Author: Irwin Collier

Categories
Cornell Economic History Gender Harvard Home Economics

Cornell. Home Economics. Radcliffe economic history A.M. (1913), Blanche Hazard

 

Having returned from a trip to the U.S. that included participation at the History of Economics Society 2018 meeting in Chicago, I have gone now two weeks without posting. It is easy to explain away the first ten days that actually involved Michigan road-tripping followed by conferencing with colleagues when the opportunity cost of blogging exceeded the joy of welcoming visitors to the latest artifacts posted at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror. The last several days have been more a matter of jet-lag recovery and of overcoming the inertia associated with this extended pause from an almost unbroken three year rhythm of select, transcribe, post and tweet. OK, an intertemporally-savvy blogger would have gradually built up an inventory of artifacts and maintained an uninterrupted flow, but that is not, alas, the way this scholar rolls.

This post ventures into the neighboring field of home economics, in particular, to touch upon the brief career of Cornell’s first professor of woman’s studies, Blanche Evans Hazard (1873-1966) who was trained as an economic historian at Radcliffe/Harvard, A.M. awarded by Radcliffe (1913). She lectured on her dissertation topic: “The Organization of the Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century” at the March 18, 1912 of the seminary in economics. Her economics professors included Thomas Nixon Carver and Edwin Francis Gay.While she did not complete the final examination for the Ph.D., her dissertation was published by Harvard University Press. Here a link to texts by Hazard at archive.org.

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Blanche Hazard, brief biography

Blanche Hazard came to Cornell in 1914 as an assistant professor of home economics, with a special responsibility to develop courses on the history of women and women’s work. After spending two years at Thayer Academy and two years at Radcliffe College, Hazard taught history in both public and private schools, and was head of the Department of History at Rhode Island Normal School from 1899 to 1904. During this period, she was also an officer of the New England Association of Teachers of History in Colleges and Secondary Schools. She became well-known for her lectures at teachers’ conventions on historical methods, as well as for her collaboration with Harvard’s Albert B. Hart on a book about children in the Colonial Era. In 1904, Hazard returned to Radcliffe, where she earned a B.A. in 1907 with first honors in history and government. In 1913, she completed a Ph.D.  at Harvard in history [sic, A.M., according to Earle (see below) who found that Hazard never actually completed the final examination for the Ph.D. though she did in fact complete and publish her dissertation]; her dissertation, The Organization of The Boot and Shoe Industry in Massachusetts Before 1875 (1921), was the first book written by a woman published by Harvard University Press. At Cornell, Hazard and Martha Van Rensselaer collaborated in creating an early version of women’s studies. Hazard taught courses on “Women in Industry,” “Women in the State,” and “History of Housekeeping.” She also wrote a number of pamphlets for the Farmers’ Wives Reading Course, including Civic Duties of Women (1918), which was widely used and reprinted as women prepared to exercise their suffrage. When she left Cornell in 1922 to return to New England and marry, Hazard was a full professor of home economics.

 

Image Source:   From the webpage of the History Center in Tompikins County, Ithaca, N.Y. announcing the March 3, 2018 lecture by Corey Ryan Earle, “Blanche hazard: Pioneering Local Suffragist & Women’s Studies Education”.

Source: Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Faculty Biographies: Blanche Hazard.

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Blanche Hazard, longer biography

See the paper written by Corey Ryan Earle, “An Overlooked Pioneer: Blanche Evans Hazard, Cornell University’s First Professor of Women’s Studies, 1914-1922” that provides much detail, though unable to explain Hazard’s marriage and her withdrawal from academic life. The paper was written during the summer of 2006 when the author was supported by a Dean’s Fellowship in the History of Home Economics by the College of Human Ecology of Cornell University.

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Image Source: Faculty of Home Economics at Cornell. Cornell University Library, Division of Rare & Manuscript Collection’s website: From Domesticity to Modernity, What was Home Economics (2001). Webpage: Early Faculty Biographies. Note: second row, leftmost is Blanche Hazard.

Categories
Berkeley Economists Gender Harvard Radcliffe

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. Alumna Alice Bourneuf, 1955

 

 

In the continuing series, meet an economics Ph.D. alumnus/a, we have here an obituary for the Harvard Ph.D. (1955), Alice Bourneuf, whose career milestones included early work in the IMF through the building up the economics department at Boston College. Paul Samuelson counted her among Schumpeter’s circle of graduate students at Harvard in the 1930’s.

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Alice Bourneuf (1912-1980)
Boston College Obituary

Alice Bourneuf, professor emeritus, dies
Instrumental in shaping economics department

Alice E. Bourneuf, Boston College economics professor emeritus, died Dec. 7 in Boston after a long illness. Bourneuf, 68, was the first woman to hold a tenured professorate within the College of Arts and Sciences and was instrumental in making the department of economics the distinguished unit it is today.

President Monan was with Bourneuf in her final moments and was principal celebrant of a memorial Mass at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Trinity, Newton Campus, Dec. 13.

Bourneuf was born in Haverhill on Oct. 2, 1912. Her career in education and public service spanned four decades.

She graduated from Radcliffe in 1933 and continued her studies there, receiving the MA in 1939 and the PhD in 1955. An authority on national and international economies, her main fields of research and writing were macroeconomic theory, money and banking, public finance, business cycles, unemployment and investment.

She participated in the formulation of international monetary plans for the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC from 1942 to 1946. From 1946 to 1948 she conducted research on exchange rates and internal financial problems for the International Monetary Fund. She was senior economist for the Marshall Plan in Norway and France from 1948 to 1953.

After teaching at Mt. Holyoke College and the University of California at Berkeley, Bourneuf joined the BC economics department as a tenured full professor in 1959. She retired in 1977.

Recalling Bourneuf, Assoc. Prof. Harold Peterson (Economics) said she was “one of the two or three people who’ve had a profound influence on my life.” He spoke of how she “revolutionized” and “modernized” the economics program here, bringing in new faculty to help her accomplish the task.

“Hers was a constant struggle,” Peterson added. “She showed us immense courage, both in her life and in her death.”

