Edwin Francis Gay (1867-1946) came to Harvard in 1902 as an instructor of economic history taking over William Ashley’s courses after having spent a dozen years of training and advanced historical study in Europe (Berlin, Ph.D. in 1902 under Gustav Schmoller, also he was in Leipzig, Zurich and Florence). He and Abram Piatt Andrew received five-year contracts as assistant professors of economics in 1903. In just four years he actually advanced to the rank of professor. He served as a principal advisor to Harvard President Charles Eliot in establishing the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1908. After the favored candidate to be the founding dean of the business school, William Lyon Mackenzie King (Ph.D., Harvard 1909) turned down the offer, instead continuing as deputy minister of labor in Canada then later becoming prime minister of Canada, President Eliot turned to Gay. In nine years Gay put his stamp on the Harvard Business School, apparently playing an instrumental role in the use of the case method (pedagogic transfer from the law school) with a strong emphasis on obtaining hands-on experience through practical assignments with actual businesses. He is credited with establishing the academic degree of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration), the credential of managers.
During WW I Gay worked as adviser to the U.S. Shipping Board and then went on to become editor of the New York Evening Post that would soon go under, giving Gay “an opportunity” to return to Harvard where he could teach economic history up through his retirement in 1936. Gay was among the co-founders of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Council of Foreign Relations. He and his wife moved to California where he worked at the Huntington library where his bulk of his papers are to be found today.
Since this item was first posted, I have transcribed the questions from the final examination for the course’s second semester.
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[From Course Announcement]
‡Economics 23. Recent Economic History.
Tu., Th., at 4. Professor Gay.
Note: “A double dagger(‡) indicates that the course is open under certain conditions to properly qualified students of Radcliffe.”
Source: Announcement of the Courses of Instruction offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences During 1934-35. Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 31, No. 38 (September 20, 1934), p. 128.
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[Course Enrollment]
[Economics] ‡23. Professor Gay.—Recent Economic History.
16 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Other, 4 Radcliffe: Total 22
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College and reports of departments for 1934-1935, p. 82.
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ECONOMICS 23
First assignment [first semester]
Bertrand Russell, Freedom vs. Organization, 1814-1914. (W. W. Norton & Co., New York, 1934)
For review
P. Mantoux, The Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, (English translation) 1928
or
H. Heaton. Article: The Industrial Revolution in The Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences, Vol. 8, (1932), pp. 3-13.
J. H. Clapham, An Economic History of Modern Britain, 2 vol., 1926 (2nd ed.o 1932. Cambridge University Press.
Industrial History, Vol. I, chapters 5, 10, 14, Vol. II, chs. 3, 4, 11.
Agriculture, Vol. I, ch. 4; vol. II, ch. 7.
Transportation, Vol. I, chs. 3, 9.
Commerce and commercial policy, vol. I, ch. 12, vol. II, chs. 6, 8.
Also Vol. II, chs. 1, 2, 10.
J. H. Clapham, Economic Development of France and Germany, 1921 (1923), chs. 1-9 inclusive.
E. C. Kirkland, History of American Economic Life, chs. 1-9 inclusive.
L. H. Jenks, The Migration of British Capital to 1875. (1927), pp. 1-262.
A. E. Feavearyear, The Pound Sterling, Oxford, 1931. Chs. 8-11 inclusive (pp. 138-298)
Percy Ashley, Modern Tariff History, 1926
F. W. Taussig, Tariff History of the United States. (to and including tariff of 1890).
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ECONOMICS 23 1935
Second assignment: [second semester] references in brackets are optional
Wells, D. A. Recent Economic Changes, 1890 (written 1887-9).
[Marshall, A. Industry and Trade (1919) Bk. I, chaps. 5-8, pp. 86-162]
Sharfman, I. L. Interstate Commerce Commission, vol. I. chaps. 1-4, pp. 11-176.
Royal Institute of International Affairs, World Agriculture (1932), pp. 1-252.
Nourse, E. G. Chapter on “Agriculture” in Recent Economic Changes, vol. II, chap. viii, pp. 547-602.
Black, J. D. Agricultural Reform in the United States (1929) Part I. The Setting, Chaps. 1-3, pp. 1-84.
Royal Institute of International Affairs. Monetary Policy in the Depression, (1933), pp. 1-81.
Committee on Finance and Industry. (Macmillan Report) (1931), pp. 1-185.
[Department of Commerce (U.S.) Bulletin on “Balance of International Payments” 1934 (for 1933)]
Mitchell, W. C. Business Cycles, the Problem in its Setting. (1927) pp. 61-188, 424-450.
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. History of Trade Unionism (1920 or 1926), chaps. 7-11, pp. 358-704 (718).
Webb, Sidney and Beatrice. Consumers’ Cooperative Movement (1921) Chap. 6, pp. 383-487.
Clay, Henry. The Problem of Industrial Relations (1929), pp. 74-102.
Perlman, S. History of Trade Unionism in the United States.
Seager, H. R. and Gulick, C. A. Trust and Corporation Problems (1929) chaps. 5, 6, 18-26; pps. 49-85, 367-627.
Berle A. A. and Means, G. C. The Modern Corporation and Private Property (1933) Bk. I, chaps. 1-3, Bk. IV, chaps. 1-4, pp. 1-46, 333-356.
Mitchell, W. C. “A Review,” Recent Economic Changes, vol. II, pp. 841-910.
Hansen, A. H. Economic Stabilization in the Unbalanced World (1932), pp. 271-380.
Morrison, Herbert. Socialisation and Transport (1933) Chaps. 8, 9, 13, 15; ppps. 131-176, 213-242, 280-297.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1894-2003 (HUC 8522.2.1), Box 2, Folder “1934-1935”.
Image Source: Harvard Class Album 1934.