Category: Economists

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Stanford. Kenneth Arrow’s mini-cv at age thirty. 1951

This post repackages the information contained in the mini-c.v. for the Social Science Research Council fellow of 1951-52, Kenneth Arrow, then a thirty year old freshly minted Columbia economics Ph.D. and associate professor of economics at Stanford. Fellows were asked to limit their cited publications to ten. It is interesting to note that Arrow could have easily added three other items but didn’t. It is also interesting to see that he gave a citation to the French translation of a chapter he published in English. Does any one have a clue to why Arrow might have made that choice? 

The data below come from the publication Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951  that is simply chock-full of mid-career biographical information for other economists as well

______________________

ARROW, KENNETH (JOSEPH)
Research Training Fellow 1951-52

[Personal:]

b. New York, N. Y. August 23, 1921.
m. Selma Schweitzer 1947.

[Education:]

B.S. 1940, City College, New York;
M.A. in mathematics 1941, Ph.D. 1951, Columbia, economics.

[Employment:]

Actuarial clerk 1941, Guardian Life Insurance Company;

USAAF 1942-46, captain;

Instructor in economics, summer 1946, City College, New York;

Research associate 1947-49, Cowles Commission for Research in Economics;

Assistant professor of economics 1948-49, University of Chicago;

Acting assistant professor 1949, associate professor of economics and statistics 1950—, Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.

Home: 4 Aliso Way, Menlo Park, Calif.

Consultant:  Bureau of the Budget 1948;
Rand Corporation 1948-51.

Publications:

“On the Use of Winds in Flight Planning,” J. Meteorology 1949; in Econometrica: (with D. Blackwell and M. A. Girshick) “Bayes and Minimax Solutions of Sequential Decision Problems” 1949; “Homogeneous Functions in Mathematical Economics: Comment” 1950. “A Difficulty in the Concept of Social Welfare,” J. Polit. Econ. 1950; “L’Utilisation des Modèles Mathématiques dans les Sciences Sociales” in Les “Sciences Politiques” aux États-Unis (ed. D. Lerner and H. A. Lasswell) 1951 [Original english version (?) as Chapter 8 in “Mathematical Models in the Social Sciences” in Daniel Lerner and Harold D. Lasswell (eds.), The Policy Sciences: Recent Developments in Scope and Method (Stanford University Press, 1951)]; “Alternative Proof of the Substitution Theorem for the Leontief Model in the General Case” in Activity Analysis of Production and Allocation (ed. T. C. Koopmans) 1951; Social Choice and Individual Values 1951.

Fellowship program: study in Western Europe of statistical problems arising in economic planning.

Current research: welfare economics; foundation of statistical inference; index number theory; statistical problems in “model building”; theory of economic behavior under conditions of uncertainty.

Source: Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951. pp. 11-12.

Image Source: From the book ad placed by the bookstore La Memoire du Droit (Paris) at the AbeBooks website. As of this posting it is available for US$ 50.30 + shipping cost. Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is here solely for educational and research purposes and provides such information solely to satisfy the pecuniary curiosity of its visitors.

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Chicago Economists Gender Labor Vassar Wellesley

Chicago. Economics Ph.D. Alumna Emily Clark Brown, 1927

 

EMILY CLARK BROWN

1895. Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1917. B.A. Carleton College.

1917-19. High school teacher in Delavan, Minnesota.

1919-20. Graduate study in social work at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy.

1920-25. Research assistant with the United Typothetae of America.

1923. M.A. University of Chicago.

1927. Ph.D. University of Chicago.

1927-28. Research Fellow of the Social Science Research Council. Study in England and in New York, Boston, and Baltimore of industrial relations in book and job printing.

1928-29. Industrial economist. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau.

1929-32. Assistant professor, Wellesley College.

1932-33. Assistant Professor. Vassar College.

1933-39. Associate Professor. Vassar College.

1936. Trip to the Soviet Union as a tourist.

1937, 1938. Teacher at the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers.

1938. Researcher. National Resources Committee.

1939-1961. Professor. Vassar College.

1942. Teacher at the Hudson Shore Labor School (summer).

1942-44. Operating analyst. National Labor Relations Board.

1944-45. Public panel member. National War Labor Board.

1946. Member of the panel of arbitrators, American Arbitration Association.

1950-54. Chairman of the Economics Department at Vassar.

1955. Vassar faculty fellowship. November-December. 30 day visit to Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, and Kharkov to study the Soviet labor market. Five factory tours.

1959. Social Science Research Council grant. January-February. Research visit to Soviet Union. 10 weeks, 17 factory trips. Tours of Alma Ata, Tashkent, Samarkand, Rostov, and Tbilisi.

1961. Retired from Vassar College.

1962. Awarded grant from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Social Science Research Council to finance a trip to the Soviet Union to study labor relations. [newspaper account that she was a resident of Minneapolis following retirement from Vassar]

1967-1976. Volunteer librarian for the Twin Cities Opportunities Industrialization Center.

1980. Died October 13 in Minneapolis.

Publications:

Joint Industrial Control in the Book and Job Printing Industry, Bureau of Labor Statistics Bul. 481, 1928.

Book and Job Printing in Chicago, 1931. (Ph.D. Dissertation 1927)

“The New Collective Bargaining in Mass Production,” J. Polit. Econ., 1939.

“The Employer Unit in NLRB Decisions,” J. Polit. Econ., 1942.

“Book and Job Printing” in How Collective Bargaining Works (ed. H. A. Millis), 1942.

“Free Collective Bargaining or Government Intervention?” Harv. Bus. Rev.,1947.

“Union Security” in N.Y.U. 2nd Ann. Conf. on Labor, 1949.

(with H. A. Millis) From the Wagner Act to Taft-Hartley, 1950.

National Labor Policy: Taft-Hartley after Three Years and the Next Steps, 1950.

“The Soviet Labor Market,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (January 1957).

“Labor Relations in Soviet Factories” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (January 1958)

“The Local Union in Soviet Industry,” Industrial and Labor Relations Review (January 1960).

“The Current Status of the Soviet Worker: Not Good—But Better,” Problems of Communism, 1960.

Soviet Trade Unions and Labor Relations. (Harvard University Press, 1966).

[Some other titles can be found in: A Bibliography of Female Economic Thought to 1940 By Kirsten Kara Madden, Janet A. Seiz, Michèle A. Pujol p. 80.]

Sources: Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951. p. 49.

Vassar Miscellany News, Volume XXXXV, Number 23 (26 April 1961), p. 3.

Image Source: Vassar College, The Vassarion 1940, p. 36

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Brookings Chicago Cornell Dartmouth Economists Harvard Uncategorized Virginia

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Melvin Gardner de Chazeau. 1930

Melvin Gardner de Chazeau’s graduate school record at Harvard (Economics Ph.D. 1930) is documented fully in this post that also includes a fairly complete c.v. for him (visitors can hunt down his many book reviews at jstor.org). 

Research Tip: There are 2.3 cubic feet of personal papers of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library.

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

[Note: Boldface used to indicate printed text of the application; italics used to indicate the handwritten entries]

I. Full Name, with date and place of birth.

Melvin Gardner de Chazeau. Olympia, Wash.; March 20, 1900.

II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)

University of Washington 1921-25.
Teaching Fellow (Econ.) 1924-25.
Harvard University 1925-6. Instructor & Tutor (Econ. A) 1926-27.

III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)

A.B. U. of Washington. Dec. 1924.
M.A. U. of Washington. Aug. 1925.
A.M. Harvard. 1927.

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your undergraduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc.)

Econ.: Courses in Standards of Living, History and Theory of Labor in U.S. and Europe, Marketing and Advertising, History of Econ. Thought, Econ. Theory. (Taught General Econ.)
Gov.: General course, American Gov’t., Readings in Political thought.
Phil.: Hist. of Phil., Social Ethics & Ethical Theory, Logic, Phil. of Religion, Modern Schools.
Languages: Spanish, French & Latin (High School).

V. Department of Study. (Do you propose to offer yourself for the Ph.D., “History,” in “Economics,” or in “Political Science”?)

Economics.

VI. Choice of Subjects for the General Examination. (State briefly the nature of your preparation in each subject, as by Harvard courses, courses taken elsewhere, private reading, teaching the subject, etc., etc.)

  1. Econ. Theory and its History. (Special emphasis since 1776).
    Econ. 11; Econ. 15 (audit); Econ. 33
    Grad. Seminars (U. of W.) in Price Determination, Theory, International Finance.
  2. Econ. History since 1750.
    Econ. 2.
  3. Statistics.
    Econ. 41; Econ. 1a.
  4. Money and Banking.
    Econ. 38. Also matter connected with Econ. 33.
  5. Ethics.
    Two undergraduate courses: Social Ethics and Ethical Theory (U. of W.) Extensive undergraduate and one year’s graduate work in Phil. Private reading.
  6. Regulation of Public Utilities.
    Grad. Seminar (U. of W.) in Rate Regulation.
    Econ. 36 (audit).

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Regulation of Public Utilities.

VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)

Details of subject not yet determined upon. F. W. Taussig.
[Insert written in pencil:] Some Chapters in the Regulation of the Electric Industry in Massachusetts

IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)

Closing weeks of first, or first few wseeks of second, semester
[Insert written in pencil:] 1926-27. February 21, 1927.

X. Remarks

[Left blank]

Signature of a member of the Division certifying approval of the above outline of subjects.

[signed] F. W. Taussig

*   *   *   [Last page of application] *   *   *

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

Approved: November 12, 1926

Ability to use French certified by Professor A. E. Monroe, October 21, 1926.

Ability to use German certified by Professor A. E. Monroe, October 21, 1926

Date of general examination February 21, 1927

Thesis received April 1, 1930

Read by [left blank]

Approved [left blank]

Date of special examination [left blank]

Recommended for the Doctorate [left blank]

Degree conferred  [left blank]

Remarks.  [left blank]

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
Oct. 21, 1926

Mr. M. G. De Chazeau has this day passed a satisfactory examination in the reading of French and German, as required of candidates for the doctor’s degree.