Prof. Michael Mann (Economics) called Bourneuf “a towering figure at BC.” Mann said she was an inspiration not only to her immediate colleagues, but to the entire university and the community-at-large as well. “Alice set standards for academic integrity—for good work, quality work,” Mann said. “Even those who disagreed with her respected her opinions.”

“The economics department at Boston College is now well-known,” said Harvard economist Richard E. Caves. “It’s rise is primarily attributed to Alice Bourneuf.”

MIT economist Paul Samuelson called Bourneuf “a magnificent person and economist.” Recalling Bourneuf’s recruitment activities on behalf of BC, Samuelson said, “When Alice Bourneuf and (economics professor) Fr. Robert McEwen appeared at American Economic Association conventions, department heads quaked for the ivory they were hoarding.”

In 1976, BC established the Bourneuf Award, which is given annually to the outstanding undergraduate in the field of economics. Bourneuf also received honorary degrees from Boston College (1977) and Regis College (1975) and was the recipient of numerous fellowships and honors during her lifetime. In October 1979 the University dedicated Bourneuf House, offices of the academic vice president. Asked about the honor at that time, Bourneuf said, “I can’t believe it or understand it. They should have named it after some famous person.” She leaves four sisters, two brothers and 18 nieces and nephews.

 

Source:   Boston College Biweekly, Volume 1, Number 8, 18 December 1980, pp. 1,4.

Image Source:  Webpage “Breaking the Mold” at the World Bank/IMF website: The Bretton Woods Institutions turn 60.

Categories
Columbia Cornell Economists M.I.T.

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, David Durand. Obituary, 1996

 

David Durand’s Columbia University Ph.D. dissertation (degree awarded in 1941) was published as Risk Elements in Consumer Instalment Financing. National Bureau of Economic Research, Financial Research Program, Studies in Consumer Instalment Financing, no. 8. New York: NBER, 1941. He is perhaps best known among economists, as Paul Samuelson notes, for his pioneering empirical work on the yield curve.

David Durand. Basic Yields of Corporate Bonds, 1900-1942. NBER, June 1942.

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Prof. David Durand of MIT Dies at 83
February 28, 1996

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–Dr. David Durand, a professor emeritus of management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was an early adherent of applying statistical methods–especially sampling–to problems in corporate finance and other fields, died Monday, Feb. 26, at the MIT Infirmary. Dr. Durand, who lived in Lexington, Mass., was 83.

His family said the cause of death was aplastic anemia.

Raised in Ithaca, N.Y., Dr. Durand received a bachelor of arts degree from Cornell University in 1934, and both a master’s degree (1938) and PhD (1941) from Columbia University. He was a lieutenant in the US Naval Reserve during World War II, serving in the Hawaiian Islands and on Guam.

Before coming to MIT in 1953, he was associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research, then in Riverdale, N.Y., and the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University. He also did consulting work for the Twentieth Century Fund and taught part-time at Columbia.

It was at the National Bureau of Economic Research, said MIT economist Dr. Paul A. Samuelson, an Institute professor and Nobel laureate, that Dr. Durand “pioneered the empirical study of how long-term bonds usually require a higher yield than short. Everyone understands that today, but he was the first to document it.”

Dr. Durand’s first appointment at MIT was as a research associate at the Sloan School of Management. He became an associate professor in 1955 and professor in 1958. He retired in 1973.

In addition to the application of statistical methods to financial problems, his fields of specialization included term structure of interest rates and statistics.

His research in finance included a sampling analysis of default experience for consumer installment loans, farm mortgage lending experience and factors affecting bank stock prices.

His work with statistical methodology and techniques involved the early use of punched card equipment for general statistical tabulation as well as for mathematical computation.

He was the author of a textbook, Stable Chaos, as well as numerous articles for professional journals. He was an associate editor of Financial Management for a number of years.

Some of Dr. Durand’s strongly-held views stirred lively debate with other members of the management faculty.

One of his former doctoral students, Don Lewin of Lewin Associates of York, Pa., a consulting firm, said that Dr. Durand “used his keen intellect and statistical knowledge and skills to develop many ideas” and to question whether statistical models matched reality. “Frequently, this did not endear him to those enamored of a model. Indeed, his doubting approach caused him to be often in the center of a controversy.”

In one such case involving the cost of capital, Dr. Durand wrote that two Sloan colleagues who disagreed with him “have cut out for themselves the extremely difficult, if not impossible, task of being pure and practical at the same time. Starting with a perfect market in a perfect world, they have taken a few steps in the direction of realism; but they have not made significant progress…”

Dr. Durand insisted, too, Dr. Lewin said, that the model builder rely heavily on his or her own judgment. In Stable Chaos, Dr. Durand wrote, “Systematic procedures and objective tests serve to strengthen the analyst’s judgment, not to replace it; they enable him to learn more quickly and more effectively from his own experience, and to sharpen his critical faculties.”

Dr. Durand also championed good writing and enlivened some of his own journal articles with intriguing figures of speech. In one, he wrote: “To suppose that any imaginative analyst or responsible financial manager, interested in a comprehensive view, would be content to base an important appraisal and the subsequent investment decision on just one of the many useful numbers available is on a par with supposing that a hungry gourmet at a smorgasbord would be content to make a whole meal of pickled herring…”

Another former student, Dr. Paul D. Berger, professor and department chair in Quantitative Methods & Marketing at the Boston University School of Management, recalls Dr. Durand as “a special teacher and mentor to many students. He had a ‘jolly’ manner about himself that set students at ease and allowed them to enjoy the material he imparted to them. He cared about people and was dedicated to academic integrity and excellence.”

Dr. Durand was a member of the American Economic Association, the Finance Association, the American Society for Quality Control, the American Statistical Association, the Econometric Society, the Biometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics and the International Association for Statistics in Physical Science.

He leaves his wife, Edith (Elbogen) Durand of Lexington, and a daughter, Marie Durand of Princeton, N.J.

There was no funeral service.

A memorial service will be held in the MIT Chapel on April 13 at 1 PM.

Contributions may be made to Deep Springs College in Dyer, Nev. 89010.

