Archives West Finding Aid

Series I is comprised of material generated by Amidon, Adelaide Baylor, Florence Fallgatter, and others through their employment with the Home Economics Education Service. Included are administrative records (reports, memos, press releases, and meeting notes); reports on the activities of the Service and its members; files on Service employees; conference materials; professional correspondence; and records from Amidon's membership in the "20 Plus Club," an organization dedicated to recognizing the service of professionals in home economics education. Of note is correspondence and reports relating to cooperative efforts between the Service and several New Deal organizations including the Works Progress Administration, the National Youth Administration, the Farm Security Administration, and the Tennessee Valley Authority and includes materials from the 1939 Rural-Urban Women's Conference. This series also contains drafts of speeches, reports, and publications authored by Amidon, including an annotated typescript of "American Women: Education for Family Living"; a scrapbook of newsclippings about the Service compiled by Amidon; and records from Amidon's retirement in 1964.

Series II is comprised of materials collected by Amidon relating to her international travel on behalf of the Home Economics Education Service. Materials relate predominately to a trip to Germany arranged by the U.S. War Department (1947), attendance at the 8th International Management Conference in Sweden (1947), and the International Seminar on Education and the Problems of Daily Living in France (1954). Included are informational materials (itineraries, programs, travel documents, etc.); extensive notes and reports; photographs and a transparency; and correspondence; and travel souvenirs (including five maps depicting post-World War II occupied Germany). Also included is literature and photographs from India, including photographs of Indira Gandhi, Welthy Fisher, and Literacy House in Lucknow.

Series III is comprised of home economics literature collected by Amidon. Included are pamphlets and booklets from the U.S. Office of Education ("School Children and the War" and "Family Saving and Spending in Wartime"); U.S. home economics programs ("Measuring Home Management" and "The History of Home Economics"); France ("Feminine Work and Work at Home" and "Rational Construction of a Home"); and Sweden ("The Postwar Programme of Swedish Labour" and "Social Benefits in Sweden").

Series IV is comprised of biographical and personal materials collected by Amidon. Included is a small collection of personal correspondence; a typescript of Amidon's 1927 master's thesis, "The Development of a Method of Evaluating Ability in Meal Preparation"; numerous awards and recognitions for her professional achievements from Phi Upsilon Omicron, the U.S. government, the American Vocational Association, and other organizations; and numerous photographs and publications featuring images of Amidon and others including John F. Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt. Also included is a file of newsclippings comprised predominately of articles by and about war correspondent Ernie Pyle and a collection of miscellaneous ephemera, pamphlets, and publications.