[signed]
A.E. Monroe

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Passed General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
February 24, 1927

To the Division of History,
Government, and Economics,

As chairman of the committee appointed to conduct the general examination in economics of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau, I have to report that the examination was accepted by the committee [Taussig, Crum, Young, Cole, Demos (Ethics)] as satisfactory. It was not as high in quality as the previous record of the candidate had led the committee to expect, and a more than respectable showing at the time of the candidate’s special examination is desirable. The committee had no doubt, however, about accepting the present examination as satisfactory.

Very truly yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Passed Special Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Department of Economics

Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 20, 1930

Dear Professor Carver,

As chairman of the committee appointed to conduct the special examination in Economics of Mr. M. G. de Chazeau, I beg to report that Mr. De Chazeau passed the examination to the entire satisfaction of the committee.

Very sincerely yours,
[signed]
F. W. Taussig

Professor T. N. Carver
772 Widener Library
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 10.

__________________________

THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Melvin Gardner de Chazeau

Years: 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30.

[Previous] Degrees received.

A.B. Univ. of Washington, 1924,
A.M. Univ. of Washington, 1925.

First Registration: 24 September 1925

1925-26

Grades
First Year Course

Half-Course

Economics 1a1

A-

Economics 2

A

Economics 11

A

Economics 38

A

Economics 412

A+
Division: History, Government, & Economics
Scholarship, Fellowship: Ralph Sanger Scholar
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degrees received: A.B. Univ. of Washington 1924, A.M. ibid. 1925

 

1926-27

Grades
Second Year Course

Half-Course

Economics 20 (F.W.T.) (2d. hf.)

A

Economics 331

A

Economics 392

A
Summer School 1927

Public Utilities S36 (GBA)

A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: $700 in Economics. Tutor in Division of History, Government, and Economics, $900
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: A.M.
Accepted for Ph.D., except for French (H.S. only) and German . Oct-16, 1925.

 

1927-28

Grades
Third Year Course

Half-Course

Economics 20

 A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: in Economics. Tutor in the Div. of H. G. + E. $2500
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: 

 

1929-30

Fourth Year

Economics 20 (F.W.T.) 1 co.

 A

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: in Economics. Tutor Hist, G. + Econ  $2700
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year:  Ph.D.
Home Address: Nov. 1930. 27 University Circle, University, Virginia.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Cooke—Dyson (UAV 161.2722.5). Box 4, Record Card of Melvin Gardner de Chazeau [formerly, De Shazo].

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1925-26

Economics 1a. Principles of Economics. Prof. Taussig and other members of the department for lectures.

Economics 2. Economic History from the Industrial Revolution. Professor Gay.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 38. Principles of Money and Banking. Professor Young.

Economics 412. Statistical Theory and Analysis. Asst. Professor Crum.

1926-27

Economics 20. Research in Economics (with Professor Frank William Taussig) (2d. hf.)

Economics 331. International Trade. Professor Taussig.

Economics 392. International Finance. Associate Professor Williams.

1927 (Summer)

S36 (GBA). Public Utilities. Professor Philip Cabot.

1927-28

Economics 20. Research in Economics.

1929-30

Economics 20. Research in Economics (with Frank William Taussig) 1 co.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1925-26, 1926-27, 1927-28, 1929-30.

__________________________

Melvin Gardner
de Chazeau
Timeline of his life and career

1900. Born March 20 in Olympia, Washington.

1924. B.A. University of Washington. Summa cum laude. Phi Beta Kappa. [Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug 1946]

1925. M.A. University of Washington.

1927. M.A. in economics, Harvard University.

1930. Ph.D. in economics, Harvard.

1929. Married Eunice Storey (daughter Marian, born 1937).

1930-46. University of Virginia. Assistant professor 1930, associate professor 1931, professor, 1946.

1932-33. Study in England, Scotland, and South Wales of the rationalization of electricity supply in Great Britain as research fellow, Social Science Research Council.

1940-41. National Defense Advisory Commission and Office of Production Management. Steel expert.

1941-42. Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply. Consultant to Director.

1942. Production Board, Bureau of Planning and Statistics, Materials Division. Director.

1943-45. War Production Board, Program Bureau, Non-military Division. Director.

1945-47. Committee for Economic Development. Research staff.

1946-48. University of Chicago. School of Business. Professor of business economics and marketing.

1949-50. Brookings Institution. economic research.

1948-1967. Cornell University. School of Business and Public Administration. Founding member and Professor of economics and business policy. Retired 1967.

1954-55. Fulbright lecturer at the Copenhagen Graduate School of Business, Denmark.

Represented Cornell at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) for more than a decade (1950s)

1967-70. Taught at Dartmouth College and Cornell.

1985. Died November 28 in Arlington, Virginia.

Consultant (various dates): Treasury Department, Department of Justice, War Production Board, Housing Administration, Council of Economic Advisers (1953), Department of Commerce, Economic Cooperation Administration.

Selected Publications:

1934. “The Rationalization of Electricity Supply in Great Britain,”  J. Land & Pub. Util. Econ. (Part I. August; Part II, November).

1937. (with C. R. Daugherty and S. S. Stratton) Economics of the Iron and Steel Industry.

1937. “The Nature of the Rate Base in the Regulation of Public Utilities,” Quarterly J. Econ.

1938. “Public Policy and Discriminatory Prices of Steel : A Reply to Prof. Fetter,”  J. Polit. Econ.

1938. “Revision of Railroad Rate Structures,” Southern Econ. J.

1939. (with S. S. Stratton) Price Research in the Steel and Petroleum Industries.

1941. “Electric Power as a Regional Problem,” Southern Econ. J.

1945. “Employment Policy and Organization of Industry after the War,” Am. Econ. Rev.

1946. (with others) Jobs and Markets.

1954. (editor). Regularization of Business Investment.

1956. “Some Gains from Unit Size in Industry,” Social Science.

1973. (with Alfred E. Kahn). Integration and Competition in the Petroleum Industry.

Source: Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951. pp. 87-88. Also see the Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement.

Image Source: Cornell University Library. Portrait credited to Otis A. Arnst appeared in The Ithaca Journal (29 January 1952; 8 December 1953).

Categories
Economists Gender Minnesota Smith

Minnesota. Economics Ph.D. Alumna. Mildred L. Hartsough, 1924

Today we meet the 1924 Ph.D. economic historian Mildred L. Hartsough from the University of Minnesota. She entered government service as an economic analyst during the New Deal. Links to some of her publications are provided below. She died from stomach cancer at age 41. Her husband whom she married in 1937 just two years before her death, David Novick,  was a N.Y.U. trained economist and later worked forty years at the RAND Corporation [e.g. his paper on his role in the birth of the Planning Programming Budgeting System, “Beginning of Military Cost Analysis 1950-1961” (March 1988)].

________________________

Fun fact: Mildred L. Hartsough was listed in her college yearbook (University of Minnesota, class of 1919) as having been a member of the Equal Suffrage Club in her junior year.

Research tip: Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951 is a goldmine of biographical and career data for many economists who were supported by the SSRC in the first half of the twentieth century.

________________________

Hartsough, Mildred Lucile

1898. Born March 21 in Sumner, Iowa.

1919. B.A. University of Minnesota.

1921. M.A. University of Minnesota.

1924. Ph.D. University of Minnesota, economic history. Advisor: Norman Scott Brien Gras (Harvard Ph.D.)

1925-27. Instructor in economics and sociology. Smith College.

1927-28. Research fellow, Social Science Research Council.

Fellowship program: study of economic concentration in western Germany and the Rhineland.

1928-29. Assistant professor. Smith College.

1929-32. Associate in research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard.

1934-35. Staff member, Committee on Government Statistics and Information Services.

1935-36. Housing Division, Public Works Administration.

1936-37. National Resources Committee.

1937. Married David Novick (b. 19 Sep 1906 in Easton, PA; d. 5 Nov 1991 in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania)

1937-39. Consumer purchases study, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Staff for the Study of Consumer Purchases: Urban Series

Faith M. Williams. Chief, Cost of Living Division
A. D. H. Kaplan. Director
Bernard Barton. Associate Director for Tabulation
J. M. Hadley. Associate Director, Collection and Field Tabulations
A. C. Rosander. Statistician, Tabular Analysis
Mildred Parten. Associate Director, Sampling and Income Analysis
Mildred Hartsough. Analyst, Expenditure Analysis
Ruth W. Ayres. Field Supervisor for New York City

1939. Assistant director of editorial division, Children’s Bureau.

1939. Died from stomach cancer, December 12 in Arlington, Virginia.

________________________

Publications:

Also see: A Bibliography of Female Economic Thought to 1940 By Kirsten Kara Madden, Janet A. Seiz, Michèle A. Pujol p. 217.

The Twin Cities as a Metropolitan Market: A Regional Study of the Economic Development of Minneapolis and St. Paul. The University of Minnesota, Studies in the Social Sciences, no. 18, 1925.

 “Transportation as a Factor in the Development of the Twin Cities.” Minnesota History, vol. 7, no. 3, 1926, pp. 218–32.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20160604

“The Concept of Regionalism as Applied to Western Germany,” Proceed. Am. Sociol. Soc. 1929.

Journal of Economic and Business History (Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University), 1929-30. This journal was founded by her thesis advisor, N.S.B. Gras.

“Business Leaders in Cologne in the Nineteenth Century” Feb. 1930, v. 2: 332-52.

 “The Rise and Fall of the Stinnes Combine” Feb. 1931, v. 3, no. 2: 272-295.

“Cologne, the Metropolis of Western Germany” August 1931. Vol. 3: 574-601.

“Treatise on Bookkeeping under the Fuggers” May 1932, vol 4: 539-51.