Source:  MIT News. Obituary for Prof. David Durand, February 28, 1996.

Image Source:David Durand portrait at the MIT Museum Website  .

Categories
Columbia Economists Pennsylvania

Columbia. Memorial minute for Professor Henry Seager, 1930

 

Earlier posts dealing with Columbia professor Henry Seager provided his syllabus on the trust problem and a link to his 22-page general lecture on economics from 1907/08. This post provides a report of his death in Kiev from bronchial pneumonia while traveling through the Soviet Union, details from an endowment for economic research in his will, and a memorial minute delivered by his colleague Wesley Clair Mitchell (that probably reveals at least as much about Mitchell as it does about Seager.

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HENRY SEAGER DIES ON TOUR OF RUSSIA
Columbia Spectator.  September 30, 1930.

Professor Henry Roger Seegar [sic], former professor at Columbia, […] died during the Summer vacation period.

Professor Seegar [sic], formerly of the Department of Political Economy, died in Kiev, Russia, in August. He was on tour with twenty-five other economists who were making a study of the Soviet Government’s five-year industrialization plan. After spending some time in France and Germany, the group left for Russia on July 7.

Professor Seegar [sic], was taken ill with bronchial pneumonia a month later. His condition grew worse and several days after the first attack, he died.

Member of Party

One of the leading economists in the country, Professor Seegar [sic],  had been asked to accompany the party which was under the leadership of one of his former pupils, David Ostrinsky. The purpose of the expedition was to study at first-hand the conditions in the Soviet Republic.

[…]

Source:  The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 1 (September 25, 1930) p. 8.

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ENDOWMENT GIVEN BY SEAGER’S WILL
Late Professor Leaves Fund for Advancement of Study and Research
Columbia Spectator. October 16, 1930.

A foundation to be known as the Schuyler Fiske Seager Endowment for the Advancement of Economic Study and Research “is to be established at Columbia from the residuary estate of the late Dr. Henry Rogers Seager, Professor of Political Economy here for twenty-five years, according to terms of his will published yesterday. Since the will has not as yet been probated, the total amount of the endowment cannot be ascertained yet, it was learned yesterday at the office of Frederick A. Goetze, Treasurer of the University, who was named executor of the estate.

The will falls in line with a statement recently made by Professor James C. Egbert of the School of Business, who declared in his report to Dr. Butler that an endowment for economic study would be highly desirable. Professor Egbert was of the opinion that such a sum could be used for the formation of a bureau of public utility economics.

Was Noted Economist

Dr. Seager who died this Summer while at the head of a group of economists studying conditions at Kiev, Russia, was known as an outstanding figure in academic economics. He was classed as an authority whose opinion frequently was sought in the practical determination of affairs.

Until the death of the first of seven relatives, the will stipulates, the foundation will not be started. These seven are to receive the residuary income during their lives and upon the death of the survivors the balance of the share of each in the principal is to be added to the fund.

The Trustees of the University have been named trustees of the residuary fund by Dr. Seager and they are to make the payments to the seven beneficiaries, who include his an uncle, an aunt, two nieces and two nephews. Dr. Seager wrote that he was establishing the foundation in memory of his father, Schuyler Fiske Seager, and his son who bears the same name. The will directs the trustees to expend the incom. of the fund each year “for such purposes as they shall deem most likely to contribute to the advancement of economic study and research during such year.”

Source:  The Columbia Spectator, Vol. 54, No. 16 (October 16, 1930) pp. 1,3.

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Memorial minute for Professor Seager

There being no reports from the Standing committees the Faculty proceeded to the election of a Chairman of the Committee on Instruction to succeed Professor Seager. The President [Nicholas Murray Butler] recognized Professor [Wesley Clair] Mitchell, who offered the following resolution:

The Faculty of Political Science records with deep sorrow the loss of one of its most distinguished and best-loved members, Professor Henry Rogers Seager, who died in Kiev, August 23rd, 1930.

Coming to Columbia from the University of Pennsylvania in his thirty-second year, Professor Seager gave his life to those high interests for which universities stand—the increase of knowledge, the training of future investigators, and the effort to raise the level of human life by taking thought. His contributions to economics were characterized by keen analytic insight and by wide acquaintance with actual conditions. No student of labor problems was held in higher esteem by the various interests concerned with that warmly controversial field. His sound judgment, his accurate knowledge, and is impartiality made him equally successful in dealing with the various forms assumed by business organizations and the efforts of government to prevent abuses of corporate powers. As a teacher Professor Seager won the affectionate gratitude of successive generations of students, whom he helped with their personal as well as their intellectual problems. As a colleague, he was generous and just, winning the confidence and the affection of his associates, young and old. As a citizen he was zealous and sensible: working ardently for causes which commanded his sympathy, yet shrewd in planning and efficient in execution—the type of “social reformer” who uses the wisdom of the serpent in the service of noble ideals.

It was characteristic of Professor Seager’s fresh mind and courage at an age when most men relax that he should become an active student of the extraordinary experiment in social reorganization now being conducted in Russia. Popular prejudice had never deterred him from taking a scientist’s interest in any social development and he hesitated as little at sixty as in his youth. Always eager for first-hand knowledge, and eager to share with others, he organized a group of economists to make a tour of inspection in Russia, with the expectation of returning presently for more through researches. It was characteristic also that he should overtax his physical strength in making the most of the opportunities for observation by his companions and himself. He died as he had lived, in the pursuit of knowledge and in the service of others.

The Resolution was adopted by a rising vote of the Faculty…

 

Source:  From the copy of the official minutes of the regular meeting of the Faculty of Political Science of Columbia University (October 10, 1930) in Columbia University Archives, Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science 1920-29, pp. 656-657.

Image Source: Henry R. Seager (1915) from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Categories
Curriculum Gender Radcliffe

Radcliffe. Economics Course Offerings, 1906-1910

 

Pre-Radliffe economics course offerings and the Radcliffe courses for  1893-94,  1894-1900 , 1900-1905 have been posted earlier.

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1905-1906
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professor ANDREW. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

17 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 20.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

62. Asst. Professor GAY.— The Economic History of the United States. Half-course. 3 hours a week, 2d half-year.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates. Total 3.

