Page 27 - To Dragma May 1934

24 To D&AGxg
to be constantly working out some problem
that absorbed her. and these problems were
of no mean significance.
"I've been lying in wait for you. You're
the most difficult person to sec," 1 explained.
"Oh, hello. I'm glad that you came down."
She spoke sincerely, I knew, for she's always
been interested personally in every AOLT. She
has become so necessary a part of Epsilon
Chapter, serving on our Alumna? Advisory-
Board for several years, that we feel she he-
longs to us and forget that Sigma claims her.
"I've come to talk about you," I said, con-
tinuing to explain.
"About me?" she questioned.
"Yes, AOLT wants to know more of you."
"Of me?" She was puzzled, for she was
bound by a natural modesty.
"You forget that you're a distinguished per-
sonality, and that you must expect to be
treated like one."
She laughed, unconvinced, for she fails to
realize how distinct an individual she is in
spite of the overwhelming evidence showing
how she has always stood out from the crowd.
At college, in the University of California,
she was a member of the Prythancan Society,
a woman's honorary sorority choosing its
members from girls prominent in activities
on the campus. After she graduated with a
degree of Bachelor of Fine Arts, she worked
with an architectural firm in California until
the war. Then a course in Naval Architec-
ture gave her the training necessary to fill an
emergency position as ship draftsman at Mare
Island Navy Yard.
After the war she wanted to get a degree
as Master of Fine Arts. Unable to get the
work she wanted in California, she came to
New York to study at Columbia. She wasn't
then quite sure what she wanted to do; she
had ideas of planning stage-sets; she was in-
terested in household art One afternoon she
met a young woman who came from Cornell.
They talked together about their work. F i -
nally the other said, "I think Miss VanRens-
selacr would have a place for you at Ithaca."
Grace was politely responsive but not enthusi-
astic, for Miss VanRcnsselaer was but a name
to her. A few days later she received a note
from her, however, asking Grace to meet her
at a particular hour for an interview. As
Grace happened to have a class with John
Erskine at the hour mentioned and preferring
not to miss an hour under him for an inter-
view with a stranger whose name, although
she's seen it mentioned in the Delineator,
didn't mean anything to her, she asked Miss
VanRcnsselaer to meet her at another hour
which would be more convenient for her.
When she met her later, she discovered that
Miss VanRcnsselaer had a vision that ap-
pealed to her. She was conscious of an en-
thusiasm for the work they planned. At that
time Cornell's Extension Division of the
Household Art Department had no people
working directly at housing problems. Miss
VanRcnsselaer wanted Grace to come to
Ithaca to begin this phase of the work. The
offer she made Grace, she explained, was the ..
best she could do until the State appropriated W
more money for her. All the budgets for the Th
State Colleges in the University must be au-> Ac
tborized by the State Department. She gave Bu
Grace a week in which to consider the offer.; A
During that week one of the large western' W
colleges also asked Grace to come there to* {A
teach at a salary of $700 a year more than Th
Cornell could give her. Nevertheless, she' A
came to Ithaca, believing that there a better '•A
future lay before her than in the Middle lA
West. Al
At Cornell she began the extension work I
in housing that she and Miss VanRcnsselaer T
had planned together, a work that is now an j
important activity of the college. The aim T
o£ the extension teacher is to show the farm- [
ers and people living in rural communities •O
how to bring beauty and comfort into lives C
that were uniformly dull. Grace furnished T
model farmhouses in various parts of the O
state, showing how an unattractive building '•
could be transformed by the expenditure of A
a little money and some real thought. Many B
of the old buildings had had their true love-
liness of design obscured by unintelligent alter- IW
ations and additions. One aim of the exten- T
sion housing work is to show the owner of L
such a home how to restore it properly, reveal- I
ing its natural grace. The problem of ex-
pense was kept constantly in mind during this ', I
work. People were taught that, with a little I
ingenuity, ripping out an old closet here and IS
there, turning two rooms into one, and using
good taste, they could make an uncomfortable '
home function in a truly livable way.
I
;
Her work drew attention to her. and when
President Hoover called the first White House
Conference, Miss Van Rensselaer found a
place on it for Grace. She served as a mem-
ber of the Housing Committee and as Chair-
man of the House Furnishing Committee. She
was co-author of the book, The Home and
the Child, that was written by the House
Furnishings Committee. Later, she was at the
second of President Hoover's conferences,
serving this time as a member of the Commit-
tee for Remodeling Houses.
In the eight years that she has been at
Cornell, she has advanced to the head of the
Household Art Department and has six assis-
tants working in the department with her.
Her most outstanding piece of work for the
University has been the planning of Martha
VanRcnsselaer Hall. This building, rcccntlv
completed and opened, belongs to the group of
State Colleges at the University, and was bunt
from her designs after they had gone through
the State Department. Her one desire < in
planning the building was to give expression
to the life-long aim of Miss VanRcnsselaer
and Miss Rose. She worked constantly with
Miss Rose so that the building, which was to
express a new ideal in the education of women
as home-makers, might function properly.
She was one of the three on the Committee
for Furnishings and Equipment and was her-
self in complete charge of all the furnishings.
[ C O N T I N U E D ON P A G * 7 6 ]