Elementary Home Economics

Mary Lockwood Matthews - 1927

The domestic science movement, which arose in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and encouraged women to apply scientific knowledge to their household work, is exemplified by this American textbook. This edition was used at the Saskatoon Normal School, while the 1925 version was recommended as a reference book for Alberta Home Economics classes in the late 1930s and '40s (“Alberta School”). Endorsing food “laboratories” in both urban and rural schools, the book broke activities into precise and prescriptive steps, to be conducted with as little extraneous movement as possible. Other diagrams and instructions prescribed ideal kitchen arrangements, and were likely influenced by the motion analysis studies of Christine Frederick, Lillian Gilbreth, and Mary Pattison (“Social Change”). These home economists, borrowing from the scientific management techniques of the factory, deconstructed the movements of household work in an attempt to increase labour efficiency. Though meant to be an elementary text, the illustrations show children in adult circumstances, suggesting a strict training for their future roles. The illustration of an invalid tray also demonstrates an early American version of the drinking straw.