11. Asst. Professor GAY.— The Modern Economic History of Europe.  2 hours a week (and usually a third hour).

3 Graduates. Total 3.

14a1. Professor CARVER.— The Distribution of Wealth. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 8.

14b2. Professor CARVER.— Methods of Social Reform. — Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc. Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2nd half-year.

3 Graduates, 2 Undergraduates, 4 Special students. Total 9.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a.  Asst. Professor GAY. — The Expansion of English Trade in the Mediterranean, and the Levant Company.  1 hour a week.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

20.  Professors CARVER and RIPLEY. — Seminary in Economics. Thesis subjects: “The Basis of Taxation” and “The Industrial Education of the Fourteen Year Old Girl.”

1 Graduate (1st half-year only), 1 Special student. Total 2.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1905-06, pp. 44-45.

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1906-1907
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Asst. Professors ANDREW and Mr. DAGGETT. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Industrial Organization, Foreign Trade, Banking, Socialism, and Labor Questions. 3 hours a week.

25 Undergraduates. Total 25.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Mr. J. A. FIELD.— Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

3 Undergraduates. Total 3.

6a1. Asst. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year.

2 Graduates, 6 Undergraduates. Total 8.

6b2. Asst. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year [sic].

2 Graduates, 3 Undergraduates. Total 5.

20a. Asst. Professor GAY. — (a) Foreign Merchants in England in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries.  1 Graduate. (b) The Finances of English Boroughs in the Middle Ages.  1 Graduate.

Total 2.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1906-07, p. 46.

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1907-1908
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAGGETT. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Railroads, Trusts, Foreign Trade, Banking, and Public Finance.

19 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 21.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER.— Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

1 Graduate, 2 Undergraduates. Total 3.

6a1. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year.

2 Graduates, 6 Undergraduates. Total 8.

6b2. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2nd half-year.

3 Graduates, 11 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 15.

8b2.  Asst. Professor ANDREW. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2nd half-year.

2 Undergraduates. Total 2.

14b1.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates. Total 4.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

101. Professor GAY.— Mediaeval Economic History of Europe. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year.

3 Graduates. Total 3.

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Florentine Period of Italian Trade in Mediaeval England.  1 Graduate.
(b) The Finances of English Boroughs in the Middle Ages. 1 Graduate.
(c) Ad firmam manors in Domesday. 1 Graduate (2d half year).

1 hour a week each. Total 3.

20.  Professor RIPLEY. — Statistics. Theory, method, and practice. Half-course.

1 Graduate. Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1907-08, pp. 50-51.

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1908-1909
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. DAGGETT. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor, Railroads, Trusts, Foreign Trade, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

15 Undergraduates. Total 15.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER.— Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

10 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 11.

6a1. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year.

4 Graduates, 2 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 7.

6b2. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2nd half-year.

3 Graduates, 3 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 7.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course.2 hours a week, 1sthalf-year.

2 Graduates, 3 Undergraduates. Total 5.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2nd half-year.

2 Graduate, 3 Undergraduates. Total 5.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — (a) The Finances of English Boroughs in the Middle Ages. 1 Graduate (2nd half-year).
(b) Ad firmam manors in Domesday. 1 Graduate

1 hour a week each. Total 2.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1908-09, pp. 48-49.

 

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1909-1910
ECONOMICS.

Primarily for Undergraduates:—

1. Dr. HUSE. — Outlines of Economics. — Production, Distribution, Exchange, Socialism, Labor Problems, Trusts, Money, Banking, and Public Finance.

29 Undergraduates, 9 Special students, 1 Unclassified student. Total 39.

 

For Undergraduates and Graduates:—

3. Professor CARVER.— Principles of Sociology.—Theories of social progress. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor.

15 Undergraduates, 1 Special student. Total 16.

6a1. Professor GAY.— European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 1st half-year.

2 Undergraduates. Total 2

6b2. Professor GAY.— Economic and Financial History of the United States. Half-course. 2 hours a week, and a third hour at the pleasure of the instructor, 2nd half-year.

9 Undergraduates, 2 Special students. Total 11.

14a1. Professor CARVER. — The Distribution of Wealth.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 1st half-year.

1 Graduate, 5 Undergraduates, 3 Special students. Total 9.

14b2.  Professor CARVER. — Methods of Social Reform.—Socialism, Communism, the Single Tax, etc.  Half-course. 2 hours a week, 2nd half-year.

8 Undergraduates, 5 Special students. Total 13.

 

Primarily for Graduates:—

COURSE OF RESEARCH

20a. Professor GAY. — The Administration of the Factory Legislation of Massachusetts.

1 Graduate, Total 1.

 

Source:   Radcliffe College. Report of the President, 1909-10, pp. 47-48.

Image Source:   Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher. Radcliffe College, gymnasium & Fay House, Cambridge, Mass. Cambridge Cambridge. Massachusetts United States, 1904. [?] Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016809164/.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams for History and Literature of Economics. Schumpeter, 1942-48.

 

Joseph Schumpeter offered his graduate course “History and Literature of Economics since 1776” nine times during the period 1940-1949. The core readings were basically unchanged. In an earlier post I provided the reading list  for 1939-40 along with examinations from the 1939-40 and 1940-41 academic years. The reading list, complete with links to every item, for 1948-49 has also been transcribed and posted.

In this post you will find transcriptions of final examination questions for five of the remaining seven years in the series.

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Final Examination, 1941-42
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113b2

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Economists of the most varied types have claimed Adam Smith as patron-saint. How would you describe his general method as revealed in the five books of the Wealth of nations?
  2. If you felt called upon to defend Ricardo’s theory of value, how would you do it?
  3. Marx predicted the breakdown of the capitalist system. What was his main line of argument? Do you think that the course of events in the last decade has verified his theory?
  4. Explain the meaning and use of the theorem usually referred to as Say’s Law.
  5. Senior defined cost of production as the sum of labor and abstinence necessary for production. Do you think this satisfactory?
  6. Does Marshall’s work seem to you to close or to begin a period in the history of economic thought?

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 6, Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. June 1942.

