For an earlier post I transcribed the faculty memorial minute for Columbia’s Henry L. Moore along with his request to the department chair in 1924 for a salary adjustment. Today I provide a couple of items that George Stigler had acquired during the course of his research for the paper commissioned by the editors of Econometrica in honor of the Henry L. Moore’s pioneering work in econometrics (Stigler, George J. “Henry L. Moore and Statistical Economics.” Econometrica, vol. 30, no. 1, 1962, pp. 1–21). In addition to some biographical data provided by the alumni office of the Johns Hopkins University, we find the transcripts of both Moore’s undergraduate and graduate courses. One is hardly surprised to see a brilliant undergraduate performance by Moore, though his undergraduate exposure to economics was limited to a single year course in political economy and his undergraduate math courses did not go beyond analytical geometry.
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Carbon Copy of George Stigler’s letter to Johns Hopkins Professor Heberton Evans
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Chicago 37, Illinois
Charles R. Walgreen Foundation for the Study of American Institutions
1126 East 59th Street
June 3, 1959
Professor Heberton Evans Jr.
Department of Political Economy
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Dear Heb:
Econometrica has asked me to prepare an essay on Henry L. Moore and I have agreed to undertake it because I think he is one of the major figures in American economics in the last half century. He took his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins in 1896 and I hpe you will be kind enough to see if you cannot obtain for me a copy of the transcript of his record at Johns Hopkins and any other material pertaining to him that may be in the University file.
Cordially,
George J. Stigler
Source: University of Chicago Archives, George Stigler Papers. Box 2, Folder “Moore: Data gathered by correspondence”.
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Letter from Johns Hopkins Alumni Office to George Stigler
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE 18, MARYLAND
Alumni Records Office
June 8, 1959
Professor George J. Stigler
Haskell Hall
University of Chicago
Chicago 37, Illinois
Dear Professor Stigler:
Dr. G. Heberton Evans called me this morning and stated that you were interested in having what biographical information we have on Dr. Henry Ludwell Moore, who died on April 28, 1958. He also stated that you wanted a transcript of his work here.
I have talked with the Registrar about a transcript and she has had this looked up for you. Unfortunately in those days—when Dr. Moore was attending Hopkins—the courses were not as clearly outlined as they are now. Miss Davis will have to clarify some of the credits and the courses given and she will send you her findings when she does this. The Registrar’s Office is in quite a whirl at the moment because of Commencement tomorrow and it will probably be some days before Miss Davis can get this information for you.
I am enclosing a sheet giving an obituary which appeared in the Baltimore SUN at the time of Dr. Moore’s death and also a biographical sketch from Who’s Who. For your information I am giving the addresses of his sisters in Baltimore, which I have taken from the telephone directory:
Mrs. R(obert) Maurice Miller, 406 Hawthorne Road, Baltimore 10
Mrs. J(ohn) Talbot Todd, 100 W. University Parkway, Baltimore 10
Mrs. William P. Cole, 100 W. University Parkway, Baltimore 10
Dr. Moore entered Johns Hopkins in 1892 and was a graduate student in Economics through 1896, when he received the Ph.D. degree. His thesis was Von Thünen’s Theory of Natural Wages.
In the President’s Report for 1892-93 mention is made of “The Wage Theory of Von Thünen,” by Dr. Moore, published in abstract in the Johns Hopkins University Circular for May, 1893. Also, in the President’s Report for 1895-96 two papers by Dr. Moore were read discussed in Economic Conferences (a membership of eighteen students who met one evening fortnightly). The titles of these papers are: “The Personality of Professor Carl Menger,” and “Ricardo’s Attack Upon Malthus’s Doctrine of Rent.”
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Josephine Cole
[Attachments from Alumni Files]
Obituary from the Baltimore Sun
Dr. Henry Moore Dies at Age 89
Dr. Henry Ludwell Moore, Maryland-born retired professor of economics and sociology at Columbia University, died yesterday in a Baltimore hospital after a long illness. He was 89 years old.
He had received his doctorate in 1896 at the Johns Hopkins University and was a former instructor of economics on the Hopkins faculty.
In 1902 he became an associate professor of economics and romance languages at Columbia where he served until his retirement several years ago. He also taught at Smith College.
