McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biographical note

Scope and Content

Administrative Information

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections

Title

M'Ledge Moffett Collection: Home Economics Papers and Virginia Home Economics Association Documents

ID

RU 4.1.6

Date [inclusive]

1915-2009

Extent

1.0 Linear feet

Location

Locked in compact shelving, level 1, shelf 19E.

Language

English

Abstract

Mrs. Mary E. Dillard and Miss Frances Sale, from the State Normal and Industrial School, started the Virginia Home Economics Association in 1909. Mrs. Dillard was named President and Miss Sale was Vice President of the home economics section created form the Virginia Teachers Association, later known as the Virginia Educational Association. The first section meeting of the VHEA was November 29, 1911 and there were 29 members. The membership increased over time and women like M’Ledge Moffett joined the association. She was the one of the twelve that paid the new membership fees in 1915 and help found the organization. Moffett had taught all the Household Arts courses at Radford State Normal School and was one of the six founding women of the Virginia Home Economics Association. She was the president of the organization during the years 1915-1916 and 1925-1926. The organization had its first regional meeting in March 1915 at Radford and established a constitution and purpose. The VHEA's purpose was to promote interest in home economics in Southwest Virginia, to study current home economics pedagogy, and to identify VHEA with the state and national Home Economics Association and to cooperate with Women’s Clubs. In 1925, M’Ledge Moffett changed the fiscal year and the constitution to conform to the National Association. The officers were elected for terms of two years and the association was divided into sections according to subject interest (textiles and clothing, food and nutrition). In 1930, the Virginia Home Economics Association separated from the Virginia Educational Association. The annual meeting topics are listed in the “Resume” document from 1931 to 1954 and emphasize what was important for the Home Economic Association to create a program for. Based on the “Resume of the History of the Virginia Home Economics Association 1909 – 1954” found in the collection

Return to Table of Contents »

---

Biographical note

M'Ledge Moffett was born in 1892, the only child of William Ledgerwood Moffett and Mary Stoops Moffett. The name M'Ledge was formed from shortened versions of her parents names, Mary and Ledgerwood. M'Ledge seems to have inherited little else from her father beyond using a shortened version of his middle name as the second syllable of the name by which she was generally known. However, her mother, Mary S. Moffett, was very influential in M'Ledge's life by virtue of raising M'Ledge in a school environment. Prior to M'Ledge's birth, Mary Moffett taught at a school in Riverside, Ohio. Due to William's ill health, the Moffetts moved to Virginia in 1893 where during M'Ledge's early and adolescent years, Mary Moffett taught at the Midway School, and at the Ruffner School in Manassas, Virginia. Mary Moffett served as school principal at the Manassas Institute where her daughter was a student. She was a pioneer in home economics education and was credited for recognizing that home economics was worthy of consideration at a professional state meeting.

M'Ledge followed in her mother's path, attending the newly-opened State Normal School in Harrisonburg, Virginia (now James Madison University), graduating in 1910 with a Full Degree in Household Arts. Harrisonburg was the first school to offer such a degree in Virginia and Moffett was one of the first two graduates. From Harrisonburg, Moffett went to Columbia University's Teachers College in New York City. While working towards her Bachelor of Science degree in 1913 from Columbia, M'Ledge spent her summers as a Household Arts instructor at a Summer Normal School in Covington, Virginia.

Around this time that M'Ledge was at Harrisonburg Normal School and then at Columbia University, the Virginia Legislature established the "State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Radford" and John Preston McConnell, a professor/dean at Emory and Henry College in Emory, Virginia, was appointed as president of the new school. One of his first tasks was the appointment of a faculty. There are no records available to document how McConnell recruited instructors to staff the normal school but it seems reasonable to assume the following in Moffett's case:

McConnell, a native Virginian, like Moffett had grown up in a family that emphasized education. As a Dean at Emory and Henry and someone who was deeply interested in the education of women, McConnell was probably familiar with the work of Mary Stoops Moffett. And he was probably cognizant of the fact that M'Ledge Moffett was eminently qualified to serve as the school's sole instructor in Household Arts. One wonders if the younger Moffett applied for the job or McConnell heard of her from her mother or from Julian Burruss, president of the Harrisonburg Normal School during the time when M'Ledge was a student. Unfortunately, there is no record of the first meeting/interview between McConnell and Moffett. In any event, Moffett's name was on the list of instructors approved by the school's Board of Trustees in June, 1913.

Moffett arrived in Radford on September 11, 1913, as the youngest faculty member and the only member of the Household Arts Department, a month after the school's formal dedication in August, 1913, and only a few days before classes began. She apparently quickly proved her ability to handle herself under pressure because McConnell almost immediately put her in charge of the school's sole dormitory. In Moffett's History of the State Teachers College at Radford, Virginia, 1910-1930, McConnell wrote in the third person of Moffett that, "in the judgment of the president, she was the most suitable person for this trying position, this she filled with great satisfaction to all concerned. This was the beginning of her official duties in the college."

President McConnell assigned Miss Moffett several other duties. Since she had had previous experience as a charter member of the Lee Literary Society at Harrisonburg Normal School, Moffett and two others were appointed to a committee to establish the college's first two campus organizations--the Ingles and Pocahontas Literary Societies. In addition to literary pursuits, the two societies emphasized dramatic performances, social gatherings, and debates. Moffett served as faculty adviser to the Ingles Literary Society which was named in honor of Mary Draper Ingles, famous for escaping from Indian captivity in the late 18th century. While interest in the literary societies had waned by the 1930s, the Ingles and Pocahontas names are on two of Radford University's residence halls.

