Category: Pennsylvania

Northwestern. Ranking of top 18 economics departments. Robert J. Gordon, 1979-1980

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-10-04
No Comments on Northwestern. Ranking of top 18 economics departments. Robert J. Gordon, 1979-1980

Robert J. Gordon calculated his own ranking of the top 18 economics departments in the United States and provided a description of his methodology in 1981. His motivation was to sell Northwestern’s program to prospective graduate students.

In an earlier post we encounter a couple of earlier attempts at departmental rankings.

____________________________

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

Robert J. Gordon
Professor of Economics

Department of Economics
Evanston, Illinois 60201
Telephone (312) 492-3616

May 18, 1981

Professor E. Cary Brown
Department of Economics
E52-373A
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA 02139

Dear Cary:

As you may know, for several years I have attempted to provide an independent rating of the quality of faculty at the top 20 U.S. economics departments. I am writing to you to obtain the information needed to update the last quality ranking that I did two years ago.

Because the questionnaire form for the Boddy survey has just been distributed, you may rightly ask why an additional department ranking is necessary or desirable. The strength of the Boddy survey is its wide coverage and large sample of respondents, but its weakness is that no information is provided to respondents to inform them accurately of the current members of the faculties of the departments on the list. The average respondent may be several years out of date in knowing that Professor A has migrated from Department B to Department C, and in the case of many departments may have no information at all. Also, there is no standard criterion on which to judge contributions of younger versus older faculty members, and contributions of economists in other parts of the university, e.g., business schools.

My own rating system is a complement to, not a substitute for, the Boddy survey. As described in the attached sheet, the strengths of the system are that it includes only tenured faculty, is based on actual faculty lists, and provides a uniform treatment of economists in business schools and other outside departments. The assignment of quality scores to individuals obviously must contain a subjective element, but is based as much as possible on objective criteria, e.g., prizes, awards, outside job offers, and citations.

I hope you will help me provide the information I need about your department. This consists of:

1. Your faculty list for 1981-82. If this is not yet typed, please send a list for 1980-81 and pencil in any changes that involve tenured faculty members. Indicate any members who are on leaves of two years or more in government or administrative jobs.
2. Just as important, please provide a list, which can be handwritten, of tenured economists in other departments (Business School, Law School, etc.) who make a significant contribution to the life of economics graduate students by (a) giving courses taken by substantial numbers of economics graduate students, (b) regularly attending seminars in economics, (c) serving on dissertation committees, etc.

Originally this rating system was used to provide information to prospective Northwestern graduate students (even though Northwestern has never ranked higher than eighth). Now the results have taken on a life of their own, so I would appreciate any improvements in the methodology that you would like to suggest (so long as it does not involve rating non-tenured faculty members, which I think is basically impossible).

Sincerely,
[signature: Bob]
Robert J. Gordon

Enclosure

RJG/JR

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

EXPLANATION OF METHOD USED TO COMPILE
1979-80 “GORDON QUALITY SCORE”

As a partial substitute I have compiled a quality ranking for each of the top 18 departments in the United States. In consultation with several highly regarded economists, all permanent (tenured) faculty members in the top 18 U.S. departments have been rated with a “quality score” ranging from one (low) to 10 (superman). Then the total scores in each department of faculty members rated “6” or above have been added up. While my score is obviously subjective, whereas the Boddy score is based on a large sample, nevertheless there are two primary advantages to my method. (1) The ratings are current, taking account of the movements in Summer 1979 of J. Stiglitz from England to Princeton and in Summer 1978 of K. Arrow from Harvard to Stanford, R. Hall from M.I.T. to Stanford, T. Bewley from Harvard to Northwestern, and D. McFadden from Berkeley to M.I.T. (2) The ratings are based on a great deal more information than was available to most if not all of the Boddy respondents — I obtained complete faculty listings from all 18 departments in May, 1978, and have consulted with a wide variety of individuals and other sources of information in making the individual faculty rankings.

Because many economists have expressed an interest in the methods used in establishing the ranking, a few details are included here for the record:

Only tenure members are included, reflecting the risk that nontenure members may depart a department before new graduate students can benefit from them, as well as the difficulty of rating young professors who are not yet widely known or cited.
Heavy weight is given to objective evidence in establishing the rankings–winners of the Nobel Prize and the A.E.A.’s John Bates Clark award are all awarded scores in the “9” or “10” category, as are several close contenders for those prizes.Another useful piece of information is the list of Fellows of the Econometric Society, perhaps the only honor in economics in which the selection is made annually by a worldwide electorate of distinguished economists. Other honors, including selection to the NSF advisory panel and the editorial boards of leading journals, are taken into account as well.
Some account is taken of recent productivity, reflecting the fact that a faculty member who is currently working on the frontier is likely to be more useful to a graduate student than an established “star” whose main achievements date back to the 1940s or 1950s. A helpful and objective guide is the comprehensive Social Science Citations Index.^1/
The ranking of each department is not limited to the tenure economists who happen to be on the premises with full-time appointments in the economics department.Quality scores are allocated, and a weight of one-half given, to (a) economists in closely related departments (usually business schools, but also law schools, statistics departments, and schools of public administration); (b) economists who now have a full-time job in the university administration; and (c) economists who are on a multi-year leave in Washington and who may be unavailable to graduate students for several years.

