The mystery of the maybe-eugenicist home economist

Hello to you all on this final day of the year, where I am thinking about one of the most intriguing and troubling early home economists, Lenna Frances Cooper.

Lenna helped found the American Dietetics Association, which still holds an annual lecture in her memory. She became the first nutritionist to serve in the U.S. Army. She's a member of the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame. And her career was inextricably connected to eugenics.

I began digging for a connection between home economics and eugenics this summer because I knew one had to exist. First, it's perfectly clear from the 1910s Journal of Home Economics that some home economists held racist views. It was rare that the journal even mentioned black colleges—even though their home ec departments were among the earliest. More generally, once you learn about the history of eugenics in the U.S., you see that it pervaded academia, the sciences, social services, the Progressive movement, you name it. The white home economists of that time thought of themselves as science-based social reformers, and thus many at least looked into this purportedly scientific theory that promised to fix society.

Having read The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek, I thought of John Harvey Kellogg: doctor, deviser of quack cures, progenitor of the cold cereal revolution and eugenicist. And that is indeed where I found the link: the Battle Creek Sanitarium's School of Home Economics.

Lenna’s connection with the Sanitarium, and more specifically with John Harvey and his wife Ella, was long and strong. After coming to Battle Creek to study nursing, she essentially became part of the Kellogg family. When she decided nursing wasn’t for her, the Kelloggs sent her to study the burgeoning field of home economics at Drexel Institute, then appointed her director of the San’s new home ec school. At the same time she ran the Sanitarium food service, wrote a cookbook and turned out a monthly vegetarian cooking column for the San's Good Health magazine that was way ahead of its time—avocado! agave! tofurky for Thanksgiving 1907!

A few years later, John Harvey became a major promoter of eugenics. His 1914 National Conference on Race Betterment drew, among others, Jacob Riis; Booker T. Washington; and Annie and Melvil Dewey, considered founders of the home economics profession. Certainly not all the attendees supported scientific racism. But John Harvey rededicated Good Health and the San’s education programs, including its home economics school, to the cause. "It will be expected that all members of the student body as well as members of the Faculty Officers of the College shall be earnest and enthusiastic supporters and promoters of race betterment principles and methods," the 1923 Battle Creek College catalog reads.

Was Lenna, the Kelloggs’ intimate and core employee, one of those enthusiastic supporters? Did her departure from the San in 1926 have any connection to this issue? What did she think?

In a very real sense her thoughts don't matter, given her actions. She ran a home economics school that officially promoted eugenics. She kept writing that cooking column even as the articles surrounding it became increasingly ugly—white-supremacist, sterilization-of-the-unfit ugly. But I’m desperately interested in getting behind her mask. So far I’ve struck out left and right. No clues in Good Health or her cookbooks; no Lenna archives; the Kellogg archivists turned up nothing; I need to nag the dietetic association; an extensive annotated bibliography from a vegetarianism advocacy group has nothing on this subject. Any ideas?

Recipe of the post

Lenna neither proselytized nor lectured about what to eat. She believed in festivity. "The ringing out of the Old Year and the ringing in of the New Year has always been attended with much joy and gaiety," she wrote in the January 1916 Good Health. "Why should we not still adhere to some of the old traditions and make it a day of joy and gladness? To be glad is the most natural and most healthful thing in the world." She suggested the following New Year's dinner:

Celery or Radishes
Cream of Scotch Pea Soup
Eggs in Croustades
Mashed Potatoes
Boiled Spinach
White Bread, Fruit Buns
Peach and Banana Salad
Scotch Shortbread
Spiced Punch

(This time I didn’t hold the newsletter to try the recipes.)

For the punch, heat 1 pint water, 1 cup sugar, 6 cloves, a 1-inch stick of cinnamon “and a piece of preserved ginger the size of a small egg.” When cool, add the juice of 2 lemons and 3 oranges. Strain. Add 3 drops peppermint extract, “let stand on ice for one hour or more” and serve in a punch bowl poured over a block of ice. Optional mint leaf garnish. Sounds like it needs some fizz, doesn’t it? The shortbread recipe calls for 3/4 cup butter, 1/4 sugar and 2 cups flour, and looks legit except that she says the dough "must be kneaded until pliable," which might hurt the texture.

But, frankly, it's hard for me to get joy and gladness from any part of this menu after reading the same issue's article on the need "to keep the obviously low grade stock from multiplying."

Thank you to the Archives of Michigan for unearthing the college catalog, and a major hat-tip to Thomas C. Leonard of Princeton, who talked to me about eugenics among Progressive reformers for more than an hour. Image snagged from the organization f/k/a the American Dietetic Association. Let me know what you think, especially if you think I'm missing something important in my analysis.