The College of Family Life, and its predecessors, Home Economics and Domestic Science, were among the original disciplines offered when the Utah Agricultural College opened in 1890. The Department of Domestic Arts was one of the first established departments at the institution, eventually becoming the School of Domestic Sciences and Arts in 1903. By 1913, the college was home to the Departments of Food and Dietetics, of Home Construction and Sanitation, and of Domestic Arts.

When the School of Home Economics became the College of Family Life in 1957, the Department of Human Environments was originally split into the three departments of Clothing, Textiles, and Related Arts, Household Administration, and Home Economics Education. Between the 1960s and early 1970s, the three departments merged into the Department of Home Economics and Consumer Education. The department's name was changed to Human Environments in the mid-90s. Following the closure of the College of Family Life in the early 2000s, the Department of Human Environments and its programs were moved into the College of Agriculture and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences.