Project 49 is a monthly series from the University of Alaska Anchorage, highlighting characters and events from Alaska's rich history that have been preserved in our archives.
Pin curls, plaid and pioneer practical, the founders of the Muddy Acres Homemakers' Club gathered for their first group photo in 1953. The women of the Sand Lake/Jewel Lake area were wives, mothers, neighbors and members of one of Southcentral Alaska's 32 homemaker clubs in the early 1950s.
Predating some of television's favorite homemakers by several years—Leave it to Beaver's June Cleaver (1957-1963) in her pearls and heels, The Donna Reed Show's impeccably coiffed and styled Donna Stone (1958-1966)—the women of Muddy Acres who banded together in 1952 were much more recently adjusted to electricity and running water and certainly more used to mud than their Hollywood counterparts.
"One dark, rainy day in September, 1952, a group of eight women met to form a new Homemakers' Club. Upon looking out the window at the area surrounding them, they all agreed that 'Muddy Acres' would be an appropriate name for the club, and it has stuck to this day," typed the club historian in a 1957 report.
Through the club, the women shared moose casserole and salmon salad recipes, explored new homemaking fads, took care of their community by improving access to education for their kids and looked after each other, rallying to assist members in need after "burn outs" (house fires). They kept a scrapbook of their club activities.
Their collection fills just one accordion file in the UAA/APU Consortium Library Archives & Special Collections and includes the scrapbook, annual reports on club involvement to the Anchorage Homemakers Council from 1952-1960, photographs of club events and a wooden gavel with an engraved brass plate commemorating their achievement as Anchorage's "Club of the Year" in 1959, the year Alaska transitioned from a U.S. territory to the 49th state.
Read more about these pioneer women and homemakers on UAA's Green and Gold News site here.
Written by Jamie Gonzales, UAA Office of University Advancement
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