My name is Ziv. in Hebrew it means light or glow. I was born and raised in Israel and came to this country in 2013 to pursue education. I met and fell in love with Dan. We got married and I stayed to build our home and family here in the United States of America.While browsing through the Teacher’s College archive, I found an interesting class syllabus from 1923. It was called Household Arts For Students from Other Lands. The five sessions of the class were held between February 12 to March 12 1923. Being a student from another land and just happen to be building my home in the united states, so understandably – I wanted to take the class! When I looked for more information I found some interesting facts about this time in history and in the United States household. Let me take you through my findings In these five chapters.
- This model was based on the instructions in the 1923 National Better Home plan book for the better homes demonstration week. The plans suggested in the plan book were is in fact a replica of an existing house in Long Island! For years, visitors to the Home Sweet Home museum, have been told that this 1750 saltbox was the birthplace of the actor and playwright John Howard Payne (1791-1852), and that it was the house he had in mind when he wrote the lyrics to what would become one of the most famous songs of the 19th century. Historians later proved that this was not at any point John Howard Payne’s sweet home
- So many things happened in 1923! It is also the year when Professor Benjamin R Andrews, who taught this class, published his book “Economics of the Household, Its Administration and Finance”.
A few years earlier, Andrews had published an essay called “The girl of to-morrow, what education will do for her“.
“The old high school course—with its algebra never applied in life, its analytical study of literature, its stilted compositions, its endless translations and paradigms—employed the mind in innocent exercises. That this had somewhat of useful discipline, we will not deny, but it gave no practical training for life. As the student grew to maturity, her knowledge of the world as it is cam through outside experiences, and widened—if it did widen. —more despite the high school than by virtue of.
The college girl of yesterday, the one in a hundred who could go on to college, found herself in a blind alley—literary culture with its two outlooks, the life of the idle gentlewoman, or the life of the teacher, and then more literary culture. The woman of to-day—the girl of yesterday— if she is broad-minded and generous and serviceable, owes her high qualities to the formative social influences which have shaped her life, rather than to her formal education.
- So many things happened in 1923! It is also the year when Professor Benjamin R Andrews, who taught this class, published his book “Economics of the Household, Its Administration and Finance”.
- This was the same year in which the international institute in the college opened it’s gates.
- in 1924, a National Better Home Contest was held. The winning home was the Kalamazoo
Living room notes
_Backgrounds_
The first requisite of a house is that it be restful; therefore, it is
wise to use wall coverings that are plain in effect. Plain paints or
tints, and wall-papers of a cloudy, all-over pattern, make the best
backgrounds.
_Floor Coverings_
Rugs and floor coverings should be several shades darker than the
walls, and be either in plain colors or have a small or indefinite
all-over design. Where walls are plain, the latter type of carpet
should be used. When walls have on them any figured covering, plain
carpet should be used.
Furnishings
A good rule to follow in choosing furnishings is to avoid anything
which strikes you as elaborate, or prominent. If a piece of furniture,
carpet, or curtain material stands out in a shop, you may be quite
certain that it will be even more noticeable in a house.
A house can only be considered properly furnished when it meets the
real needs of the occupants. Comfortable chairs, sofas, and beds, good
tables, and soft carpets, make up the most important objects, and these
should be the best that the family can afford. No definite rule can be
applied to the arrangement of the furniture, but balance and wall space
should be considered first. Where a single opening is placed in the
center of the wall, or like openings at equal distances, the wall
spaces will be in balance; in the case of unequal openings, the wall
spaces will be out of balance.
Do not invest in many ornaments. A few bits of colored pottery, or some
brass ware, is all that is required to strike a lively note. Place
these so that they will balance other objects arranged on the same
mantel or bookshelf. For example, a pair of brass candlesticks placed
at either end of a mantel, with a pottery bowl, clock, or ornament in
the center, strikes a balance. Never have a large jar on a small table
or stand, or small ornaments on a large table. A good thing to remember
is that ornaments decrease in value as they increase in number.