The Helyar Experiment: Cooperative Living at the College of Agriculture During the Depression

Abstract

TH R O U G H O U T the 1930's, young men from rural New Jersey towns such as Woodstown, Mays Landing, Belvidere and Baptistown came to the College of Agriculture at Rutgers to study. They were to become pioneers in an experiment in cooperative living which continues to this day. Initiated by Professor Frank Helyar, who served the college from 1917 to 1953, these groups provided a unique workstudy environment in which students of agriculture learned to live and work together while serving their college. This article is based on interviews with some of the alumni of these cooperative living groups who lived at the College of Agriculture campus during the Depression. It aims to demonstrate the use of the techniques of oral history to recapture the sociocultural history of these groups.1