Son of the late William Hanson and Sophia Moore, Dr. Moore was born at “Moore’s Rest,” the family home in Charles county. He earned his bachelor degree at Randolph-Macon College and then studied at the University of Vienna and the Hopkins.
He was a pioneer of the application of mathematics and statistical methods to economic theory and wrote numerous articles and books in the field.
His wife was the late Mrs. Jane Armstrong Moore.
Surviving him are three sisters, Mrs. R. Maurice Miller, Mrs. J. Talbot Todd and Mrs. William P. Cole, Jr. all of Baltimore.
The funeral will be private.
From—WHO’S WHO
Moore, Henry Ludwell, political economist; b. Charles Co., Md., Nov. 21, 1869; s. William Henry and Alice (Burch) M.; B.A., Randolph-Macon Coll., Va. 1892; U. of Vienna, 1894-95; Ph.D., Johns Hopkins, 1896; m. Jane Armstrong Shafer, of Richmond, Va., June 16, 1897. Instr. Johns Hopkins U., 1896-7; prof. polit. economy, Smith Coll., Mass., 1897-02; prof. polit. economy, Columbia U., 1902–*. Author: Laws of Wages, 1911; Economic Cycles, Their Law and Cause, 1914; Forecasting the Yield and the Price of Cotton, 1917; Generating Economic Cycles, 1923; also articles in scientific jours. on the math. and statis. phases of polit. economy. Home: Cornwall, N.Y.
*Dr. Moore retired from Columbia in 1929. The above does not state that Dr. Moore was also Lecturer in Political Economy at Johns Hopkins in 1897-98, during his first year at Smith College.
We do not know the source of the clipping which gives the following:
The John Marshall prize for the year 1913 has been awarded to Henry Ludwell Moore as a recognition of the value of his work entitled, “Laws of Wages.” The prize, which was established in 1891, consists of a bronze likeness of Chief Justice Marshall, and is given to a graduate of the University who has produced the best work during the preceding year upon some subject in historical or political science.
Source: University of Chicago Archives, George Stigler Papers. Box 2, Folder “Moore: Data gathered by correspondence”.
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Letter from Registrar’s Office of Johns Hopkins to George Stigler
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
BALTIMORE 18, MARYLAND
Office of the Register
April 5, 1960
Professor George J. Stigler
Haskell Hall
University of Chicago
Chicago 37, Illinois
Dear Professor Stigler:
From your letter of March 18, 1960, addressed to Miss Josephine Cole, it appears that I owe you an apology for not taking earlier action upon your request for information on Dr. Henry L. Moore. I am sorry to say that I have neither notes nor recollection of talking about this with Miss Cole last summer. I hope that the enclosed information will reach you in time to be of service.
I think it is in order to say a few words of explanation concerning the academic records of the early years of the University. No effort was made to keep track of a student’s enrollment in individual courses. Grades and points credit were not thought of, and apparently the student had nothing to show except some letters from his professors if he discontinued his studies here before receiving a degree. The final examinations for the degree and the dissertation were recorded, and they were, apparently, considered to be all important.
My source of information, in trying to reconstruct a record of this period, is a publication called “The University Circular”, which listed for each term the seminars and courses of lectures given, and the names of the professors and the students who attended. I thought it would interest you to see the names of the men under whom Dr. Moore studies.
