In this posting I first provide links to six successive editions of Charles F. Dunbar’s textbook on the theory and history of banking (four of which revised and expanded posthumously).
Next, following President Eliot’s memoir from the last posting, I append here the obituary for Charles F. Dunbar written by Frank W. Taussig published February 3, 1900 in the Cambridge Tribune.
Another memoir (written by Edward H. Hall) regarding Dunbar was published in vol. 14 (1900-01) of the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, pp. 218-228.
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Dunbar, Charles F. Chapters on Banking, privately printed in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Zero edition, 1885. Eight chapters printed for the use of classes in Harvard University.
Dunbar, Charles F. Chapters on the Theory and History of Banking. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, The Knickerbocker Press.
First edition, 1891. Added introductory chapter, chapter on combined reserves or the system of Clearing-House loan certificates and one on the Bank of Amsterdam.
Note: title shortened for second through fourth edition to The Theory and History of Banking.
Second edition, 1901. Enlarged and edited by O. M. W. Sprague.
Third edition, 1917. Enlarged by Oliver M. W. Sprague to include three new chapters on Foreign Exchange, Central Banks and on the Federal Reserve System.
Fourth edition, 1922. With chapters on foreign exchange and central banks by Oliver M. W. Sprague and a supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis.
Fifth edition, 1929 With supplementary chapter presenting the record of the Federal Reserve System by Henry Parker Willis. Revised and in part rewritten with additional material by Oliver M. W. Sprague. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
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Charles Franklin Dunbar.
Charles Franklin Dunbar, professor of Political Economy in Harvard University, died at his house, on Highland street, on the night of Monday, January 29. He had been ill for some weeks, but his friends had not thought the end would come so soon.
Professor Dunbar was born July 28, 1830, and graduated from Harvard College in 1851. Among his class-mates were Professors Goodwin and Langdell, and Dr. S. A. Green; and, among those whom death has already carried away, Professor W. F. Allen of the University of Wisconsin, General Francis W. Palfrey, and Messrs. George O. Shattuck and Augustus T. Perkins of Boston. Professor Dunbar studied law after graduation, but in a few years became connected with the Boston Advertiser. To that paper he gave some of the best years of his life. He became editor-in-chief in 1862, and so was in charge of the paper during the greater part of the civil war. While always independent in his judgments, he was a fervid supporter of the Union cause, and many of his editorials rang through New England like a trumpet blast. In 1869 the paper changed hands, and Professor Dunbar resigned as editor and disposed of his interest. He was invited shortly to accept the professorship in Harvard University, and after two years spent in travel and study in Europe, assumed the duties of the professorship, in 1871. For the rest of his life he was in active service, and a resident of Cambridge through these thirty years.
Professor Dunbar’s sagacity and tact led to his selection for important administrative offices. He was dean of the Faculty of Harvard College from 1876 to 1882, and was the first dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in Harvard University when that body was organized in 1890. He remained its dean till 1895. From 1886 to 1896 he was editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, established by the University in the first named year.
Professor Dunbar was distinguished by solidity of learning, sanity of judgment, independence of views, and scholarly thoroughness in probing to the bottom every subject he took up. His favorite topics were banking, currency and financial administration. He was interested alike in the history of these subjects and in current problems connected with them. Probably no man was better equipped by attainments and by justness of views to give advice on the financial questions which have been before the American community for the last thirty years. His writings on them gave but fragmentary indication of his attainments. He published a compact volume on the “Theory and Practice of Banking,” [sic, correct title is “The Theory and History of Banking”] which, though brief, is the best book on this subject in the English language, and in some respects perhaps the best in any language. To the Quarterly Journal of Economics he contributed frequent articles on financial subjects, and on some questions of theory; and he had abundance of material for others which he had planned but unhappily was not able to prepare. His administrative duties absorbed a large share of his strength, and stood in the way of the execution of his literary plans.
Professor Dunbar was a member of the Massachusetts Historical society, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was at one time president of the American Economic association. His reputation abroad was at least as high as it was in the United States: among economists the world over he was known as a scholar of the first rank.
An easy and graceful writer, he was also a clear and attractive lecturer, with a remarkable faculty for the consecutive and systematic exposition of difficult subjects. The weakness of his voice was the only obstacle which ever stood in the way of the interest and easy comprehension of his lectures. With small classes of advanced students he was at his best, and no one who came in contact with him under such circumstances failed to cherish feelings of admiration and affection far him. Staunch in his own opinions, open-minded as to those of others, free from all vanity or ostentation, strong in his affection for those with whom he came into close association, he left a memory which will be cherished by his associates and former students. F. W. Taussig.
Source: Cambridge Tribune, Vol. XXII, No. 48 (February 3, 1900), p. 4.
Image Source: From cover of the 1885 copy privately published Chapters of Banking.