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Final Examination, 1942-43
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113b2

Answer any four out of the following five questions.

  1. With the possible exception of Darwin’s Origin of Species, no scientific book has ever equaled the success of the Wealth of Nations. How do you account for this success?
  2. Discuss the Malthusian theory of population and describe its role in the classical system of economic theory.
  3. What do you think of the so-called Ricardian theory of rent?
  4. Criticize the following statement made by Adam Smith: “The price of monopoly is upon every occasion the highest which can be got. The natural price, or the price of free competition, on the contrary, is the lowest which can be taken…for any considerable time.”
  5. The founders of the marginal-utility school evidently believed that they had revolutionized economic theory. What warrant was there for this belief? What do you think their contribution consisted in?

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 7, Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. May 1943.

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Final Examination, 1943-44
[not (yet) located]

Course not offered 1944-45

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Final Examination, 1945-46
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113b

Two questions may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Explain the meaning and use of “Say’s Law.”
  2. Sketch the history and discuss the merits and demerits of the wage-fund theory.
  3. How did Ricardo explain “profits?”
  4. Choose any economist between 1776 and 1890 with whose work you are familiar, and describe the nature, method, and value of his contribution.
  5. Smith no doubt sponsored what Lord Keynes described as the Fallacy of Cheapness and Plenty. What do you think of the proposition involved?
  6. What relation do you conceive to exist between economists’ theoretical explanations of facts and (a) their political preferences in general and (b) the interests of the social classes to which they belong in particular?

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 11, Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, Government, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. May 1946.

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Final Examination, 1946-47
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113b

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Characterize briefly the nature, and the historical roots, of Adam Smith’s performance.
  2. What was the contribution of Ricardo to economics? And what of it may be said to have survived until today?
  3. State and criticize the various explanations that the English classics offered for what they took to be an indubitable tendency in the rate of profits to fall?
  4. Appraise the role, in the history of economic theory, of Malthus’s Law of Population?
  5. Discuss the validity and the importance of the marginal-utility theory of value.
  6. What do you mean by, and what do you think of, Institutionalism?

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 14, Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. May 1947.

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Final Examination, 1947-48
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 113b

One question may be omitted. Arrange your answers in the order of the questions.

  1. Discuss the nature and importance of Ricardo’s contributions to economic theory.
  2. Discuss the nature and importance of Senior’s contributions to economic theory.
  3. “Demand for commodities is not demand for labor.” Explain and criticize.
  4. State and analyze the Ricardian theory of Rent.
  5. State and analyze Say’s “Law of Markets.”
  6. Most English classics were votaries of Laissez-faire. What qualifications did they admit, particularly with reference to the labor contract?

 

Source:Harvard University Archives. Final Examinations, 1853-2001 (HUC 7000.28) Box 15, Papers Printed for Final Examinations—History, History of Religions, …, Economics, …, Military Science, Naval Science. May 1948.

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Final Examination, 1948-49
[not (yet) located]

_____________

Image Source: Selection from “Joseph A. Schumpeter and other at dinner table, ca. 1945”, Harvard University Archives HUGBS 276.90p (4).

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Exams on Adam Smith, J.S. Mill and Modern Writers. Taussig, 1915, 1916.

 

Frank W. Taussig only offered this intermediate level economic theory course twice. It was sandwiched in between his principles of economics course and the graduate economic theory course.

____________________

Course Description, 1917-18
[Note: the course was not offered, 1917-18]

7a 1hf. Economic Theory [No instructor listed]. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., at 2.30, and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11.

Course 7a undertakes a survey of economic thought from Adam Smith to the present time. Considerable parts of the Wealth of Nations and of J. S. Mill’s Principles of Political Economy will be read, as well as selected passages from the writings of contemporary economists. No theses or other set written work will be required. The course will be conducted chiefly by discussion. It forms an advantageous introduction to Economics 7b [“The Single Tax, Socialism, Anarchism” taught by Professor Thomas N. Carver].
Students who have attained in economics A a grade sufficient for distinction (A or B) are admitted without further inquiry. Others must secure the consent of the instructor.

 

Source:   Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. 14, No. 25 (May 18, 1917) p. 62.

____________________

Course Announcement, 1915-16

[Economics] 7a 1hf. Economic Theory

Adam Smith, J. S. Mill, modern writers. Half-course (first half-year) Tu., Th., at 2.30, and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig.

 

Source:Announcement of the Courses of Instruction Offered by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1915-16 (2ndedition). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. 12, No. 1, Part 13 (September 20, 1915), p. 101.

 

Course Enrollment, 1915-16

7a 1hf.Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory.

Total 27: 12 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 5 Juniors, 1 Sophomore, 4 Others.

 

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-1916, p. 60.

 

