Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics

408 Pages·2017·4.05 MB·English

by  Allison B. Horrocks

University of Connecticut
OpenCommons@UConn
Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School
5-6-2016
Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook:
Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of
Home Economics
Allison B. Horrocks
[email protected]
Follow this and additional works at:https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations
Recommended Citation
Horrocks, Allison B., "Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook: Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics"
(2016).Doctoral Dissertations. 1061.
https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/1061
Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook:
Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics

Allison Beth Horrocks, PhD

University of Connecticut, 2016

In 1936, Flemmie P. Kittrell (1904-1980) became the first African American woman to
earn a Ph.D. in Home Economics. Across her career, Kittrell taught Home Economics at a range
of historically black institutions and traveled internationally on behalf of several Cold War
agencies to develop programs abroad. Kittrell’s flexible use of rhetoric about the home and the
family made her an adept administrator stateside and an “effective” ambassador abroad. Charting
her contributions, this dissertation challenges the assumption that African American women in
the field were trained exclusively for service and the idea that the field was “homeward bound”
throughout the 20th century. By bringing Kittrell’s story to the fore, this dissertation also
illuminates how women transformed a career in Home Economics into a means of entering into
networks of higher education and state-based politics.
Heretofore, most histories of Home Economics have been divided along a color line and
focused on the United States. A key scholarly intervention of this dissertation is its
foregrounding of connections traceable across a range of sources from women at land-grant
colleges, historically black colleges, and foreign institutions. In following this range of sources
through Kittrell’s archival trail, this project reevaluates the role of the home economist and
considers why the traditions of outreach and internationalism exemplified by Kittrell have been
forgotten. This study therefore challenges historiographical gaps that have made Kittrell not only
unknown, but in various ways, unthinkable. Ultimately, this dissertation challenges the oft-
invoked binary of being “at home or abroad,” contributing to a new understanding of women's
activism, gendered politics, and the meaning of what some in the field called the art of living.
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Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook:
Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics

Allison Beth Horrocks

B.A., Trinity College, 2009
M.A., University of Connecticut, 2011

A Dissertation
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
at the
University of Connecticut

2016
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Copyright by
Allison Beth Horrocks

2016
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APPROVAL PAGE

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Good Will Ambassador with a Cookbook:
Flemmie Kittrell and the International Politics of Home Economics

Presented by
Allison Beth Horrocks, B.A., M.A.

Major Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Micki McElya

Associate Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Peter Baldwin

Associate Advisor
___________________________________________________________________
Christopher Clark

University of Connecticut
2016
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Acknowledgements

