There is considerable concern today about sustaining home economics/family and consumer sciences studies (HE/FCS) in a political and economic climate where support for programs is diminishing. This paper proposes that HE/FCS educators and scholars look to the past in seeking directions for the future. In particular, it draws from the work of Alice Ravenhill, a staunch lobbyist for HE/FCS in both public schools and post-secondary institutions in Great Britain, the United States, and Canada at the turn of the 20th century.