Final Examination 1915-16
ECONOMICS 7a1

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. “The wages of the inferior classes of workmen, I have endeavored to show in the first book, are everywhere necessarily regulated by two different circumstances: the demand for labor, and the ordinary or average price for provisions. The demand for labor, according as it happens to be either increasing, stationary, or declining, or to require an increasing, stationary or declining population, regulates the subsistence of the laborer and determines in what degree it shall be either liberal, moderate, or scanty.”
    Explain (1) in what way Adam Smith analyzed the “demand for labor”; (2) the nature of the reasoning which led to his conclusions regarding the influence on wages of increasing or declining national wealth.
  2. Explain in what way J. S. Mill analyzed the demand for labor, and wherein his analysis resembled Adam Smith’s, wherein it differed; and consider whether Mill’s conclusions regarding the influence of increasing national wealth on wages were similar to Adam Smith’s.
  3. Explain:
    1. The Physiocratic notion concerning productive labor;
    2. Adam Smith’s distinction between productive and unproductive labor;
    3. Adam Smith’s doctrine as to the way in which equal capitals employed in agriculture, in manufactures, in wholesale or retail trade, put in motion different quantities of productive labor.
      What reasoning led Adam Smith to arrange industries in the order of productiveness indicated in (c) and what have you to say in comment on it?
  4. Why, according to Adam Smith, is there rent from land used for growing grain? from land used for pasture? from mines?
    What would a writer like Mill say of these doctrines of Adam Smith’s?
  5. How does Mill (following Chalmers) explain the rapid recovery of countries devastated by war? Do you think the explanation sound?
  6. Wherein is Mill’s analysis of the causes of differences in wages similar to Adam Smith’s, wherein different?
  7. What, according to Mill, is the foundation of private property? What corollaries does he draw as regards inheritance and bequest? What is your instructor’s view on the justification of inheritance and bequest?
  8. Explain wherein there are or are not ” human costs ” in the savings of the rich, of the middle classes, and of the poor; and wherein there are or are not” economic costs ” in these several savings.
  9. Hobson says: (a) that” the traditional habits of ostentatious waste and conspicuous leisure . . . induce futile extravagance in expenditure”; (b) that” the very type of this expenditure is a display of fireworks; futility is of its essence”; (c) that “the glory of the successful sportsman is due to the fact that his deeds are futile. And this conspicuous futility is at the root of the matter. The fact that he can give time, energy, and money to sport testifies to his possession of independent means.” Consider what is meant by” futility ” in these passages; and give your own opinion on the significance of “sport.” [J.A. Hobson, Work and Wealth: A Human Valuation, 1914.]
  10. Explain the grounds on which Hobson finds little promise for the future in (a) consumers’ cooperation; (b) producers’ cooperation; (c) syndicalism.

 

Source: Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1916, pp. 55-56.

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Course Enrollment, 1916-17

7a 1hf.Professor Taussig.—Economic Theory.

Total 31: 2 Graduates, 13 Seniors, 12 Juniors, , 4 Others.

Source:  Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1916-1917, p. 56.

 

Final Examination 1916-17
ECONOMICS 7a1

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Summarize the order in which Adam Smith arranges the several topics taken up by him in Book I; and explain the circumstances in his life and in the composition of the Wealth of Nations which explain this order.
  2. Wherein is Adam Smith’s discussion of differences of profit similar to Mill’s, wherein dissimilar?
  3. Precisely in what ways was Adam Smith’s doctrine on the rent of mines similar to that of Mill, in what ways dissimilar?
  4. How, according to Adam Smith, does the issue of paper money drive specie out of circulation?
  5. Can J. S. Mill’s doctrines on wages be reconciled with those of his chapter on the future of the laboring classes?
  6. Explain briefly what Wells means by “administrative” socialism; by “constructive” socialism.
  7. “The principle which prompts to save is the desire of bettering our condition, a desire which, though generally calm and dispassionate, comes with us from the womb, and never leaves us till we go into the grave….An augmentation of fortune is the means by which the greater part of men propose and wish to better their condition.” What application does Adam Smith make of this principle as regards the effects of public and of private prodigality and misconduct?
  8. What is said of Adam Smith’s principle (as stated in the preceding question) by Wells? by your instructor?
  9. “The fact must be insisted upon that most of the work of the world and all the good work is done to-day for some other motive than gain; that profit-seeking not only is not the moving power of the world, but that it cannot be, that it runs counter to the doing of effectual work in every department of life.” [H. G. Wells, New Worlds for Old (1913), p. 94]
    “The prosperous merchant of to-day would find himself somewhere high in the hierarchy of the distributing service….And you would get a pretty good salary; modern Socialism does not propose to maintain any dead level to the detriment of able men. Modern socialism has cleared itself of that jealous hatred of prosperity that was once a part of class-war socialism.” [H. G. Wells, New Worlds for Old (1913), p. 304]
    Is there any inconsistency between these two passages?
  10. “Another delusion is that public property is more serviceable than private property, to the public. It is difficult for some people to see that all productive property is serving the public, and the more efficiently it is managed, and the more it is made to produce for the manager, the better it is for the public…The only question is, is it likely to be used as productively in the hands of the individual who has shown the efficiency to accumulate it, as it would be if it were taken out of his hands by the public?”
    1. What parts of this quotation would Wells accept or reject?
    2. What is your own opinion of the quotation, and of Wells’ view on the subject?

 

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers, 1917 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 59). Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1917, pp. 57-58.

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig from Harvard Class Album 1915.

 

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for historical sociology. Anderson, 1917-18

 

Exams for the first term of the two term sequence of sociology (“Analytical Sociology) were transcribed for the previous post. 

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Course Description 1916-17

[Economics] 18b 2hf. Historical Sociology. Half-course (second half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 2.30. Asst. Professor Anderson.

            The course will involve a study of the literature of social origins and of later stages of social evolution, with particular emphasis on those parts of social history which contribute most to the explanation of the ethnic composition, institutions, and culture of contemporary society. Instruction will be by discussion, reports, and lectures.

Source:   Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. 14, No. 25 (May 18, 1917) p. 65.

 ________________

Course Enrollment, 1916-17

[Economics] 18b 2hf. Assistant Professor Anderson —Historical Sociology.

Total 9: 6 Graduates, 1 Junior, 2 Others.

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1916-17, p. 57.

 

Final Examination, 1916-17
ECONOMICS 18b2

  1. Make a critical bibliography for the special field you studied.
  2. What are the main types of theory concerning the origins of religion?
  3. Summarize Giddings’ “philosophy of history,” and show its relation to the views of Hegel, Comte, and Spencer.
  4. What problems are involved in the relation of the clan to the horde?
  5. Summarize the description of Australian marriage given by Spencer and Gillan, and indicate its bearing on the theory of primitive promiscuity.
  6. What are the main steps in the evolution of law?
  7. What is John Dewey’s view of the mind of the savage? What criticisms does Dewey make of Spencer?
  8. Give an account of the Australian initiation ceremony. What are its social functions? What agencies perform those functions in an American village?

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1917 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 59). Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1917,p. 65.

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 Course Enrollment, 1917-18

[Economics] 18b 2hf. Assistant Professor Anderson —Historical Sociology.

Total 3: 3 Juniors.

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1917-18, p. 54.

