosophy of the program was to "help people help themselves." A home demonstration agent worked with farm families, community leaders, and urban families to help them analyze family living situations, to recognize major problems, and to develop programs that aided them in making desired changes. One of the agent's major responsibilities was to convey the results of research in home economics to families in a form which they could understand and apply. Home demonstration agents conducted their work through group meetings, clinics, office and home visits, and by using exhibits, radio, television, and the press.

Cooperative extension work in the USDA resulted from the farm management work directed by William J. Spillman and the demonstration work of Seaman A. Knapp. Under Spillman's supervision, studies and surveys of farming conditions and practices in various sections of the country, especially among the most successful farms, were begun in 1901-02. On the basis of these studies, plans were drawn up to put into operation more efficient systems of farm management and to increase yields of standard crops. Information was made available to producers through summarizing publications.

Cooperative extension work was begun in the South under the supervision of Knapp in connection with the control of the Mexican boll weevil. In 1904, following a year of heavy damage to the cotton crop, Knapp was assigned special agents and given federal funds to conduct control activities. Knapp's method of seeking the cooperation of the state and local organizations, working with and through farmers, and utilizing demonstration fields to illustrate selection and better production methods proved most successful.

Extension work in the USDA was part of the Bureau of Plant Industry, 1904-15, principally in the Office of Cooperative Demonstration Work, established 1904, and the Office of Farm Management, established 1906. The Smith-Lever Agricultural Extension Work Act, 1914, expanded USDA's cooperative role and created the Cooperative Extension Service in Agriculture and Home Economics. USDA and state land-grant colleges cooperatively established and maintained an out-of-school educational program to aid men, women, and youth in applying research results and other accepted practices in improving their farms, homes, and communities. Funds were provided by federal, state, and county governments and were administered by the cooperative extension services of the land-grant colleges. County home demonstration and agricultural agents were employed by their state colleges and were responsible both to the college and to the people of the county for the development and conduct of the extension educational program.

The Smith-Lever Agricultural Extension Work Act led to the consolidation of all extension work in the State Relations Service, established in 1915, under provisions of the 1915 Agricultural Appropriation Act. State Relations Service operated through the Office of Extension Work in the South and the Office of Extension Work in the North and West, 1915-21. These units were consolidated with the Office of Exhibits of the Secretary's Office and the Office of Motion Pictures of the Division of Publications in 1921 to form the Office of Cooperative Extension Work, State Relations Service, 1921, which became the Extension Service, 1923.

The Extension Service was grouped with the Food Production Administration, Food Distribution Administration, and Commodity Credit Corporation to form the Administration of Food Production and Demonstration, renamed War Food Administration, 1943. Upon termination of the War Food Administration in 1943, Extension Service resumed bureau status. It was renamed Federal Extension Service in 1970. In 1978, the Federal Extension Service was abolished and its functions were assigned to Science and Education Administration. In 1981, the Extension Service was reconstituted. Its functions were to: coordinate extension activities of the USDA with those of state agricultural colleges, provide counties with agricultural and home demonstration agents, publish and disseminate results of agricultural research, provide emergency services through local agents, and present displays and exhibits at fairs and expositions.

Extension work is currently part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), formerly the Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES) which had been in existence since 1994.

Extension Service: Home Economics Extension Service work consisted of three general areas--agriculture, home economics, and 4-H. The homemaking phase of extension work brought families the latest research and information to help them achieve better living. Agents encouraged women to use the time, energy, money, and abilities of the family to achieve the goals the family considered important. Extension workers offered advice on how to prepare good, nutritious low cost meals; select and buy clothes for the family; make the home more convenient, attractive, and comfortable; and make housekeeping easier.

Extension Service: 4-H The 4-H component of the Extension Service helped American youth prepare for successful living in a changing world and emphasized leadership, responsibility, cooperation, self-confidence, and quality workmanship. Around 1907, Seaman A. Knapp organized boys' corn clubs, from which developed calf clubs, pig clubs, and potato clubs. Federal sponsorship of a girl's tomato growing and canning program was conceived by Knapp in 1909 and first practiced in South Carolina in 1910. Later, 4-H clubs developed.

In 1912, the Bureau of Plant Industry's Office of Farm Management was given an appropriation by Congress to authorize them to do farm demonstration work. In anticipation of this appropriation, the Bureau of Plant Industry had approached the land-grant colleges to cooperatively start 4-H club work. The Farm Management office began actively promoting 4-H club work and adult demonstration work in cooperation with the agricultural colleges in Northern and Western states. In 1912, Oscar H. Benson served as the first federal agent in the Office of Farm Management to expand boys' and girls' club work in the North and West. The state youth cooperative agreements he established made youth work a permanent part of the 1914 Cooperative Extension Service legislation. What started on a small-scale with farm youth clubs expanded to the national and international 4-H youth movement. During World War II, 4-H club members, along with the Extension Service, worked with farmers and their families to secure the production increases essential to the war effort. Today 4-H is part of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.