Flora Rose
{{Short description|American scientist, nutritionist, and educator (1874–1959)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Flora Rose
| image = Oval portrait of Flora Rose in straw hat, dated by Beulah Blackmore at about 1916. (3856344396).jpg
| caption = Flora Rose {{circa|1916}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1874|10|13}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1959|7|25|1874|10|13}}
| alma_mater = Kansas State Agricultural College
| employer = Cornell University
| occupation = {{hlist|Scientist|nutritionist|professor of Home Economics}}
| partner = {{ubl|Martha Van Rensselaer|Claribel Nye}}
}}
Flora Rose (October 13, 1874 – July 25, 1959) was an American scientist, nutritionist,{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Blanche Wiesen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RNwDgmvNmBQC |title=Eleanor Roosevelt, Volume 2: The Defining Years, 1933-1938 |publisher=Penguin |year=2000 |isbn=978-1101567456 |accessdate=2016-05-24 }} and co-director of what would become New York State College of Human Ecology.{{Cite web|url=http://exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu/meatlesswheatless/meatless-wheatless.php?content=seven|title=Meatless Mondays Wheatless Wednesdays|website=exhibits.mannlib.cornell.edu|access-date=2016-05-21}} Rose, along with Martha Van Rensselaer, was named the first full-time female professor at Cornell University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.human.cornell.edu/about-our-college/facts/history.cfm|title=History|website=www.human.cornell.edu|access-date=2016-09-25}}
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.{{Cite web|url=http://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/FALL12/Faculty2.html|title=Faculty Legends: Flora Rose|website=ezramagazine.cornell.edu|access-date=2016-09-25}} Cornell accepted her proposal and hired her to begin the burgeoning home economics department alongside Martha Van Rensselaer. 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.{{Cite journal|last=Elias|first=Megan|date=January 2006|title="Model Mamas": The Domestic Partnership of Home Economics Pioneers Flora Rose and Martha Van Rensselaer|jstor=4617244|journal=Journal of the History of Sexuality|volume=15 |issue=1|pages=65–88|doi=10.1353/sex.2006.0052|s2cid=142247487}}
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.
Honors
File:Flora Rose House, Cornell University.jpg
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.”
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.
A residence hall on West Campus was named for Rose in 2008.{{cite news |last1=Elsen |first1=Ben |title=Last West Campus House Named for Flora Rose |url=https://cornellsun.com/2008/09/15/last-west-campus-house-named-for-flora-rose/ |access-date=31 March 2021 |publisher=Cornell Daily Sun |date=15 September 2008}}
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.{{Cite news|url=http://news.cornell.edu/stories/2014/06/reunion-honoring-cornells-post-wwi-work-belgium |date=June 5, 2014 |title=At Reunion, honoring Cornell's post-WWI work in Belgium |work=Cornell Chronicle |last=Boscia|first=Ted|access-date=July 11, 2022}}
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
{{commons category|Flora Rose (nutritionist)}}
{{Reflist}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Flora}}
Category:American women nutritionists
Category:American nutritionists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:20th-century American scientists
Category:20th-century American women writers