 

Final Examination, 1917-18
ECONOMICS 18b2

  1. Discuss the relation of the clan and the horde.
  2. Trace the main steps in the evolution of law.
  3. Discuss Spencer’s view of the mind of primitive man.
  4. What reading did you do on the special topic assigned you? Give critical estimates of the different books and articles.
  5. What evidences can be found for a metronymic system preceding the patronymic system among the Jews and the peoples of Western Europe?
  6. What are the main differences in social organization of the metronymic type and the patronymic type?
  7. Describe the Australian initiation ceremony. How many of our modern educational problems find solution in the educational system of the Australians?
  8. Outline the main stages of social evolution as developed by Giddings.

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1917 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 60). Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1918, p. 51.

Image Source:  “Alkira-Kiuma Ceremony or the Tossing Ceremony of the Aranda Tribe (1904). At age twelve, the boy’s first initiation ceremony, tossed and caught by various male relatives.” From the webpage:  Australian Aboriginal – Initiation and Mourning Rites of Passage.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Final exams for analytical sociology. Anderson, 1916-18

 

This post, besides providing information for a course in the Harvard economics curriculum during the early 20th century, also serves as a gentle reminder just how long academic sociology in the United States was treated as a subfield within the discipline of economics. In 1914-15, Assistant professor Benjamin M. Anderson, Jr. taught the sociology course open to both undergraduate and graduate students normally taught by Thomas Nixon Carver at Harvard (year-end final examination for Economics 8). Other courses taught by Anderson included “Money, Banking and Commercial Crises” and “Single Tax, Socialism, and Anarchism“. 

Exams for the companion course, “Historical Sociology” have been transcribed and can be found in the following post. Incidentally, both of Anderson’s sociology courses were listed as “primarily for graduates” whereas Carver’s Principles of Sociology course (Economics 8) was listed for both undergraduates and graduates.

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Course Description 1916-17

[Economics] 18a 1hf. Analytical Sociology. Half-course (first half-year). Tu., Th., and (at the pleasure of the instructor) Sat., at 2.30. Asst. Professor Anderson.

            The centre of this course will be in the problems of social psychology: the raw stuff of human nature, and its social transformations; imitation, suggestion and mob-mind; the individual and the social mind; social control and the theory of social forces; the relation of intellectual and emotional factors in social life. These problems will be studied in their relations to the whole field of social theory, which will be considered in outline, with some emphasis on the influence of physiographic factors and of heredity. Leading contemporary writers will be studied, and some attention will be given to the history of social theory. Instruction will be by lectures, discussion, and reports.

Source:   Division of History, Government, and Economics 1917-18. Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. 14, No. 25 (May 18, 1917), p. 65.

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Course Enrollment, 1915-16

[Economics] 18a 2hf. Assistant Professor Anderson — Analytical Sociology.

Total 18: 16 Graduates, 2 Seniors.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1915-16, p. 60.

 

Final Examination, 1915-16
ECONOMICS 18a2

  1. What is the bearing of the Mendelian theory on social problems?
  2. What difference does it make for sociology whether or not we accept the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired characters? To what extent, if at all, and in what connections, does Giddings make use of this doctrine? How far, if at all, are his conclusions incompatible with Weismann’s doctrine?
  3. Explain what is meant by the “social mind.” By “social values.”
  4. Summarize the theory of McGee as to the origin of agriculture.
  5. Compare the views of Boas and W. B. Smith as to the comparative rôles of race and environment in the case of the American negro. What is your own view?
  6. What did you get from your reading of Tarde? Of Le Bon? of Ross’ Social Psychology? Let your summaries be brief, but not Vague! Differentiate the books.
  7. Summarize Giddings’ chapter on Demogenic Association.
  8. Illustrate the social transformation of the raw stuff of human nature by the case of either the instinct of workmanship, the sex instinct, or the instinct of flight and hiding.
  9. What reading have you done for this course?

Source: Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1916, pp. 62-3.

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Course Enrollment, 1916-17

[Economics] 18a 1hf. Assistant Professor Anderson — Analytical Sociology.

Total 7: 3 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1916-17, p. 57.

 

Final Examination, 1916-17
ECONOMICS 18a1

  1. Contrast the social psychologies of Tarde and Cooley.
  2. Contrast the social psychologies of Le Bon and Cooley.

Answer either 1 or 2, but not both.

  1. State, in a series of propositions, your conclusions as to the influence of the physical environment on social evolution.
  2. What sociological consequences flow from an acceptance of the doctrine of the non-inheritance of acquired characters?
  3. Contrast the views of Giddings and the lecturer as to the nature of sociology.
  4. State and discuss Boas’ position as to the race factor in the negro problem.
  5. Indicate what you have read for this course.
  6. Choose any topic within the scope of this course, and write in your own way about it. (Allow fifty minutes for this.)

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1917 (HUC 7000.28, vol. 59). Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…, Fine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1917, p. 64.

____________________

 Course Enrollment, 1917-18

[Economics] 18a 1hf. Assistant Professor Anderson —Analytical Sociology.

Total 4: 2 Graduates, 1 Senior, 1 Junior.

Source:Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College 1917-18, p. 54.

 

Final Examination, 1917-18
ECONOMICS 18a1

  1. Explain the contract theory of society. What writers have developed this theory? What doctrines are commonly associated with the contract theory? Criticise this group of ideas.
  2. State and criticize Professor Carver’s theory of progress.
  3. State and criticize the hedonistic theory of progress.
  4. Summarize the discussion in Thomas of the influence of the physiographic environment.
  5. Summarize your reading in Sumner’s Folkways.
  6. Take any topic within the scope of this course, and write in your own way about it. (Allow an hour for this.)

Source:  Harvard University Archives. Examination Papers 1917(HUC 7000.28, vol. 60). Papers Set for Final Examinations on History, History of Religions,…, Economics,…,F ine Arts, Music in Harvard College. June, 1918, p. 51.

Image Source: Benjamin M. Anderson, Jr. in Harvard Class Album 1915.

 

Categories
Economists Harvard Radcliffe Swarthmore

Harvard. Wolfgang Stolper describes his training in letter to Hobart College, 1941

 

This post provides Wolfgang Stolper‘s own description of his academic training, teaching and research interests as of early 1941 in a letter to the President of Hobart College regarding his application for an assistant professorship. Stolper’s Harvard coursework for 1934-37 was transcribed for an earlier post. He was on the job market for the 1941-42 academic year after having taught a wide range of courses at Harvard since completing his Ph.D. in 1938. 