From Canoe to Steel Barge on the Upper Mississippi 1934; Published in Minneapolis for the Upper Mississippi waterway association by the University of Minnesota Press.

Member of technical staff (F. Lorimer, director), The Problems of a Changing Population 1938.

Associate director (A. D. H. Kaplan, director), Urban Study of Consumer Incomes and Expenditures, Bur. Lab. Statis. Bul. 641-649, 1939-42.

BLS Bulletins:

No. 642, 1939. Family Income and Expenditure in Chicago, 1935-36. Vol. II Family Expenditure. Prepared by A. D. H. Kaplan, Faith M. Williams and Mildred Hartsough

No. 643 Family Income and Expenditure in New York City, 1935-36.

Source: For most of the biographical information above, see Fellows of the Social Science Research Council, 1925-1951. p. 159.

Image Source: University of Minnesota, The Gopher 1919, p. 389.

Categories
Biography Chicago Economists Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, later University of Chicago professor. Marc Nerlove, 1933-2024

 

Caricature by Roger Vaughan in The Journal of Progressive Hedonists Against Radical Thought [P.H.A.R.T.], Special All-Picture Issue (1973). Harvard University Archives. Papers of Zvi Griliches. Box 129, Folder “Posters, ca. 1960s-1970s.”

________________________

The life and career of Marc Nerlove
b. 12 Oct 1933, d. 10 Jul 2024

Marc Leon Nerlove (born 1933) is a white American agricultural economist and econometrician who was born on 12 October 1933 in Chicago, Illinois to Dr. S. H. (Samuel Henry; 1902-1972) and Evelyn (1907-1987) Nerlove. S. H. Nerlove was born in Vitebsk, Russia (now Belarus) and brought to the US by his parents in 1904, and he became a professor of business economics at the University of Chicago (circa 1922-1965) then the University of California, Los Angeles (1962-1969). Evelyn Nerlove was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and worked at the University of Chicago hospital and taught in the School of Social Service Administration until a university nepotism policy forced her to resign after their marriage in 1932 (although she “returned to her profession” in the 1950s). S. H. and Evelyn had two other children: Harriet Nerlove (circa 1937-2019), who became a clinical psychologist at Stanford University then in New York City, and Sara “Sally” Nerlove (born circa 1942), who became an anthropologist before spending most of her working life as a program officer at the National Science Foundation.

Marc Nerlove attended the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools from 1939-1949, earned a BA with honors in mathematics and general honors in 1952, and was a Research Assistant at the Cowles Commission for Research in Economics in 1953. He then earned a MA in 1955 and a PhD in economics with distinction in 1956 from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), where Carl Christ supervised his dissertation. Nerlove’s other teachers included Milton Friedman, Theodore Schultz, Ta-Chung Liu, Fritz Machlup, and Jacob Marschak.

Nerlove’s teaching career began in 1958 as a visiting lecturer then lecturer at JHU before he was appointed to his first professorship in 1959 at the University of Minnesota. From there, he made stops at Stanford (1960-1965), Yale University (1965-1969), Chicago (1969-1975), Northwestern University (1974-1982), and the University of Pennsylvania (1982-1993) before retiring from the University of Maryland (1993-2016). He also held many visiting appointments, including at Harvard University (1967-1968), four universities and research centers in Germany, the University of British Columbia (1971), Fundação Getulio Vargas in Brazil (1974-1978), and Australian National University (1982).

Nerlove’s employment history also includes federal service. He was an analytical statistician in the Agricultural Marketing Service at the US Department of Agriculture from 1956-1957, then a lieutenant in the US Army from 1957-1959. He was drafted in 1957, then on loan from the Chemical Corps to the (US) Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly as an economist at the request of Chairman Estes Kefauver in 1958. In addition, Nerlove consulted for the RAND Corporation (1959-1989), Southern Pacific Company (1961), (US) President’s Committee to Appraise Employment and Unemployment Statistics (1962), World Bank (1979-1985), and International Food Policy Research Institute (1981-1986).

Nerlove’s history of professional service includes the Econometric Society (President, 1981), American Economic Association (Executive Committee, 1977-1979), American Statistical Association (advisory committees to the Bureau of the Census, 1964-1969, and Civil Aeronautics Board, 1966-1968), International Economic Association (Chair, Econometrics Section, 1989), National Academy of Sciences (National Research Council Committee on Social Sciences in the NSF, 1975-1976), NSF (proposal reviewer, 1960-1974), and Social Sciences Research Council (Director, Mathematical Social Science Board Summer Workshop on Lags in Economic Behavior, 1970).

Nerlove’s awards include the 1969 John Bates Clark Medal, a Fulbright Research Grant (1962-1963), and two Guggenheim Fellowships (1962-1963; 1978-1979), and he is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Agricultural Economics Association (1993) and American Economic Association (2012).

Nerlove married Mary Ellen Lieberman (died 2011) in the 1950s and they had two daughters, Susan Nerlove (born circa 1958) and Miriam Nerlove (born circa 1960). Miriam Nerlove become an author and illustrator of children’s books, including Who Is David with Evelyn Nerlove in 1985. Marc and Mary Ellen Nerlove divorced in the 1970s, then he married Dr. Anke Meyer (born 1955), a German environmental economist who spent 23 years at the World Bank (1991-2014) and collaborated with him on some of his writings during this time.

Source:  From the Marc L. Nerlove papers, 1930-2014 webpage,  David M.Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

________________________

Backstory for The Journal of Progressive Hedonists Against Radical Thought at the University of Chicago:

Chicago. The Journal of Progressive Hedonists Against Radical Thought (P.H.A.R.T.), Rodney Smith & Roger Vaughan, 1971

________________________

For Roger Vaughan’s Meisterstück The School of Chicago, see:

Chicago. The School of Chicago 1972 by Roger Vaughan (Ph.D. 1977). IDs by Gordon, McCloskey & Grossbard

Categories
Economic History Economists Germany

Leipzig, Germany. Professor Karl Bücher, 1847-1930.

We encountered the name of the German economist and professor at the University of Leipzig, Karl Bücher (1847-1930) as the author of a German language quote for Harvard students to translate as part of their 1907 examination on German and French economists of the 19th century taught by Professor Edwin F. Gay. 

Bücher’s life and professional career were the subject of a long post [in German] for the 2012 exhibition dedicated to his Leipzig years by the University Library of Leipzig.

In this post Economics in the Rear-view Mirror offers visitors a few artefacts for Bücher from the turn of the 20th century.  

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From the translator’s Prefatory Note to the 3rd edition of Bücher’s Die Entstehung der Volkswirtchaft:

            The writings of Professor Bücher, in their German dress, require no introduction to economists. His admirable work The Population of Frankfurt in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, published in 1886, gave him immediate celebrity with economic historians, and left him without a rival in the field of historical statistics. In his treatment of economic theory he stands midway between the “younger historical school” of economists and the psychological Austrians.1 A full list of his writings need not be given.2 But I may recall his amplified German edition of Laveleye’s Primitive Property, his little volume The Insurrections of the Slave Labourers, 143-129 B.C., his original and suggestive Labour and Rhythm, discussing the relation between the physiology and the psychology of labour, his investigations into trusts, and his co-editorship of Wagner’s Handbook of Political Economy (the section Industry being in his charge) as indicating the general direction and scope of his researches. The present stimulating volume, which in the original bears the title Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft (The Rise of National Economy), gives the author’s conclusions on general industrial development. Somewhat similar ground has been worked over, among recent economic publications, alone by Professor Schmoller’s comprehensive Grundriß der allgemeinen Volkswirtschaftslehre, Pt. I. But the method of treatment and the results of the present work allow it to maintain its unique position.

            1A few facts and dates regarding Professor Bücher’s career may not be uninteresting. Professor Bücher was born in Prussian Rhineland in 1847. He completed his undergraduate studies at Bonn and Göttingen (1866-69). His rapid rise in the German scholastic world is evident from his academic appointments: special lecturer at Göttingen (1869-72), lecturer at Dortmund (1872–73), at Frankfurt Technical School (1873–78), and at Munich (1881); Professor of Statistics at Dorpat, Russia (1882) [now: Tartu, Estonia], of Political Economy and Finance at Basel (1883-90), at Karlsruhe (1890–93), and at Leipsic (1893 to present). From 1878 to the close of 1880 he was Industrial and Social Editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung.

            2This may be found in the Handwörterbuch d. Staatswiss. [Vol. II, 2nd edition. Jena, 1898. See below.]

Source: Karl Bücher, Industrial Evolution, third German edition (German title: Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, Vorträge und Versuche. English translation by S. Morley Wickett, Lecturer on Political Economy and Statistics, University of Toronto. New York: Henry Hold and Company, 1907, pp. iii-iv.

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Bücher, Karl
Life and writinges 1847-98

geb. am 16.II.1847 zu Kirberg im jetzigen Reg.-Bez. Wiesbaden, studierte 1866-1869 zu Bonn und Göttingen Geschichte, Philologe und Staatswissenschaften und übernahm, nach 7 jähr. Lehrthätigkeit am Gymnasium zu Dortmund und an der Wöhlerschule in Frankfurt a.M., die Stelle eines Redakteurs für Wirtschafts- und Sozialpolitik an der „Frankfurter Zeitung“, die er bis zum 31.XII.1880 bekleidete. Im Februar 1881 habilitierte er sich an der staatswirtschaftlichen Fakultät der Universität München für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, von wo er im Sommer 1882 als ordentl. Professor für Statistik an die Universität Dorpat berufen wurde. Diese Stellung vertauschte er im Herbst 1883 mit der Professur der Nationalökonomie und Finanzwissenschaft an der Universität Basel. Hier blieb Bücher bis Herbst 1890, um welche Zeit er einem Rufe als Professor der Volkswirtschaftalehre an der technischen Hochschule in Karlsruhe Folge leistete. Ostern 1892 gab er diese Stellung auf zu Gunsten der Professur der Statistik und Nationalökonomie an der Universität Leipzig, an welcher er ausserdem seit 1893 das Amt eines Direktors des volkswirtschaftlich-statistischen Seminars bekleidet.

