Home demonstration agents were a nationwide service administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cooperative Extension Service and by individual states' county extension services. While the profession began to emerge organically at the local level in the first decade of the 1900s, it was formalized as a national program in 1914 by the Smith-Lever Act, which provided federal funds for home demonstration work. A framework of federal, state, and county governments soon emerged to dispatch agents to homes, particularly in rural regions of the country, to teach home economics and demonstrate best practices in activities like sewing, gardening, food preservation, nutrition, and other domestic skills.

The New York Federation of Home Bureau Managers was founded on October 27, 1919 during a statewide conference for home demonstration professionals at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. The goal of the organization was to provide home demonstration agents, then known as home bureau managers, with professional development and assistance through affiliation with relevant university departments. Vera McCrae, an agent from Cortland County, was unanimously elected the organizations' first president. In 1922, the organization changed its name to the New York State Home Bureau Managers' Association.

In 1933, while its members were attending the annual meeting of the American Home Economics Association, held on June 29, 1933 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the New York State Home Bureau Managers' Association affiliated with state associations in Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, Virginia and Wyoming to form the National Home Demonstration Agents' Association. This national organization, which formally organized in 1934, was intended promote the interest of home demonstration work and provide those working in the field with representation and opportunities for professional development. Anna Searl, a home advisor from Pontiac, Illinois, was appointed its first temporary chairperson and was later made president of the association, a position she held until 1942.

These photographs show an exhibit sponsored by the New York State Home Bureau Managers' Association that went on display at the New York State Fair in Syracuse from August 30th to September 6th in 1952. The exhibit was designed under the supervision of Professor Mary Koll Heiner (1890-1956), of the College of Home Economics at Cornell University. Heiner's research interests specialized in kitchen arrangement and principles of kitchen cabinet design. In addition to publishing frequently on these topics, Heiner also partnered with a multidisciplinary team from Cornell University's home economics, engineering, architecture, and psychology departments to create the Cornell Kitchen. This project, which ran from 1950 to 1955, aimed to use scientific research into the physical and socio-psychological needs of American women to design a prefabricated, customizable, mass-produced kitchen that could be easily installed by homeowners.

Heiner was assisted in the New York State Fair exhibit by Cornell University Poultry Department professor and food sciences professional Robert C. Baker (1921-2006), who offered demonstrations showing how to cut and prepare poultry for freezing, and by Thelma House (1907-1994), a home service representative of the State Electric & Gas Corporation, who also provided demonstration services. Members of the New York State Home Bureau Managers' Association were invited to make use of the exhibit during scheduled activity hours. The demonstration rooms shown in these photographs were outfitted with Bendix and Crosley brand appliances and cabinets manufactured by the Crosley Division of the AVCO Manufacturing Corporation of Coldwater, Ohio.

On November 16, 1964, following a survey of its members, the National Home Demonstration Agents' Association changed its name to the National Association of Extension Home Economists. State chapters followed suit, with the New York State Home Demonstration Agents' Association changing its name to the New York State Association of Extension Home Economists (NYSAEHE). In 1995, another national name change produced the New York State Extension Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (NYSEAFCS).