Virginia Cooperative Extension Service
Historical Note
A University-wide Extension Division was established on 1 July 1966 by the General Assembly. It combined the activities of the Cooperative Extension Service, General Extension Division, State Technical Services, and Continuing Education Center. However, extension work at VPI&SU can trace its roots to 1906 when an extension program was established in Virginia as a result of the farm demonstration work began by Dr. Seaman A. Knapp in Texas in 1903. Dr. John D. Eggleston, the superintendent of public instruction in Virginia at the time and later VPI president, invited Knapp to speak at a meeting in Richmond and that talk resulted in the beginning of the program in Virginia. When the Smith-Lever Act of 1914 was passed, authority for extension, or demonstration, work was transferred to Virginia Tech and it became known as the Agricultural Extension until 1966 when it became the Cooperative Extension Service before being absorbed into the overall Extension Division. In 1995, the Extension Division became the Virginia Cooperative Extension and Agricultural Experiment Station Division, often shortened to the Virginia Cooperative Extension.
Found in 20 Collections and/or Records:
Thomas O. Sandy Papers
The collection includes correspondence, receipts, farm records, and other papers of Thomas O. Sandy, a farmer in Nottoway County, Virginia, and the first state demonstration agent for agricultural extension in Virginia. The papers relate to Sandy's farm, extension work, and estate.
Souvenir program, John R. Hutcheson Dinner, Blacksburg Va., November 13, 1944
State/Regional Home and Agricultural Publications,
The collection contains publications on topics including, but not limited to: war-time food use and victory gardens, home planning and organization, food and cooking, home demonstration, and household management. Although the emphasis in on Virginia state and local agencies, materials may also originate from around the United States.
William Logan Threlkeld Papers
This collection contains the papers of William Logan Threlkeld, professor of zoology and biology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (1929-1958), including biographical materials, personal and professional correspondence, research files, and printed materials.
Records of the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia 4-H Horse Program
The collection include photographs, slides, negatives, and audiotapes from Virginia 4-H State Shows, State Fairs, and other events throughout the state. 4-H programs began in Virginia in 1908, and since then, the Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, and Virginia State University have hosted the Virginia 4-H Horse Program, which emphasizes equine selection, nutrition, management, riding, and horsemanship.
Records of the Virginia Cooperative Extension
This collection contains the administrative records of the Virginia Cooperative Extension, including correspondence, reports, financial documents, slides, videos, and the records of Bob Swain and Edwin J. Jones. The collection also documents the VCE's role in Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Virginia Association of Extension Secretaries, and their work within rural communities.
Virginia Cooperative Extension Service Photographs
Virginia Extension Homemakers Council Papers
This collections includes institutional records, photographs, publications, yearbooks, slides, videos, and artifacts from the Virginia Extension Homemakers Council (currently named the Virginia Association for Family and Community Education). Materials in the collection date from 1948 to 2007.
Maude E. Wallace Letter to Sarah Pitts
This letter was written by Maude E. Wallace of Virginia Cooperative Extension Service, Blacksburg, VA, to Sarah Pitts of George Peabody College, Nashville, TN, on 14 August 1929. Ms. Pitts had been hired to work as an Extension agent, but had not yet begun her duties.
Harold N. Young Papers
The collection includes papers by Harold N. Young relating to education in Virginia, as well as an original poem.