Er veröffentlichte von staatswissenschaftlichen Schriften in Buchform:

— De gente [aetolica] amphictyoniae participe, Bonn 1870, (Dissertation.)

— Die Aufstände der unfreien Arbeiter 143-129 v. Chr., Frankfurt a.M. 1874.

— Die gewerbliche Bildungsfrage und der industrielle Rückgang, Eisenach 1877.

— Lehrlingsfrage and gewerbliche Bildung in Frankreich, Eisenach 1878.

— Gutachten über das gewerbliche Bildungswesen in den Schr. d. V. f. Sozialp., Bd. XV.

— Das Ureigentum von E. de Laveleye. Deutsche Ausgabe, Leipzig 1879. (Die Kap. VI, IX, XIV u. XV sind Originalarbeiten des Herausgebers.)

— Die Frauenfrage im Mittelalter. Tübingen 1882.

— Die Arbeiterfrage im Kaufmannsstande. [D. Zeit- und Streitfragen XII), Berlin 1883.

— Die Bevölkerung von Frankfurt a.M. im XIV. und XV. Jahrh., I. Bd., Tübingen 1886.

— Von den Produktionsstätten des Weihnachtsmarktes (Vortrag), Basel 1887 (Oeff. Vorträge geh. in d. Schweiz, Bd. IX, Heft 9).

— Die soziale Gliederung der Frankfurter Bevölkerung im Mittelalter. (Berichte des Fr. Deutschen Hochstifts 1886/7, Heft III).

— Zur Geschichte der internationalen Fabrikgesetzgebung, Wien 1888.

— Frankfurter Buchbinder-Ordnungen vom XVI. bis zum XIX. Jahrh., Tübingen 1888.

— Basels Staatseinnahmen und Steuerverteilung 1878-1887. Publiziert vom Finanzdepartement, Basel 1888.

— Die Bevölkerung des Kantons Basel-Stadt am 1.XII.1888, Basel 1890.

— Die Wohnungs-Enquete in der Stadt Basel vom 1.-19.II.1889, Basel 1891.

—Die Entstehung der Volkswirtschaft, 6 Vorträge, Tübingen 1893; dasselbe, 2. Aufl., ebenda 1898.

— Arbeit und Rhythmus. Leipzig 1896. (Aus Abhandlungen der k. sächsischen Gesellschaft der Wissensch.)

— Die Wirtschaft der Naturvölker. Vortrag, geh. in der Gehe-Stiftung zu Dresden, am 13.XI.1897, Dresden 1898.

— Die wirtschaftlichen Aufgaben der modernen Stadtgemeinde. Vortrag, Leipzig 1898. (Hochschulvorträge, Heft 10.)

Er veröffentlichte von Staatswissenschaftlichen Abhandlungen in Zeitschriften:

— 1. Arch. f. soz. Gesetzg., etc., Jahrg. I (1888): Das Basel-städtische Gesetz betr. den Schutz der Arbeiterinnen.

— 2. Jahrb. f. Nat. u. Stat., N.F., Bd. VIII (1882): Das russische Gesetz über die in Fabriken und Manufakturen arbeitenden Minderjährigen v. 1.VI.1882.

— 3. Preuss. Jahrb., Bd. XC (1898): Der wirtschaftliche Urzustand.

— 4. Ztschr. f. Schweiz. Statistik, Jahrg. XXIII (1887): Zur Statistik der inneren Wanderungen und des Niederlassungswesens.

— 5. Ztschr. f. Staatsw.,

Jahrg. XLIV (1888): Die wirtschaftliche Interessenvertretung in der Schweiz und die Schweizer Arbeiterorganisationen,
Jahrg. L (1894): Die diokletianische Taxordnung vom Jahre 301 (Artik. 1 u. 2),
Jahrg. LII (1896): Der öffentliche Haushalt der Stadt Frankfurt im Mittelalter.

In diesem „Handwörterbuch“ hat Bücher die Artikel [folgenden] geschrieben:

„Allmenden“ (Bd. I. 1. Aufl., S. 181 ff.; 2. Aufl. S. 255 ff.),
„Die Arbeiterschützgesetzgebung in der Schweiz“ (Bd. I, 1. Aufl. S. 448ff.; 2. Aufl. S. 588ff.),
„Die Arbeiterversicherung in der Schweiz“ (Bd. I, 1. Aufl. S. 551 ff.; 2. Aufl. S. 694 ff.) und
„Die Arbeitseinstellungen in der Schweiz“ (Bd. I, 1. Aufl. S. 651ff.; 2. Aufl. S. 842 ff.)

Source: Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, Vol. II, 2nd edition. Jena, 1898.

Image Source: From the poster for the temporary exhibition of the Archives of the University of Leipzig in 2012: Der Nationalökonom und Zeitungshändler Karl Bücher. Die Leipziger Jahre 1892–1930.

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Carnegie Institute of Technology Columbia Economists Tufts

Columbia. Economics PhD alumnus, Leonard Stott Blakey, 1912

In today’s edition of Meet an Economics Ph.D. alumnus we encounter a 1912 Columbia economics Ph.D. who had fallen through the cracks of my list of Columbia University economics graduates. Leonard Stott Blakey actually did manage to obtain an economics professorship at the Carnegie Institute of Technology for a couple of years. His Columbia thesis adviser was the sociologist Franklin Giddings at a time when the gap between academic economics and sociology was relatively small.

Blakey died at age 38 after a car ran into him in Chicago where he had found a job as economic advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company. So there is not much of a shadow cast into future economic research, but his story still possesses value as a one mosaic tile in the greater sweep of the history of economics. 

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Leonard Stott Blakey
(1881-1919)

1881. Born April 15 in Racine County, Wisconsin. Son of Charles and Ella Apple Blakey.

1883. Family moved to a farm near Spirit Lake, Iowa.

Family later moved to Estherville, Iowa where Leonard attended grade and high school.

1900. Graduated from high school.

1904. B.S. from Beloit College.

Taught in high school at Savanna, Illinois and Memorial University, Mason City, Iowa.

1907-08. University scholarship, Columbia University. Columbia Spectator (June 1, 1907), p. 1.

1908-09. Schiff Fellow, Columbia University.

1910. The Boston Globe (September 18, 1910), p. 56. Tufts hired Leonard Stott Blakey, a graduate of Beloit, as instructor in economics.

Courses taught by Blakey  at Tufts:  From the catalogues 1910-1912

1. Elements of Economics. Ely’s Outlines of Economics will be used as a guide
2. Modern Industrial History of Europe
22. Economic and Industrial History of the United States. Bogart’s Economic History of the United States is used as a guide.
4. Principles of Public Finance. The Elements of Public Finance, by Daniels, is used as a guide.
5. Money, Credit, and Banking. Dewey’s Financial History of the United States is used as a guide.
14. Theory of Statistics.
15. Social Statistics.

1911-12. Annual Report of the President of Tufts College 1911-12.  “The following gentlemen have severed their connection with the ‘College on the Hill,’ either through resignation or the expiration of their terms of office,…Leonard Stott Blakey, B.S., Instructor in Economics and Statistics” p. 4

1912. Ph.D. Thesis: The Sale of Liquor in the South: the History of the Development of Normal Social Restraint in Southern Commonwealths” by Leonard Stott Blakey, A.M., Sometime Schiff Fellow in Columbia University, Associate Professor of Economics and Sociology in Dickinson College
“This work owes its origin to a suggestion which came to the writer from his instructor, Professor Franklin H. Giddings of Columbia University, while pursuing graduate courses of study in that institution.”

1912-13. Assistant Professor of Economics and Sociology
Catalogue of Dickinson College 1912-1913. Carlisle, PA.

1913-14. Professor of Economics and Sociology
Catalogue of Dickinson College 1913-1914. Carlisle, PA

Dickinson College
ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY
Professor Blakey

In its course of instruction, the chief aim of the department of Economics and Sociology is to give a general view of the most important subject matter in the economic and sociological sciences, beginning with the elements of the science and passing by degrees to courses of an investigative order. In addition to this broad general outline the courses and the methods of study are arranged to give some specialized preparation to students looking forward to business careers.

A. ELEMENTS OF ECONOMICS.

This course will give the student a general survey of the fields of theoretical and practical economics. The first part deals with the principles of production, distribution, exchange and consumption of wealth; the second part, with the present organization of industry and the economic and social problems arising from the relations of employers and employees. Among the problems considered are the labor problem, including the history and policies of trade unions, injunctions, arbitration, co-operation, profit-sharing, child labor, factory legislation, workingmen’s insurance, and socialism. Taussig’s Principles of Economics will be used as a text.

Required of all Sophomores. Three hours per week.

B. MODERN INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF EUROPE.

After a brief survey of the economic conditions in the European countries at the close of the Middle Ages, the course deals with the commercial and industrial development of the chief European countries since the middle of the eighteenth century, with special attention to Great Britain.

Lectures, supplemented by prescribed topical readings. Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week. First half-year.

C. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

A brief survey of the economic life of the colonists will be followed by a study of the factory system, public land policy, transportation facilities, and shipping before the Civil War; export trade, scientific agriculture, and railway extension after the War; recent development of large scale production, industrial combinations, and labor problems.

Lectures, supplemented by prescribed topical readings.

Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week, second half-year.

D. COURSES B AND C COMBINED.

E. INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT.

This course will include an examination of the human and physical factors in the organization and processes of industry; the internal economies of organization due to the division of labor, etc.; external economies of organization due to the concentration and integration of businesses; and the influences of the modern means of intercommunication on businesses. Special emphasis will be given to the growing size and complexity of modern business structure and to the managerial, financial, and political questions arising from business concentration, and the programs proposed for their solution will be analyzed.

