Anna Gilchrist Strong papers

Anna Gilchrist Strong, the founder of the College of Home Economics at the University of Cincinnati, came to Cincinnati from the University of Tennessee in the early 1900s and was later director of the Domestic Science and Household Arts Department. Through her efforts, funds were allocated to build the "Woman's Building" (later Beecher Halll) to provide a center for the activities of the women at the University. The Board of Trustees of the University voted on July 1, 1914 to establish a Department of Household Economics and Domestic Arts with instruction to begin September 1914. Mrs. Strong was appointed Professor-in-charge.

During this time, Strong received an invitation from the Gaekwar of Baroda, India to set up a similar department in Baroda College and to supervise the domestic arrangements of his palace. After three years in India she took up the same work in New Zealand at Otago University in Dunedin where she established the Department of Home Science and stayed for more than 25 years.