Women Making a Difference has been created in partnership with the Women's Fund of the Community Foundation of Tompkins County


©2006 The History Center in Tompkins County

A pioneer educator of women, Martha Van Rensselaer joined the faculty of Cornell University in 1900 to give extension courses in home economics. In 1911 she became one of the university’s first full time women faculty members. She was instrumental in the establishment of Cornell’s School of Home Economics in 1919, of which she was a director. It later became the New York State College of Home Economics, and is now Cornell’s College of Human Ecology.