Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Lake Drummond Home Demonstration Club Records (Chesapeake, Va.) Records, 1950-1976. Accession 51761. Organization records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Lake Drummond Baptist Church, Chesapeake.

Historical Information

In the summer of 1910, Miss Ella G. Agnew was made "State Agent for Girls' Tomato Clubs," by Dr. Seaman A. Knapp (1831-1911), under the auspices of the General Education Board. Agnew began to work with girls in Halifax and Nottoway Counties who planted tomatoes, cared for them, and preserved their fruit. Thus, the foundation was laid for home demonstration work in Virginia. The tomato clubs eventually became known as canning clubs, and enlisted other members of the family and gradually began to influence other phases of homemaking. In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act was passed by Congress, providing funds for cooperative extension work in agriculture and home economics. Home demonstration work made a steady growth in Virginia from 1914 to 1917 in the number of agents employed and counties affected, and also in broadening programs. The Lake Drummond Home Demonstration Club was organized "to foster the highest ideas of home life, and to provide members with the opportunity to work with the Home Demonstration Agent and the Extenstion Division of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute in a city-wide program for the development and improvement of home and community life, and affiliation with the Virginia Federation of Home Demonstration Clubs in a state-wide program."

Scope and Content

Records, 1950-1976, of the Lake Drummond Home Demonstration Club in Chesapeake, Virginia, including certificates, constitutions and by-laws, financial reports, membership lists, minutes, program material, reports, scrapbook, and yearbooks.