Attention is given to the general nature and the different types of business management, and to the functions of the entrepreneur. The various problems involved in the philosophy, demands, and applicability of scientific management will be examined. The course closes with an analysis of the growing spirit of co-operation in business management, the growing interest in the problems of vocational guidance, and the tendency to interpret industry in terms of human worth.

Lectures, assigned readings, and discussions. Open to Seniors. Three hours per week.

F. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY.

Beginning with a study of the biological and psychological bases of human society, this course traces its evolution under the operation of the various forces — physical environment, growth and migration of populations, social institutions, etc. and analyzes social phenomena with the view of arriving at certain laws of social progress and noting their bearing upon present social problems.

Chapin’s Introduction to the Study of Social Evolution will be used as a text. Open to Juniors and Seniors. Three hours per week.

G. SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS.

The work of this course will consist largely of practical investigations, by individual members of the class, of some selected problem in economics or sociology, to be assigned by the instructor and pursued under his direction. A paper will be prepared on the assigned topic, the results presented before the class for criticism and discussion. The course will open with an introduction to the principles, theory, and practice in the statistical method. Open to Seniors completing Economics E or Sociology F. Three hours per week.

Source:  Catalogue of Dickinson College, 1913-1914, pp. 31-33.

1914-15.  Professor of Economics and Sociology at Dickinson College (Absent on leave)

1914. Review of H.R. Seager’s Principles of Economics: Being a Revision of Introduction to Economics. In Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (September 1914, pp. 294-296). Identified as “Leonard Stott Blakey, Dickinson College).

1914-16[?]. Worked at the air nitrates plant in Muscle Shoals, Alabama

1916. Assistant Professor of Economics and Business Administration, School of Applied Science, Carnegie Institute of Technology. Pittsburgh.

1918. The Pittsburgh Post (February 21, 1918), p. 14.
Assistant Professor of economics and business administration of the Carnegie Institute of Technology.

End of the WWI, associated with the Bing and Bing Construction Co. of New York.

1919. He had accepted a position as Economics Advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company of Chicago.

1919. “Prof. Leonard Blakey of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, died yesterday in the county hospital. He was struck by an automobile Friday night.” Blakey “had come to Chicago to make arrangements with a. W. Shaw & Co. for the publication of his book, which deals with the high cost of living.” Brother A.R. Blakey lives in Chicago. Chicago Tribune (October 5, 1919), p. 1.

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Other Newspaper Accounts
of Leonard Blakey’s death

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Oct. 6, 1919), p. 20.

“[Leonard Blakey] was not connected with the Carnegie Institute of Technology at the time of his death, according to officials of the institution.
Prof. Blakey, two years ago, was assistant professor of commercial engineering at the Pittsburgh school, but left here to go to Washington, where he entered government service.”

Evening Times-Republican, Marshalltown, Iowa (December 15, 1919), p. 2.

At time of his death in Chicago, Leonard Blakey just completing a book called “Wage Scales and the Living Costs”, a comprehensive survey of the wage question and cost of living put down in a concise and readable form. The book, which is just now making its appearance, following his death, is creating a great amount of interest throughout the country, as it deals with present day conditions. The New York Sun introduced the book, noting Blakey was born in Racine, Wisconsin, educated there and in Iowa, graduated from Beloit College, taking post-graduate course at Columbia University. Instructor in economics in Tufts College and at Dickinson, and Carnegie Institute of Technology. “During the war he was the labor expert at the Mussels Shoals air nitrate enterprise. In January 1919 he began his study. He went to Chicago (as opposed to New York City to get speedy publication”. “He met his death as he was on his way to have his final revision of the last chapter retyped for the printers.

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Obituaries for Leonard Stott Blakey transcribed at the Find-A-Grave Website

Leonard Blakey Hit By Auto
Was In Chicago Attending to Business Matters – Struck By Speeding Car
Just Completed Gov. Book
Was Brought Here for Burial, Was a Son of Chas. Blakey, a Former Resident Here

Estherville Enterprise, Estherville, IA, October 8, 1919.

Friends of Leonard Blakey of the Chas. Blakey family, were greatly shocked on Sunday last to learn of the sudden death by accident of Leonard Blakey in Chicago. He had been connected with a New York firm and was making a change to Chicago. He came there and took rooms with his father, sister and brother Roy, who is in the Rush Medical school. He had been down to the city during the day consulting his new employer and that evening went to the Y.M.C.A. building to get some stenographic work done. It was about 9 o’clock in the evening and it is supposed he was returning from the Y.M.C.A. building when an auto struck him. He was so badly injured he never regained consciousness. He had no Chicago address and the police rushed him to the hospital. On his clothing was his Pittsburg address and they at once endeavored to get in touch with someone there. In the hospital was an Intern who remembered there was a medical student in Rush by that name and after twenty-four hours after the accident they got in touch with Roy Blakey. The Blakey family in the meantime had made an endeavor through the police to locate him.
The remains were brought to this city for burial.

The following is the obituary used by Rev. Voorhies who officiated at the funeral services:

Leonard Stott Blakey was born in Racine County, Wis., April 15, 1881, the son of Charles and Ella Apple Blakey. He attended school near Spirit Lake, Iowa, the family having moved to a farm near there when he was two years old. Later the family moved to Estherville where Leonard attended the grade and high school, graduating in 1900. In the Fall of the same year he entered Beloit College where he graduated in 1904. Following this he taught in the high school at Savanna, Illinois, and Memorial University, Mason City, Iowa. Then he attended Columbia University, New York, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1911 (sic). He again took up teaching, going first to Tufts College, Boston, and later to Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa. The following year he went to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to take up employment work with the Air Nitrates plant. At the close of the war he became associated with the Bing and Bing Construction Co., of New York. During the latter period he has been writing a book on the subject: Has Labor Carried Its War Burden,” which is now in the hands of the publishers. He had just accepted a position as Economics Advisor to the Benjamin Electric Company of Chicago. Surviving members of the family are: His father, Charles Blakey, his brother Roy Blakey, and sister Dorothy Blakey, all being residents of Chicago.

Book of A Local Boy is Popular
Leonard Blakey’s Work Now Running in New York Sun Was Recently Killed
Work Has to Do With the Wage Scale and High Cost of Living – Is Authority

Vindicator and Republican, Estherville, IA, December 10, 1919

At the time Leonard Blakey met with his death in Chicago last fall he was just completing a book called “Wage Scales and the Living Costs.” It is a comprehensive survey of the wage question and the cost of living put down in a concise and readable form. The book which is just now making its appearance following his death, is creating a large amount of interest throughout the country as it deals with present day conditions.
Leonard Blakey was an Estherville boy. He was known to the great majority of our people and his career followed with a great deal of interests by local people. His untimely death last fall was deeply mourned by all his former friends. Had he been permitted to live he would have accomplished great things in this world. As it is, he leaves behind this scientific analysis which is being used throughout the country in settling important questions of the day. The Vindicator and Republican has on file a copy of the New York Sun containing the first installment of the book and we will be glad to loan it any former friends who may wish to read it. Following is the tribute paid to the memory of Leonard by that paper at the beginning of the article:
Leonard Blakey, economist and professor, from whose last work the following analysis of Wage Increases and Living Costs was taken, was killed accidentally by an automobile in Chicago recently just as he was to reap the fruits of years of study. He was born thirty-eight years ago in Racine, Wisconsin, was educated in the public schools there and in Iowa, and graduated from Beloit College, taking a post graduate study course at Columbia University in this city.
He was an instructor in economics in Tufts College and at Dickson, and then was attached to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. During the war he was the labor expert at the Mussels Shoals air nitrate enterprise. Last January Mr. Blakey began his study of wage increases and living costs with the idea that the findings might be of value to the nation in its reconstruction problems. When the report was partly completed he was urged to publish it in book form for use as a text book at Columbia and at Carnegie Tech. He also planned to send copies for use of the Industrial conference in session in Washington.
Owing to conditions in the book trade in New York Mr. Blakey went to Chicago to get speedy publication. The A. W. Shaw Company took up the work. He met his death as he was on his way to have his final revision of the last chapter retyped for printers.

Source: Wayback machine archived copy of the Find-A-Grave entry for Leonard Stott Blakey (1881-1919).

Image Source: Carnegie Institute of Technology yearbook, The 1918 Thistle, p. 80. Portrait of Professor Stott Blakey.

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Bryn Mawr Columbia Economists NYU Pennsylvania Wellesley

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, Henry Raymond Mussey. 1905

Time to meet another economics Ph.D. alumnus.

This post provides a chronology of the life and career of Henry R. Mussey who received his graduate economics (and sociology) training at Columbia University. His useful editing skills landed him jobs twice at The Nation where he served as managing editor for a number of years. A man of convictions sufficiently strong to quietly resign his Columbia/Barnard position in protest of the dismissal of psychology professor James McKeen Cattell and English/comparative literature assistant professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana in 1917 for allegedly disseminating “doctrines tending to encourage a spirit of disloyalty to the Government of the United States.” Historian Charles Beard’s resignation also in protest of these dismissals was both public and fiery. It is not clear why Mussey did not create more of a fuss, but I would guess his personality was the opposite of a fist-pounding, door-slamming alpha-academic. 

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Other posts with Henry R. Mussey related content

His 1910 essay “Economics in the College Course.”

Civil rights activist’s Virginia Foster Durr’s recollection of “Professor Muzzy” at Wellesley College in the early 1920s.

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Henry Raymond Mussey
Timeline

1875. December 7. Born in Atkinson, Illinois to parents William Alvord Mussey (1839-1926) and Louise Nowers (1845-1928).

Began his collegiate studies at the Geneseo Collegiate Institute, Illinois.