Sincerely yours,
[signed]
Irene M. Davis
Registrar
HENRY LUDWELL MOORE
PH.D: 1896
[handwritten: “Johns Hopkins”]
| Year | Course | Instructor |
| 1892-93 (Graduate student) |
Historical Seminary | Prof. Adams |
| Germanic History | Prof. Adams | |
| Church History | Prof. Adams | |
| English Constitutional Law & History | Prof. Emmott | |
| Economic Theory of Distribution | Prof. J.B. Clark | |
| Social Science | Pres. Gilman | |
| Ethnological History of the Indo-European Peoples | Prof. Bloomfield | |
| Methods of Historical Research | Dr. Vincent | |
| 1893-94 (Graduate student) |
Historical Seminary | Prof. Adams |
| Prussian History | Prof. Adams | |
| Railway Problems | Prof. H.C. Adams | |
| Administration | Prof. W. Wilson | |
| Social Economics | Dr. Gould | |
| Theory of Consumption | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Recent Economic Literature | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Economic Conference | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Elements & History of Political Economy | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Economic & Social History of Europe | Dr. Vincent | |
| 1894-95 (Graduate student) |
University of Vienna | |
| 1895-96 (Fellow) |
Historical Seminary | Prof. Adams |
| History of the Nineteenth Century | Prof. Adams | |
| Economic Conference | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Physiocrats | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Credit and Money | Dr. Sherwood | |
| History of Economic Theories | Dr. Hollander | |
| Advanced Economic Elective | Dr. Sherwood | |
| Social Economics | Prof. Gould | |
| Conditions and Remedies of Non-Employment | Prof. Dewey |
Source: University of Chicago Archives, George Stigler Papers. Box 2, Folder “Moore: Data gathered by correspondence”.
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Transcript from Randolph-Macon College
Randolph-Macon College
Ashland, Virginia
June 23, 1959
Henry L. Moore 307 St. Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland
| 1st Report | 2nd Report | 3rd Report | Exam | |
| Term Ending: Feb. 1890 |
||||
| English | 95 | 98 | 98 | — |
| Latin | 98 | 97 | 99 | — |
| German | 98 | 97 | 97 | — |
| Algebra | 100 | 100 | — | — |
| Geometry | 100 | 100 | ||
| Term Ending: June 1890 |
||||
| English | 99 | 99 | 99 | — |
| Latin | 99 | 100 | 100 | — |
| German | 99 | 98 ½ | 98 ½ | — |
| Algebra | 97 | — | — | — |
| Geometry | 100 | 100 | 99 ½ | |
| Term Ending: Feb. 1891 |
||||
| English | 100 | 99 | 100 | 95 ¾ |
| Latin | 100 | 99 | 100 | 98.7 |
| Trigonometry | 100 | 100 | — | — |
| Physics | 96 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Anal. Geom. | — | — | 100 | 98 |
| Pol. Economy | 100 | 99.5 | 100 | — |
| Term Ending: June 1891 |
||||
| English | 99 | 100 | 98 | 96 ¾ |
| Latin | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99.1 |
| Anal. Geom. | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99 ¾ |
| Physics | 100 | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Pol. Economy | 100 | 100 | — | 100 |
| Phys. Culture | 100 | 100 | 100 | — |
| Elocution | — | — | 100 | — |
| Term Ending: Feb. 1892 |
||||
| English | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99 ½ |
| Latin | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99 |
| French | 100 | 99 | 99 | 98 ½ |
| Chemistry | 99 | 100 | — | 98.5 |
| Geology | 100 | 100 | — | — |
| Physiology | 95 | 100 | 100 | 98 |
| Psychology | 100 | 99 | — | — |
| Logic | — | — | 100 | — |
| Phys. Culture | 80 | — | — | — |
| Term Ending: June 1892 |
||||
| English | 99 | 100 | 99 | 98 ¾ |
| Latin | 100 | 100 | 100 | 99.3 |
| French | 98 | 93 | 99 | 95 |
| Chemistry | 100 | 98 | 98 | 99 |
| Geology | 100 | 100 | 99 | — |
| Astronomy | 100 | 98 | 100 | 98.5 |
| Logic | 100 | 99 | 99 | 99 |
Source: University of Chicago Archives, George Stigler Papers. Box 2, Folder “Moore: Data gathered by correspondence”.
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From the Catalogue of Randolph-Macon College for the Collegiate Year 1890-91
POLITICAL ECONOMY
[Taught by Professor of Moral Philosophy and Biblical Literature, John A. Kern D.D.]
This class meets twice a week throughout the session. It is usually taken separately from the other classes of the school, and for satisfactory attainments in it a certificate of distinction is awarded. The study of some question in practical economics is assigned as parallel work. The book used for this purpose last session, is Ely’s “The Labor Movement in America.“
Text-book: F. A. Walker’s Political Economy.
Source: Catalogue of Randolph-Macon College for the Collegiate Year 1890-91: , p. 24.
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Image Source: Cropped from portrait of Moore in Econometrica, Vol. 30, No. 1 (precedes the Stigler article).