Hobart’s offer ended up being only 73% of the offer he was to receive from  Swarthmore (and which he accepted). From the April 29, 1941 letter from President’s office at Swarthmore:  “I realize that the salary which we are offering you [$3300] is considerably under what you have been receiving this year. It is, however, the equivalent of your combined Harvard and Radcliffe salaries for the past two years…” A follow-up letter from the President of Swarthmore College dated May 7, 1941 confirmed the approval of Stolper’s appointment as Assistant Professor of Economics at Swarthmore for 1941-42 at a salary of $3300 ($900 higher than the Hobart offer).

Also of some interest is the rather casual/modest mention of what ultimately was to become Wolfgang Stolper’s greatest hit: “Right now I am finishing another article on Protection and Real Wages.”

________________

Carbon copy of Wolfgang Stolper’s letter
to President of Hobart College

Wolfgang F. Stolper

19 Ware Street
March 18, 1941

Mr. Brooks Otis
Hobart College
Geneva, N.Y.

 

Dear Mr. Otis,

I am writing this letter to you about my background and training, as you suggested at our meeting on March 17. If you think it desirable either you or I can ask the Harvard appointment office to send you all the documents concerning me.

First about my background. I was born in Vienna in May 1912. There I went to elementary school and through the first three years of high school. We then moved to Berlin where I finished high school (humanistisches Gymnasium) in 1930, and where I also studied law for three semesters. I then went to Bonn, where I studied law and economics in about the same proportions. My economics teachers were Professors Spiethoff, who is now retired, H. v. Beckerath, who is now at Chapel Hill, and Schumpeter who is now in Harvard. From Bonn I went to to Zürich where I wrote a thesis under Professor Eugen Grossmann on the reasons, economic and otherwise, which lead the various nations to defend different economic policies during the World Economic Conference in London in 1933.

In August 1934 I came to Harvard as a Holtzer fellow, and I held a University fellowship during the next year 1935/36. Since 1936 I have been teaching. I took somewhat more than the required eight courses, my main interests within the field of economics being: Theory, Money and Banking, Business Cycles, International Economic Relations, and Building.

In May, 1935 I took my M.A., and in May, 1938 I got my Ph.D.. My thesis was on the British housing boom from 1931-36, and its connection with monetary policy in the widest sense.

My teaching experience has been quite extensive, more so, I believe, than that of most of my colleagues. Besides the usual complement of tutees and the principles course I have been giving half of the lectures in the course on International Economic Relations [Econ 43a,  Report of the President of Harvard College 1938-39, p. 98;  Report of the President of Harvard College 1939-40, p. 99;  Report of the President of Harvard College 1940-41, p. 58,], and I am this year assisting Professors Haberler and Hansen in the course on Business Cycles [Econ 45a, Report of the President of Harvard College 1940-41, p. 58]. In Radcliffe College I am also giving a section of the course on principles, half of the course on International Economic Relations, and also half of the course on Business Cycles [Radcliffe College. Courses of Instruction 1940-41, pp. 43, 45.]. This year I was also asked to give a University Extension course on International Economic Relations [Report of the President of Harvard College 1940-41, p. 347].

The list of my publications does not look too impressive. I have published a number of short book reviews in the American Economic Review, a short theoretical article in the Quarterly Journal. My thesis which I have revised and brought up to date will be published by the Harvard University Press. I also just signed a contract with Blakiston Co. to write a text on International Trade together with my friend, Dr. H.K. Heuser who is Professor at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Right now I am finishing another article on Protection and Real Wages.

Perhaps I should add that I am married and have a ten-year old son.

I hope that this information is what you wanted. My teachers and senior colleagues will of course be glad to give you any information about me which you might want. I need hardly add that I am very interested in the position, and that I, therefore, hope very much to hear from you again in the not too distant future.

Yours very sincerely,

________________

Job Offer to Wolfgang Stolper from Hobart College

HOBART COLLEGE
Geneva, New York

April 29, 1941

The President

 

Mr. Wolfgang F. Stolper
19 Ware Street
Cambridge, Massachusetts

 

Dear Mr. Stolper:

I regret to think that more than a month has passed since I talked with you at Cambridge. Doubtless you have gathered that we had entirely lost interest in you in the interim. That is, however, by no means the case. Since we have to appoint three men at this time, a sociologist, a political scientist and an economist we have, necessarily, had to proceed rather slowly. Our major preoccupation so far has not been Economics simply because we have had to concentrate on one thing at a time. We have now, however, reached a point where the Economics appointment is directly concerning us.

I am writing this letter to you to find out more definitely what your expectations would be. The plain fact is that we find that we cannot offer the salary that we should like to. The best thing that we can do for next year in Economics is an Assistant Professorship at twenty-four hundred dollars ($2400.00). I might also add, as I think I said to you personally, that anyone appointed to this position would have considerable freedom in the choice of courses and in the teaching, and a considerable opportunity to influence the operation and planning of the whole Social Science curriculum here in cooperation with his colleagues in Sociology and Political Science,–that is, of course, if he cared to do so.

If it is not too much trouble, would you drop me a line stating whether you would still be interested in the job as outlined above?

Very truly yours,
[signed]
Brooks Otis

BO/bg

________________

Carbon copy of Stolper letter
declining Hobart offer

Wolfgang F. Stolper

19 Ware Street
May 2, 1941

Mr. Brooks Otis
Hobart College
Geneva, N.Y.

 

Dear Mr. Otis,

Thank you very much for your letter of April 29. I regret very much that I have to reject your offer to come to Hobart next year since I have just accepted a position as Assistant Professor at Swarthmore College.

I was very glad to have had a chance of meeting you, and I hope very much that this letter will not be the end of our relationship.

Very truly yours,

 

Source:Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Wolfgang F. Stolper Papers, Box 23, Folder “[illegibly marked]”

Image Source: Wolfgang F. Stolper from  John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (Fellow, 1947).