1900. A.B. Beloit.

Fun fact.  In 1899 H.R. Mussey (’00) played the role of Antigone. Performances of Greek dramas given in English were a staple of Beloit College life.
Source: Edward Dwight Eaton, Historical sketches of Beloit College, (Second edition, 1935), p. 234

1901-02. Presented a paper “The Theory of Monopolies” in John Bates Clark seminar in political economy and finance that met every other week.

1902. Fellow in the Columbia Department of Economics, appointed instructor in Economics to replace A.M. Day who had resigned to work for the new Tenement House Commission of New York City. “Mr. Mussey has already acquired much popularity and confidence among the students in his classes.” Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. XLV, No. 42 (21 March 1902), p. 1.

1903. The “Fake” Instalment Business. New York: The University Settlement Society.

1903-05. Assistant Professor of Economics and Industry in New York University School of Commerce .
Source: Barnard College, Morterboard, 1912, p. 28.

1905. Ph.D., Columbia University. Thesis: Combination in the Mining Industry: A Study of Concentration in Lake Superior Iron Ore Production. (vol. XIX, No. 3) New York: Columbia University Press.

1905. Engaged to Miss Mabel Hay Barrows of New York. Ca. 1902 she directed a revival production of the Greek play The Ajax of Sophocles at the university. Winter 1904-05 Ajax performed in New York. Also given in different colleges (Manhattan, Chicago, University of California) travelling as far West as California. “Mr. Mussey accompanied the players as general director of stage manager. He is professor of economics and history in New York university.” The Minneapolis Journal (Jan 24, 1905, p. 11).

“The music for the occasion has been composed by Miss Constance Mills and the costumes worn by the actors and singers have been copied form Greek vase paintings. Preceding the idyls a chorus of maidens will sing the oldest piece of Greek music of which both words and notes are preserved—the Delphic Hymn to Apollo. The production will be rendered further interesting by three Greek dances, one of the religious type, one mimetic in character, and the other a reminiscence of the nymphs of sea and land, which will be given between the scenes from Theocritus.”
Source: Brooklyn Life (February 11, 1905, p. 32).

1905. June 28. Married Mabel Hay Barrows (1874-1931) in Georgeville, Quebec. One son.

1905-07. Associate Professor of Economics at Bryn Mawr College.
Source: Barnard College, Morterboard, 1912, p. 28.

1907-09. Assistant Professor of Sociology in the University of Pennsylvania.
Source: Barnard College, Morterboard, 1912, p. 28.

1908. Passport application (May 6). Permanent residence given as Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Occupation university professor. Passport to be sent to Loan Hall, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA.

1909-1917. On the faculty of Barnard College.

1910. Economics in the College Course. Educational Review, Vol. XL (October, 1910), pp. 239-249.

1910. Drs. Agger and Mussey project. “Intersection debate” conducted by the Barnard Literary Association. Teams selected of four students from each class to debate, “Resolved that the common ownership of all the means of production will promote social welfare.”

1911. Adjunct Professor of Economics.
Source: Barnard College, Morterboard, 1911, p. 27.

1911. Henry Raymond Mussey, editor. The Reform of the Currency. In the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, vol. 1, no. 2, (January 1911).

1912. Assistant Professor of Economics, Barnard College.
Source: Barnard College, Morterboard, 1912, p. 28). Under his faculty portrait: “A smile that puts to flight all care and troubles, withal it teaches us of poverty and rents.”

1912. [identified as Associate Professor of Economics, Columbia University] Mussey, Henry Raymond. “Discussion of Investments on Instalments.” Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, vol. 2, no. 2, 1912, pp. 107–08.
JSTOR https://doi.org/10.2307/1171942

1916. Passport application (January 17). Permanent residence Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Plan to leave from the port of Seattle on the Awa Maru on March 7, 1916 to travel and study in Japan and China.

1916. Associate Professor of Economics in Columbia University, representing Beloit College at Vassar College Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration

1917. “took part in the arranging the program of a convention of the academy at Long Beach, L.I. in May, 1917, which caused comment because of alleged pacifist and pro-German speeches.” From Mussey’s New York Times obituary (February 11, 1940), p. 48

Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York, Vol. VII, Nos. 2,3 (July 1917). Edited by Henry Raymond Mussey and Stephen Pierce Duggan.

Part I. 1. The Democratic Ideal in World Organization; 2. Future Pan-American Relations.
Part II. 3. Future Relations with the Far East; 4. Investments and Concessions as Causes of International Conflict.

1917. Associate Professor of Economics on the Barnard College Foundation. Tendered resignation to be effective at the convenience of the University.
Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. XLI, No. 47 (4 December 1917), p. 1

“Rumours that circulated about the University yesterday to the effect that Professor Henry Raymond Mussey, Associate Professor of Economics on the Barnard Foundation, had tendered his resignation because of his sympathy with Professor Beard’s recent similar action were thoroly dispelled by various authorities on the campus, including Professor Mussey himself.
Source: Columbia Daily Spectator, Vol. XLI, No. 48 (5 December 1917), p. 1

 

“Although Dr. Mussey refused to comment at the time, it was reported that the resignation was designed as a protest against the dismissal by the university of two other faculty members [James McKeen Cattell and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana]”
From New York Times obituary (February 11, 1940), p. 48

1918. Edited National Conference on War Economy. Vol. VIII, No. 1 (July 1918) of the Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science in the City of New York.

1918-20. Managing editor of The Nation.

1922. Joins the Wellesley College faculty.

PROFESSOR HENRY R. MUSSEY TO TEACH HERE
Appointed to Position in Economics Department
The Wellesley News (January 26, 1922), p. 2.

                  Dr. Henry R. Mussey has recently been appointed a member of the Department of Economics and Sociology, and is to come to Wellesley at the beginning of the second semester.

                  Dr. Mussey has had a distinguished career as teacher in several of the colleges of highest standing. He has been at various times Assistant Professor of Economics and Industry in New York University School of Commerce, Assistant Professor of Sociology in the University of Pennsylvania, Associate Professor of Economics at Bryn Mawr College, and Associate Professor of Economics at Barnard and Columbia.

                  For the past four years Dr. Mussey has given his time to journalism and public affairs, serving successively as managing editor of the Nation and of the Searchlight, and as executive secretary of the People’s Legislative Service at Washington.

                  Wellesley is fortunate in having the first fruits of Dr. Mussey’s extra-academic experience.

“Through the studies which I have recently made in Washington of American shipping interests and the Merchant Marine,” said Mr. Mussey, new professor in the Department of Economics….[made] during the time he was conducting investigations for senators and congressmen at Washington, just before he joined the faculty of Wellesley College.”
Source: The Wellesley News (February 23, 1922), p. 5.

1922-1929. Joined Wellesley College February 1922, left in 1929 to serve as Managing Editor of The Nation. Returned to Wellesley in 1931. The Wellesley News (February 15, 1940)

1929-31. Returns to The Nation as managing editor.

1930. Mussey prepared survey “for the League for Independent Political Action in which need for the formation of a new political party to deal with unemployment was set forth.” From New York Times obituary (February 11, 1940), p. 48

THIRD PARTY PLANS ARE LAID BY GROUP
League for Independent Political Action, Headed by Columbia Professor, Is Formed.
By the Associated Press.

NEW, YORK, September 9. Formation of the League for Independent Political Action, to help in organizing a new national political party, was announced yesterday. Prof. John Dewey of Columbia University is chairman.

The announcement said a national committee of 100 had been formed to start the movement opposing the Republican and Democratic parties.

Among the league’s aims, according to the announcement, are public ownership of public utilities, unemployment and health Insurance, old age pensions, relief for the farmer on, virtually a free trade basis, high progressive taxes on incomes, inheritances and increases in land values; abolition of “yellow dog” contracts and injunctions in labor disputes, independence of the Philippines and non-restriction of Negro and immigrant labor suffrage.

Officers include James Maurer, president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Labor; Zona Gale, of Wisconsin, author; Paul H. Douglas, professor of industrial relations, University of Chicago, and W. E. B. Dubois of New York, Negro educator, vice presidents.
Source: Evening Star, Washigton, D.C. (September 9, 1929), p. 16

1931. Returns to Wellesley College. [The Wellesley News (February 15, 1940)]

1931. Mussey’s wife, Mabel Hay Barrows, died at Neubrandenburg, Mecklenburg-Strelitz. November 30.

“Doctor and Mrs Mussey were abroad for a year, and she was taken suddenly sick while travelling through Germany.” Boston Globe (December 7, 1931), p. 11.

Date of death from American Consular Service, Report of the Death of an American Citizen. Cause of death: Intestinal Ulcers and intestinal complications as certified by attending physician (Duodenal Ulcer). Cremated.

1934. July 15. Married Miss Sara Corbett.

1936. “helped organize in Boston the Massachusetts Society for Freedom in Teaching.” From New York Times obituary (February 11, 1940), p. 48

1940. February 10. Henry Raymond Mussey, A. Barton Hepburn professor of economics, died in Wellesley, Massachusetts.

Image Source: Bryn Mawr College Yearbook, Class of 1907.

Categories
Biography Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Economics Ph.D. alumnus, Daniel Houston Buchanan. 1931

 

Harvard economics Ph.D. (1931), Daniel Houston Buchanan (1883-1959) taught economics in Japan for eleven years after getting his Harvard A.M. before returning to Harvard to complete his doctorate. Over the years he also taught at Ohio State University, Harvard College, George Washington University, Fisk University, University of North Carolina and Lambuth College. The University of North Carolina (1935-54) constituted his longest academic tour of duty by far

Incidentally, Professor Daniel Buchanan was not mentioned at all in “One Hundred Years of Economics at Carolina” (1901-2001). 

This post has two parts, beginning with Buchanan’s Harvard transcript and followed by the timeline of his life. 

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Fun fact (for me): my old professor of American economic history, Bill Parker (then still a young economic historian), was hired as the successor to Daniel Houston at the University of North Carolina.

