McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Biographical Data

Administrative Information

Collection Inventory

Summary Information

Repository

McConnell Library Archives and Special Collections

Title

M'Ledge Moffett Collection: Home Management House Diaries

ID

RU 4.1.1

Date [inclusive]

1932-1937

Extent

0.5 Linear feet

Physical Description

This collection contains original handwritten diaries kept by students in the Home Management Cottage from 1932-37. In addition to the handwritten entries, the diaries also contain some newspaper clippings, photographs, and original drawings that were added by the students. The diaries are notebooks with pages sewn together, and the covers were removed prior to accession by the RU Archives and are missing. This collection also contains a guest book and a typewritten paper that is somewhat damaged.

Location

Locked in compact shelving, level 1, Shelf 19D.

Language

English

Abstract

The Home Management House (or "Cottage") provided Home Economics majors at Radford to live together in a house situation and actively practice skills such as home budget planning, cleaning, cooking, meal planning, housekeeping, and other tasks. Living in the Home Management Cottage carried credit, and was listed as "Home Economics 46: Home Management Cottage" in the 1934 Radford State Teachers College Bulletin as described below. From the 1934 Bulletin: "Home Economics 46: Home Management Cottage. This unit of work is an experiment in co-operative living, giving ample opportunity for each student to put into practice the knowledge gained previously and to develop responsibility. Each of the housekeeping activities - cooking, table setting and serving, cleaning, acting as hostess and manager, budget-making and buying - is done in the home atmosphere rather than in a laboratory. Here classroom theory and laboratory experimentation are converted into real home-making knowledge. Emphasis is placed on development of appreciations, ideals and standards rather than skill. Required of all seniors one quarter. Credit, one session hour." This collection includes diaries kept by the students who lived in the Home Management Cottage from 1932-1937. It also includes a guest book and a paper written by M'Ledge Moffett that describes the diaries and the purpose of the Cottage.

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Biographical Data

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."

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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

Processed by Gene Hyde, Spring 2010.

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Collection Inventory

Folder 1: "Diary of the Home Management House...February 1932 to April 1937"- paper describing overview of program
Folder 2: Guest Book
Folder 3: Diary - February 27, 1932 - November 20, 1932
Folder 4: Diary - November 21, 1932 - June 4, 1934
Folder 5: Diary - June 19, 1934 - December 20, 1934
Folder 6: Diary - January 2, 1935 - March 21, 1935
Folder 7: Diary - June 7, 1935 - August 25, 1935
Folder 8: Diary - September 25, 1935 - February 8, 1936
Folder 9: Diary - February 2, 1936 - March 19, 1936
Folder 10: Diary - September 22, 1936 - April 2, 1937
Folder 11: Envelope that contained the diaries