In completing this project, I have been brought into contact with people and places that I
did not imagine would be part of my graduate training. From Tuskegee, Alabama, to the National
Archives in Kansas City, Missouri, I have met so many generous archivists and scholars who
have supported this work. By leaving my home office and expanding my knowledge about the
discipline of Home Economics, I found at least some greater understanding of the travels of
Flemmie Kittrell and the other subjects included in this project. In the end, I hope that this work
does justice to their vision of the world.
This project would not have been possible without the sustained guidance and support of
my committee. First and foremost, I owe a great debt to my advisor, Micki McElya. She has
shown unflagging support for this dissertation and for my development as a scholar. Micki is
truly a model mentor and I deeply admire her work within as well as outside of the academy. In
charting the long trajectory of this work, I also owe so much to Christopher Clark. I am so
grateful for his tremendous generosity, multi-point questions, and assistance with
conceptualizing the overall structure of this project. For especially useful feedback in various
seminars, a special thank you to Peter Baldwin is also due. Finally, I wish to thank my readers,
Jelani Cobb and Margaret Rossiter of Cornell University. Professor Rossiter’s investment in this
project has made my work much richer.
I also extend my appreciation to the UConn History Department more broadly for
financial and intellectual support. For their contributions to the department, I thank Kathy O’Dea
and the late Nancy Comarella. For her kindness, wisdom, and deep knowledge, I also must
acknowledge the incomparable Heather Parker. I am also indebted to two families who have
given much to the History department: the Van Dusens and the Staves. One summer during my
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graduate training, an Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Prize helped to support my housing costs for a
pubic history internship. That year, I was honored to hear from a guest on one of my walking
tours that the Van Dusens would be proud to see their gift to UConn extending into the future of
public history. I also feel privileged to have received support from Sondra A. and Bruce Stave,
two intellectuals who have shown a deep, abiding commitment to the history of Connecticut and
its land-grant institution.
I have also come into contact with so many talented and gracious archivists working in
special collections, governmental, and university archives over the past five years. For their
guidance with special collections, I thank Christopher Harter at the Amistad Research Center,
Frances Bristol at the Methodist Archives at Drew University, Margaret Hogan and Tom
Rosenbuam at the Rockefeller Archive Center, and Amanda Strauss at the Schlesinger Library at
Harvard University. In my work with governmental records, Kenneth Heger at the National
Archives in College Park, MD and Pamela Anderson at the National Archives in Kansas City
were especially helpful with navigating large record groups. I was also very fortunate to have
met Diane Wunsch at the National Agricultural Library, who provided great assistance in finding
largely untold histories of Home Economics in Beltsville.
In addition to my research in special collections, this work is also deeply rooted in
college and university archives. For their assistance with faculty papers from a distance, I am
especially grateful to Sarah Coates at Oklahoma State University and Whitney Miller at
Michigan State University. My work also owes much to the staff at Digital NC, including David
Gwynn; without this initiative, a deep exploration of Bennett College would not have been
possible. Aside from these three institutions, so much of this project has been grounded in
visiting the spaces I write about in this project. While at Hampton University, Andreese A. Scott
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shared her knowledge of the archive and the area most generously, greatly enhancing my
experience. Similarly, Dana Chandler at the Tuskegee University Archives took the time to
provide me with a tour of the campus that made the work I did within the reading room far more
meaningful. At the Moorland-Springarn Research Center at Howard University, Tewodros
(Teddy) Abebe and Dr. Ida Jones provided me with great insights. Any scholar who comes into
contact with Dr. Jones will know that her work is the better for it. Finally, I gladly thank all of
the archivists at Cornell University, and particularly Elaine Engst and Eileen Keating. With
support from the College of Human Ecology at Cornell, I had the pleasure of spending six weeks
in Ithaca researching files on Cornell and the larger Home Economics collections held there.
Years ago, I sent an uninformed query to Eileen about women in Home Economics—her
willingness to answer that email and to serve as a resource ever since makes me truly humbled.
Most recently, support from the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute made
finishing this project far more pleasurable. I owe a particular debt to fellow graduate students
Joanna MacGugan, Christiana Salah, and Hilary Bogert-Winkler for their wise counsel and
support in using this finishing year. I am also acutely aware that much of this project is the
product of conversations held in seminar rooms (and outside of them) with graduate students
from the History Department. The insights of Erin Bartram, Danielle Dumaine, Jeffrey Egan,
Matthew Guariglia, Olga Koulisis, Michael Limberg, Aimee Loiselle, Tanya R. Lane, Eric
Sacco, and Amy Sopcak-Joseph have been instrumental to this work. Each one of these
individuals has served as a model of scholarship for me. I truly believe that the hours we spent
working with one another never took away from our solitary pursuits; time spent together
grappling with history is what makes humanistic inquiry worthwhile.
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This project has also been indelibly shaped by time spent outside of academe, particularly
with my training as a public historian. Thinking about the significance of “place” in relation to
Home Economics came as an extension of my work as an interpreter in various house museums.
Thus, I must thank my former colleagues at Mystic Seaport, Newport Historical Society, and the
Preservation Society of Newport County. I also extend my gratitude to Cindy Hunt Carroll, a
genealogist from North Carolina who gave her time and expertise to solve a lingering mystery.
A discourse of friendship runs throughout this project. Perhaps this reflects the role that
my own colleagues and friends had in shaping this work. A deep, incomparable debt is owed to
Kevin Finefrock and Mary Mahoney, my officemates and far more importantly, my friends who
have read every word—at least once. Both have been so encouraging of all of my historical
pursuits. In particular, Mary has never failed to provide support or the sharpest insights.
Finally, I wish to credit my family. Without them, this project would not have been
possible. In addition to my siblings and in-laws, a great deal of credit must be given to Mark
Barone, whose belief in my work and aspirations has been a constant over the past six years. He
has truly lived with this project and can testify to the lack of technical skill that has come from
my extended study of Home Economics. Lastly, I wish to honor my parents. They share a
commitment to a life of learning and discovery. I owe everything to them.
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Table of Contents

Introduction: At Home in the World…………………………………………..……………….1

Chapter 1: Education for Life..………………………………………………..………………27

Chapter 2: Not Foreigners, but Friends……………………………………....………………90

Chapter 3: Cease to be a Drudge, Seek to be an Artist……………………………………..164

Chapter 4: Something Like Internationalism……………………......……….……………..230

Chapter 5: Home Institutions…………………………………………….…………………..301

Conclusion: A Model Home of One’s Own…..………………………………..……………..369

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………….……………..379