Dr. William Nelson Parker appointed as associate professor of economics in the University of North Carolina to replace Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of economics emeritus. Parker taught at Williams College for the last five years.
The Daily Tar Heel (October 25, 1956), p. 3.

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THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES
Record of
Daniel Houston Buchanan

Years: 1911-12, 1928-29, 1929-30 (2 hf)

[Previous] Degrees received.

Litt.B. Cooper Coll. 1909
A.B. Colorado Coll. 1911
S.D. Keiogijuku Univ., Japan, 1928.

First Registration: 28 Sept. 1911

1911-12

Grades
First Year Course

Half-Course

Economics 2

B

Economics 6a1

B

Economics 6b2

B+

Economics 9a1

B

Economics 9b2

B-

Social Ethics 6b2

B+

Economics 291

B

Summer of 1925

Economics S7a

A

Economics S9b

A

Sept. 1911

Elementary French

C-
Division: History, Government, & Economics
Scholarship, Fellowship: University
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: A.M.

 

1928-29

Grades
Second Year Course

Half-Course

Economics 20 (res)

A

Economics 38

A-

Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship: + Tut. in H.G.&E. $1650
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: 

 

1929-30 (2hf)

Grades
Third Year Course

Half-Course

History 182

exc.(A)

Economics 202 (E.F.G.)

A
Division:
Scholarship, Fellowship:
Assistantship:
Austin Teaching Fellowship:
Instructorship:
Proctorship:
Degree attained at close of year: 

 

1930-31

Fourth Year

Degree attained at close of year:  Ph.D. June 1931

 

Source: Harvard University Archives. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Belding—Burton (UAV 161.2722.5). File I, Box 2, Record Card of Daniel Houston Buchanan.

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Course Names and Instructors

1911-12

Economics 2. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 6a1. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.

Economics 6b2. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Professor Gay, assisted by Mr. Klein.

Economics 9a1. Problems of Labor. Professor Ripley, assisted by Mr. Hess.

Economics 9b2. Economics of Corporations. Professor Ripley, assisted by Dr. Dewing.

Social Ethics 6b2. Social Amelioration in Europe. Dr. Foerster.

Economics 291. Socialism and the Social Movement in Europe. Dr. Rappard.

1925 (Summer)

Economics S7a. Theories of Value and Distribution. Asst. Prof. John H. Williams.

Economics S9b. International Trade and Tariff Policies. [A. H. Cole or Asst. Prof. John H. Williams].

1928-29

Economics 20. (Research Seminar)

Economics 38. The Principles of Money and Banking. Mr. R. G. Hawtrey

1929-30 (2 hf)

History 182. History of the Far East since 1793. Professor Hung (Yenching University)

Economics 202. (E.F.G.) [(?) sic]

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1911-12, 1924-25, 1928-29, and 1929-30.

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Daniel Houston Buchanan
Timeline of his life and career

1883. Born in Beloit, Kansas, November 29.

Father Thomas Ramsey Buchanan (1849-1933)
Mother: Alda Jane Leslie Buchanan (1855-1928)

1900. U.S. Census. Working on the family farm in Jackson Township, Madison County, Iowa.

1909. Litt.B. (Cooper Coll.)

Cooper College Commencement Announcement for June 6, 1909. Graduating class of sixteen.
Sterling Kansas Bulletin (June 4, 1909), p. 1.

1910. U.S. Census. Teaching in a public school in Valley Brook township, Lyndon City, Kansas.

1911. A.B. Colorado College.

1912. A.M. Harvard University.

1913. Marriage announcement for Daniel Houston Buchanan and Miss Eula Anderson Spencer, at the home of Dr. F. M. Spencer, on Thursday, August 21. Dr. Spencer will perform the marriage ceremony. Dr. Spencer was the president of Cooper College.
The Sterling Kansas Bulletin (August 14, 1913), p. 5.

1914. Taussig’s recommendation turns out to be Buchanan’s ticket to Tokyo.

WILL TEACH IN JAPAN

D. H. Buchanan has accepted the offer as an instructor in a university at Tokyo, Japan.

A vacancy in the chair of economics resulted in an appeal to Harvard for someone to be sent from their school to fill the vacancy. On the recommendation of Prof. Taussig, Mr. Buchanan has secured the place and will commence work the first of April. For the past two years Mr. Buchanan has been teaching geometry in the Wichita high school and will close his work there soon. He is a graduate of Cooper college, going later to Harvard, where he secured his Master’s degree.

His wife was formerly Miss Eula Spencer of this city.

The cablegram announcing he had been chosen to fill the vacancy was received at Wichita Friday morning. The position is at the same university in which Robert Ray of Sterling, is a teacher.

Mr. and Mrs. Buchanan expect to start abroad the first week in March.

The Bulletin joins in congratulations, and wishes the young people much success and happiness in the new surroundings.

The Sterling Kansas Bulletin (Feb. 19, 1914), p. 1.

1914-1925. Buchanan first went to Japan in 1914 to join the economics staff of Keio University. He lived there eleven years.

1915. “A Modification of the Ricardian Theory of Rent. A Criticism” published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (May, 1915).  In his March 1921 paper Buchanan begins with the footnote “The paper offered here is sufficient proof that [the author] now considers the position taken at that time as inadequate.”

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 9, No. 5 (May 1915),
pp. 506(30)-513(37). Link to download.

1918. Sept. 12. WWI Draft Registration of Daniel Houston Buchanan gives address as: 5 Enokigaka, Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan. Occupation: Professor of economics, Keiogijuku University in Mita, Shiba, Tokyo.

1919. Daniel Houston Buchanan arrived on the S.S. Persia Maru from Yokohama, Japan (June 27, 1919) to San Francisco (July 16, 1919). Returned from the U.S. to Japan from San Francisco on the Siberia Maru, Sept. 5, 1919.

1921. “Economic Rent and the Marginal Expenses of Production” published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (March, 1921).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 3 (March 1921),
pp. 402(92)-432(122). Link to download.

1921. “Professor Alfred Marshall on the Relation between Economic Rent and the Marginal Expenses of Production”published in Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (May, 1921).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 15, No. 5 (May 1921), pp. 661(69)-690(98). Link to download.

1922. “The Influence of So-called Marginal Rent upon the Marginal Expenses of Production”, Mita Gakkai, Tokyo (March, 1922).

Keio Journal of Economics, Vol. 16, No. 3 (March 1922), pp. 291(1)-308(18). Link to download.

1923. Buchanan, Daniel H. “The Rural Economy of Japan.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 37, no. 4 (August 1923), pp. 545–78.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1884052

1925. Arrives in Seattle, Washington (March 24, 1925) on S.S. Arizona Maru from Yokohama, Japan (March 10, 1925)

1925-26. Assistant professor of economics at the Ohio State University.

1926. “Became connected with the Harvard Bureau of International Research” according to a note in the Harvard Alumni Bulletin.

1927. Research trip to study industrialization in India.

A.M. ’12—Daniel H. Buchanan, A.B. (Colorado Coll.) ’11, who is now in Japan in the interests of the Harvard Bureau of International Research, has received the degree of Keizai Gaku Hakushi, or Doctor of Science in Economics, from Keio University, Tokyo. He is the first foreigner to receive this distinction, and there are less than a dozen Japanese who have received a similar degree. The degree is awarded for outstanding written contributions in the field of economics, and has been awarded to Buchanan for his critical history of the doctrine of rent and the marginal expenses of production, covering the period from Adam Smith, 1776, to the present time, together with a study of Japanese rural economy, published a few years ago in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Buchanan first went to Japan in 1914 to join the economics staff of Keio University. He remained there eleven years, returning to the United States in 1925 to become a member of the Faculty of Ohio State University. He became connected with the Harvard Bureau of International Research in 1926, spent the past year in India in economic research with special emphasis on industrialization, and returned to Japan last January.

Source: Harvard Alumni Bulletin (June 14, 1928), p. 1080.

1928. D.Sc. (Economics) Keiogijuku (Japan).

1928-30. Research associate of Prof. Edwin F. Gay at Harvard

1929. Buchanan, Daniel H. “Historical Approach to Rent and Price Theory,” Economica, no. 26 (June 1929), pp. 123–55.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2548199

1930. U.S. Census gives occupation as College Professor. Address  in Cambridge, Massachusetts (192 Larch Road).

1930-31. Instructor for Principles of Economics at Harvard.

1931. Ph.D. (Harvard University).

Daniel Houston Buchanan, Litt.B. (Cooper Coll.) 1909, A.B. (Colorado Coll.) 1911, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1912, S.D. (Keiogijuku Univ., Japan) 1928. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History since 1750. Thesis, “Chapters on the Development of Modern Industry in India.” Associate Professor of Economics, George Washington University.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1930-31, p. 114.

1931-34. Associate Professor (1931 President of Harvard report) George Washington University.

1932. Evening Star (February 10, 1932), p. 23. Meeting of Delta Phi Epsilon, foreign service fraternity at George Washington. Included guest: Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of economic thought at George Washington.

1934. Buchanan, Daniel H. The Development of Capitalist Enterprise in India. New York: Macmillan.

1934-35. Chairman of the department of economics, Fisk University.

1935. Joins the faculty at North Carolina.

“Dr. D. H. Buchanan, who is to be professor of economic history, was graduated at Colorado College in 1911 and took his M.A., at Harvard in 1912 and his Ph.D. there in 1931. He taught at Keiogijukee University in Tokyo from 1914 to 1925, was assistant professor at Ohio State in 1925-26, was research associate of Prof. Edwin F. Gay at Harvard in 1928-30 and instructor there in 1931. He taught at George Washington University from 1931-34 and was professor of economics and chairman of the departments (sic) at Fisk University last year.
The News and Observer (August 4, 1935), p. 3.