Moffett also participated in the formation of the Student Government Association (1914) and the Grapurchat student newspaper (1921). The Student Government Association and the Tartan (the Grapurchat's successor) remain integral parts of campus life.

For the first several years after the college opened, Moffett taught all of the Household Arts courses (Elementary Sewing, Elementary Cooking and Household Management) which met five times a week. In 1918, the Department doubled in size with the hiring of Myrtle Burnette. Moffett was one of six founding members of the Virginia Home Economics Association and president of the organization during the years 1915-1916 and 1925-1926. During the summers of 1916 through 1920, Moffett took courses at Columbia University’s Teachers College and received a Masters degree in 1921. She received her doctorate from Columbia in 1929, writing her dissertation on "The social background and activities of teachers college students". The dissertation, later published as a book, was the first of many publications.

In 1920, the Radford Normal School was reorganized and McConnell appointed Moffett as the new Dean of Women, a year before she received her Master of Arts degree. She was the first person to hold that post at any of the Virginia institutions of higher education. She held the Dean's post until her retirement in 1962.

In the preface to Moffett's history of the school, McConnell praised Moffett for having, "an inquisitive mind, great energy, and a keen sense of the worth of historical facts." McConnell went on to say that her duties, "have so expanded in the last two decades that she [has] an intimate personal knowledge and contact with every phase of the institutional life and its development. Her association with the president and the administrative officers has given her a knowledge of the personality of the President, members of the faculty, and other officials of the institution that is absolutely unique."

McConnell's statement would hold true for at least 30 years through the administrations of Presidents Peters and Martin and several thousand students.

Moffett retired from Radford in 1962 but never relinquished her love of the institution. She died in 1969. In her will, Moffett left much of her estate in a scholarship fund originally established by her mother. Moffett wrote "I now pass the inheritance of the fruit of her labor, as manifest through me to other women that they may catch a part of the vision she had."

Return to Table of Contents »

---

Scope and Content

Box 1 contains memberships forms, correspondence, a paper on the affiliations of the Virginia Economic Association, list of duties to create the association, membership lists, newspaper clippings, programs, and newsletters from 1926 to 1955. Box 2 contains a large Black and Red Book, which is Item 1, and Folders 1-15 were the documents found within the book. The box contains a note on this collection, the Resume of the History of the Virginia Home Economics Association 1909 – 1954, home economic section and regional meeting reports, documents on temporary committees, the association’s constitution and preamble, membership applications and fees, correspondence, newsletter, and a report on the associations status and the achievements they had met, a list of home economic teachers, lists on possible members of the association and graduates and students of the home economic program, Home Economic education report, a completion certificate from 2009, and a black notebook. The black notebook in Folder 8 contained treasurer reports from 1922 to 1925, a copy of the Resume, 1922 budget report, list of affiliated clubs, newsletters, meeting report, and membership lists of 1924 to 1925.

Return to Table of Contents »

---

Administrative Information

Publication Information

McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections

McConnell Library
PO Box 6881
Radford, Virginia
540-831-5692
archives@radford.edu

Restrictions to Access

An appointment for research is required. The collection is open for research. No interlibrary loan.

Accruals Note

No additional accruals are expected.

Processing Information

Processing and finding aid by Sarah Theibert with finding aid assistance by Gene Hyde.

Return to Table of Contents »

---

Collection Inventory

Box 1
Folder 1: Virginia Home Ec. Association 1924 to 1951
Folder 2: Virginia Home Ec. Association 1952 to 1959
Folder 3: Virginia Home Ec. Association News Letters 1926 to 1955
Box 2 The Black and Red Book
Folder 1: Collection Note
Folder 2: Virginia Home Ec. Association Resume- attached to the page across from page 1
Folder 3: Home Ec. Section Nov. 25-26, 1915
Folder 4: First Home Ec. Meeting Report
Folder 5: Dec. 1, 1916 Meeting Report
Folder 6: VHEA Dec. 1922 Meeting
Folder 7: VHEA Constitution 1922
Folder 8: Black notebook and documents from it
Folder 9: VHEA status and accomplishments 1922
Folder 10: Correspondence 1925
Folder 11: Newsletter and Programme 1926
Folder 12: Correspondence 1923 to 1926
Folder 13: List of Home Ec. Teachers
Folder 14: VHEA material 1922 to 1926
Folder 15: VHEA Miscellaneous
Folder 16: Resume of the History of the Virginia Home Economics Association 1909-1954 (6 pages)
Folder 17: The Virginia Home Economics Assoc.- A Historical Resume Of Its Development 1909-1955 (78 pages)
Folder 18: The Virginia Home Economics Assoc.- A Historical Resume Of Its Development 1909-1955 (78 pages) Copy 2
Folder 19: The Virginia Home Economics Assoc.- A Historical Resume Of Its Development 1909-1955 (78 pages) Copy 3
Folder 20: The Virginia Home Economics Assoc- A Resume of Its Historical Development 1909-1956 (published 1956) 2 copies
Folder 21: Virginia Home Economics Assoc. Newsletter. Vol 2, No. 1 June 1942
Folder 22: The Commonwealth (magazine) Vol 3, No. 10 Oct. 1936
Folder 23: Letter. Harper to Martin, dated Sep 23, 1958
Folder 24: Factors at Radford College Which Contribute to the Strength of its Home Economics Program.
Folder 25: Presentation (possibly) Version of "Factors at Radford College Which Contribute to the Strength of its Home Economics Program".
Folder 26: Status Home Economics Programs Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Radford College. Revised July 25, 1958.
Item 1: Black and Red Book- Proceedings of the Home Economics Section of the Virginia State Teachers Association.