Flora Rose

Flora Rose (October 13, 1874 – July 25, 1959) was an American scientist, nutritionist,[1] and co-director of what would become New York State College of Human Ecology.[2] Rose, along with Martha Van Rensselaer, was named the first full-time female professor at Cornell University.[3]

Flora Rose, on left, with co-director and domestic partner, Martha Van Rennselaer, featured on right.
Flora Rose
Flora Rose c. 1916
Born(1874-10-13)October 13, 1874
DiedJuly 25, 1959(1959-07-25) (aged 84)
Alma materKansas State Agricultural College
Occupations
  • Scientist
  • nutritionist
  • professor of Home Economics
EmployerCornell University
Partners

Biography

Rose graduated with her BA from Kansas State Agricultural College. After her graduation, she wrote letters to Stanford University and Cornell University proposing they initiate a home economics program.[4] Cornell accepted her proposal and hired her to begin the burgeoning home economics department alongside Martha Van Rensselaer.[4] She and Martha Van Rensselaer were often “collectively referred to as Miss Van Rose” and they lived together from 1908 til 1932 when Van Rensselaer died; they were equal partners in their work, taking an academic, scholarly approach to the matters of personal and family life.[5]

Aside from her obligations to Cornell, Rose held the position of deputy director of the Food Conservation Bureau of the New York State Food Commission. In this position she aided in leading research and development of production of cereals that were low-cost and vitamin-enriched.[4]

Honors
Cornell's Flora Rose House

Fellow faculty members penned this memorial statement in memory of her contribution:

“The abiding picture is one of vividness and warmth, of poise and strength, of open-door hospitality, of instant and personal interest and of loyal friendship.”[4]

Eulogies for Van Rensselaer all mention Rose as her partner and celebrate their professional and personal relationship as one worthy of emulation. Many accounts from friends and colleagues demonstrate that they saw Van Rensselaer and Rose’s relationship as one that exemplified the kind of partnership and professionalism that they advocated for through their work in the Home Economics courses.[5]

A residence hall on West Campus was named for Rose in 2008.[6]

King Albert I of Belgium awarded Van Rensselaer and Rose the Order of the Crown for leading an effort to provide food relief to malnourished school-age children in Belgium.[7]

Publications
  • The Laundry, 1909
  • Milk : a cheap food, 1917
  • Letters of Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer from Belgium, 1923, 1923
  • Pioneers in home economics, 1948

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flora Rose (nutritionist).
  1. Cook, Blanche Wiesen (2000). Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2: The Defining Years, 1933-1938. Penguin. ISBN 978-1101567456. Retrieved 2016-05-24.
  2. "Meatless Mondays Wheatless Wednesdays". exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-21.
  3. "History". www.human.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  4. "Faculty Legends: Flora Rose". ezramagazine.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2016-09-25.
  5. Elias, Megan (January 2006). ""Model Mamas": The Domestic Partnership of Home Economics Pioneers Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 15 (1): 65–88. doi:10.1353/sex.2006.0052. JSTOR 4617244. S2CID 142247487.
  6. Elsen, Ben (15 September 2008). "Last West Campus House Named for Flora Rose". Cornell Daily Sun. Retrieved 31 March 2021.
  7. Boscia, Ted (June 5, 2014). "At Reunion, honoring Cornell's post-WWI work in Belgium". Cornell Chronicle. Retrieved July 11, 2022.
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