1937. AP report of his son, Daniel H. Buchanan, Jr., suffering a severe head injury from a thrown hammer in practice at a Colorado College v. Greeley State track meet. Buchanan, Jr. ran the half-mile. Daniel H. Buchanan Jr. survived to live to the age of 82.

1944. The Charlotte Observer (September 22, 1944), p. 7. UNC professor of economics Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan given extension of his leave of absence (presumably war-related)

1946. The News and Observer, Raleigh, North Carolina (January 27, 1946), p. 22. Announcement: February 25, Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, professor of Economics at UNC, will discuss “Far Eastern Problems.” Dr. Buchanan has just returned from the Far East where he served as an advisor of the U.S. State Department.

1951. Buchanan, Daniel H. “Japan Versus ‘Asia.’” The American Economic Review, vol. 41, no. 2, 1951, pp. 359–66.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1910811

1954. One of five faculty retirements announced, Daniel H. Buchanan, Professor, School of Business Administration.
The News and Observer (June 2, 1954), p. 6.

1954. Last academic stop. Lambuth College.

Dr. Daniel H. Buchanan, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, until recently a member of the faculty of the University of N.C., is joining the faculty of Lambuth College in September, Dr. Luther L. Gobbel, president, announced today. Dr. Buchanan will teach courses in economics and serve as head of the department.
A native of Kansas, Dr. Buchanan received the A.B. degree from Colorado College and the A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard University. He also holds the degree of Doctor of Science in economics from Keiogijuku University in Japan. At Harvard he was holder of the rare Sheldon Scholarship.
Dr. Buchanan is the author of three books: “Rural Economy of Japan”, “Historical Approach to Rent and Price Theory”, and “Development of Capitalist Enterprise in India.” [sic, the first two are more likely references to his published articles]
The Jackson Sun (August 5, 1954) Jackson, Tennessee, p. 1.

1956. Dr. Robert L. Conrod succeeds Dr. D.H. Buchanan, who is retiring from teaching at his own request. Effective beginning of the second semester January 30. He and his wife retire to their home in Chapel Hill.
The Jackson Sun (January 22, 1956), p. 5.

1959.  Died February 16, 1959 in Denver, Colorado.

Daniel Houston Buchanan, 76, retired professor of economics of the University of North Carolina died at a sanatorium in Denver, Colo., yesterday after an illness of three years. He was a member of the faculty at Chapel Hill from 1935 until his retirement in 1954.
AP story from Winston-Salem Journal (Feb. 17, 1959),
p. 6.

Image Source: Daniel Houston Buchanan. Harvard 1932 Classbook. Page 24

Categories
Barnard Columbia Economists Gender Vassar

Columbia. Economics Ph.D. Alumna, Margaret Good Myers (Beckhart), 1931

I feel as though some apology is due Vassar College from Economics in the Rear-view Mirror for having filed this post under Columbia University, the alma mater for Margaret Good Myers’ 1931 Ph.D. in economics. She did teach thirty years at Vassar College after all. I’ll use my pang of guilt as an opportunity to remind visitors that the focus of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is the history of undergraduate and graduate economics education, so tagging economists to the institutions where they received their training makes sense as principle for ordering the artifacts transcribed and posted. While the where and how of any particular economist ending their performance on the stage of economics will matter for the biographer, we are taking the opposite perspective of the young economist beginning the performance of their lifetime.

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For more on economics @ Vassar

Shirley Johnson-Lans, “The History of Economics at Vassar College” (Feb. 2011).

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Margaret Good Myers (Beckhart)

1899. Born April 3 in Fremont, Ohio to Philetus ‘Leet’ Blanser and Katherine Mary Mangold Myers.

1920. A.B. Barnard College

1921. Married Benjamin Haggott Beckhart (1897-1975). One son.

1922. M.A. Columbia University

1920-22. Statistician, Federal Reserve Bank of N.Y.

1922. Monthly Production of Pig Iron, 1884-1903. Journal of the American Statistical Association 18 (June): 247-9.

1923-25. Director of Statistics, East Harlem Nursing and Health Demonstration

1926-30. Research consultant for the Council of Research in the Social Sciences of Columbia university

1931. Ph.D. Columbia University. Thesis: The New York Money Market, Vol. I: Origins and Development. Published by Columbia University Press.

1931-32. Fellow, Social Science Research Council. Research in economics at the Faculté de Droit of the University of Paris.

1933. Research at University of Vienna.

Research Consultant for the 20th Century Fund [

1934. Begins teaching at Vassar.

1936. Paris as a Financial Center. New York: Columbia University Press.

1940. Monetary Proposals for Social Reform. New York: Columbia University Press. [“Published in celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of Vassar College and in honor of Henry Noble MacCracken in the twenty-fifth year of his presidency.”]

1960. Listed in Who’s Who in America.

1964. Retires from teaching at Vassar.

1965 Summer. Visits Moscow, Leningrad, Tashkent, Samarkan, Kharkov and Kiev. Part of second reciprocal program of exchange visits initiated by Nikita Khruschev in 1963.
Source: Vassar Miscellany News, Volume L, Number 12, 15 December 1965, p. 3.

1970. A Financial History of the United States. New York: Columbia University Press.

1988. Died July 11 in Medford, NJ

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‘I had to fight to keep my own name.’
(1978 Interview)

            Margaret Myers, professor emeritus of economics, taught at Vassar from 1934 to 1964. Talking to Professor Myers is like talking to one of the original feminists, a Lucy Stoner.

            “I decided early on to be a feminist and not to be fully dependent on a man for my spending money. My husband fully agreed with me. I wouldn’t have married him if he hadn’t. Some girls are naive about that, not knowing where their future husbands stand on such issues.

            “Girls used to come up to me after class and ask why I didn’t believe in marriage. I’d say I had been married to the same man for thirty years.” Needless to say, the students were surprised for Miss Myers never changed her name. “I have always used my own name. I even vote in my own name, but I had to fight to keep it.”

            Although Professor Myers loved teaching, she felt ready to retire at 65. She had a book underway, A Financial History of the United States, now being translated into Japanese. She was also active locally in the League of Women Voters and in Planned Parenthood.

            “I have been on the Planned Parenthood board through two six-year terms. I feel that birth control is the most important element in social reform. I think that much crime can be traced back to unwanted, unloved, unskilled young people. The Right to Life people should have to pay taxes to support unwanted young children.”

            Miss Myers feels controlling family size might also be a way to reduce the infant death rate. ‘‘lnfant death rate in the United States is shockingly high. Sixteen other, countries have infant death rates lower than ours. But it seems that the idea that women can control their own bodies sends men into an hysterical rage.”

            While an undergraduate at Barnard College, Miss Myers took a course entitled ‘‘Women in Gainful Occupations.” “In that course, we read about women’s wages and women’s jobs in factories. It was the nearest thing to consciousness-raising for me.”

            Miss Myers had wanted to attend Vassar but couldn’t at that time because no financial aid was offered to freshmen. Instead she went to Barnard and met her husband, Haggott Beckhart, in a graduate course in statistics. Miss Myers recalled, “The class was so boring that we had to entertain each other.” In 1921 Miss Myers was married to Mr. Beckhart, then a professor in the Columbia Business School.

            During Myers’s years at Vassar, the Economics Department had an activist orientation, and its members were politically involved. Miss Mabel Newcomer, an economics professor and contemporary of Miss Myers, had been at Bretton Woods on a committee to establish the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

            When I met Edna Macmahon at the Bryn Mawr summer school in 1922, we were arrested for strikebreaking in Philadelphia, although we had only been interviewing the strikebreakers. The police were just arresting anyone near the factory.”

            Although she felt that the Economics Department was politically conscious when she came to Vassar, Miss Myers does not remember much of a feminist movement here. She does remember that there were more women on the faculty and in the administration than today. “Presidents McCracken and Blanding were pretty fair-minded about women in the faculty and administration. I don’t think that women felt discriminated against under these two.

            “The Depression was an awful setback for the women’s movement. Since women couldn’t get jobs, they just grabbed onto the nearest man. After World War II, there was a growth of patriotic motherhood. Again, women suffered a setback. Women just married and had children, and didn’t go to graduate schools. These factors made it unusual to be a feminist.”

            While these factors may have made it unusual for other women to be feminists, they never stopped Margaret Myers.

Source: Carla De Landri, “Six emeriti who chose Poughkeepsie,” Vassar Quarterly, Volume LXXIV, Number 3 (March, 1978), p. 31.

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Book reviews by Margaret Good Myers

1930/1. Book Review of “The Labor Banking Movement in the United States” by Princeton University, Industrial Relations Section. Personnel Journal 9: 191-.

1930/1. Book Review of “Robots or Men? A French Workman’s Experience in American Industry” by Dubreuil. Personnel Journal 9: 264-.

1931/2. Book Review of “Cost of Living Studies II. How Workers Spend a Living Wage” by Peixotto. Personnel Journal 10: 67.

1931/2. Book Review of “The Movement of Money and Real Earnings in the United States, 1926-28” by Douglas and Jennison. Personnel Journal 10: 67.

1931/2. Book Review of “The National Income and Its Purchasing Power” by King. Personnel Journal 10: 67.

1932. Book Review of “Le Crédit par acceptation: Paris, centre financier” by Pierre-Benjamin Vigreux. Political Science Quarterly 47: 301-.

1935. Book Review of “Le Crédit” by Louis Baudin. Political Science Quarterly 50: 150-.

1938. Book Review of “La Monnaie et la formation des prix. Partie I: Les Eléments” by Louis Baudin. Political Science Quarterly 53: 310-.

Source: Bibliography from Kirsten K. Madden, Janet A. Seiz and Michèle Pujol, A Bibliography of Female Economic Thought to 1940. Routledge, 2004.

Image Source: Carla De Landri, “Six emeriti who chose Poughkeepsie,” Vassar Quarterly, Volume LXXIV, Number 3 (March, 1978), p. 31.