First Land-Grant Home Economics College

In 1871, Iowa State became the first land-grant institution in the nation to teach "domestic science." In 1872, Mary B. Welch, wife of Iowa State President Adonijah Welch, became the first domestic science instructor giving lectures to support laboratory classes in "kitchen, dining room, and laundry." From these beginnings grew the nation's first land-grant college of family and consumer sciences.