^1/These criteria have offsetting biases. For instance, young mathematical economists tend to be elected relatively easily to the Fellowship of the Econometric Society but do not tend to be cited often in the Citations Index.

The results are:

			1975 Boddy Ranking
Rank	Department	1979-80 Gordon Quality Score	Quality of Graduate Faculty	Effectiveness of Graduate Program
1.	Harvard	179	1 (tie)	5 (tie)
2.	Yale	155	4	2 (tie)
3.	M.I.T.	148	1 (tie)	1
4.	Princeton	141	7	5 (tie)
5.	Chicago	140	1 (tie)	2 (tie)
6.	Stanford	136	5 (tie)	4
7.	Pennsylvania	130	8	10 (tie)
8.	Northwestern	128	9 (tie)	8 (tie)
9.	Berkeley	100	5 (tie)	7
10.	U.C.L.A.	97	12 (tie)	14 (tie)
11.	Minnesota	96	9 (tie)	8 (tie)
12.	Wisconsin	90	9 (tie)	10 (tie)
13.	Michigan	67	13 (tie)	10 (tie)
14.	Columbia	60	13 (tie)	17
15.	Maryland	57	(Below 20)	(Below 20)
16.	Rochester	56	13 (tie)	13
17.	Carnegie-Mellon	37	17	14 (tie)
18.	Brown	33	18 (tie)	18

Source: M.I.T. Institute Archives and Special Collections. MIT. Department of Economics. Records. Box 3, Folder “Quality Rankings”.

Image Source: Robert J. Gordon at First Bank of Japan Monetary Conference, June 1983. Detail from picture with James Tobin.

Tags Boddy, GordonRJ

Economists Pennsylvania Teaching

Pennsylvania. Sketch of origins of economics instruction. Plummer, 1925

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-05-31
1 Comment on Pennsylvania. Sketch of origins of economics instruction. Plummer, 1925

This 1925 memo was written in response to an inquiry by Edwin R. A. Seligman regarding the historical chronology of economics instruction at the University of Pennsylvania. It wandered into Joseph Dorfman’s papers where one finds a subset of Seligman’s papers.

_________________________

Sampler of University of Pennsylvania
Documents

Circular of Information relating to the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, 1893

Circular of Information relating to the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, 1894-95

Catalogue of the University of Pennsylvania at HathiTrust
(Full-views 1848/49 through 1928/29).

Emory Richard Johnson, The Wharton School: Its First Fifty Years, 1881-1931.

Chapter 8 of Edgar Potts Cheyney’s History of the University of Pennsylvania 1740-1940

_________________________

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA

Wharton School of
Finance and Commerce

October 29th, 1925.

Professor Edwin R. Seligman
Columbia University
New York, N. Y.

My dear Professor Seligman:

About two weeks ago you wrote to Professor [Emory Richard] Johnson asking about the early teaching of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania and I informed you that I would look into the matter and let you have anything I could. Dr. W. C. [Wilbur Clayton] Plummer, an instructor in Economics, who has considerable ability as an historian, looked into the situation for me. Just how much of what he has prepared will be of use to you I am not sure, but I am enclosing you the copy of his material exactly in the form in which he submitted it to me.

If I can be of further help, will you kindly let me know!

With personal regards.
Very cordially,
[signed] Ernest M. Patterson

EMP/MH

THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS
AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The catalogues of the University of Pennsylvania beginning with the one for the year 1824 are preserved in the office of the Secretary of the University, and the descriptions of courses in these catalogues clearly indicate that the subject of Economics was not taught between the years 1824 and 1855. However, beginning with the scholastic year, 1855-56, lectures on the subject of Political Economy were given by Dr. Henry Vethake, Provost of the University and Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. In addition to the lectures on Political Economy, Dr. Vethake gave Instruction in “Intellectual Philosophy, Ethics, the Evidences of Natural and Revealed Religion, Logic, the Elements of Natural, International and Constitutional Law, and History in connection with Chronology and Political Geography. (1)

(1) University Catalogue, 1855-56, page 13.

All students in the Senior Class of the Department of Arts were required to attend the lectures on Political Economy and to take examinations in the subject. The public was admitted to these lectures upon presentation of tickets which were procured from the Professor in charge of the course. (2)

(2) Pamphlet, Report of the Committee appointed on the 2nd of January, 1855, proposing certain additions and alterations in the existing Laws for the Government of the Collegiate Department, page 3.

Former Provost Edgar Fahs Smith believes that none of the catalogues prior to 1824 is extant. In the absence of this reliable source, we cannot speak definitely of the period prior to 1824, except to say that if the subject of Political Economy or National Economy had ever been introduced into the curriculum during the period prior to 1824 it was also dropped from the curriculum during this same early period.

In 1749, Benjamin Franklin, in his proposals for a “compleat education of youth,” published when he was organizing the Academy which later developed into the University, proposed a course which resembles very much a modern course in Economic History. He thought that information on the History of Commerce, on the Invention of Arts, on the Rise of Manufactures, on the Progress of Trade, and the Change of Its Seats, with the Reasons, Causes, etc., should be given. (3) It may be said that he was proposing the teaching of History and not Economics but we believe it proper to mention this suggestion of the illustrious founder for it certainly refers to a great deal of subject matter which was later to be treated in Political Economy and the present Economics.

(3) Montgomery, T. H., a History of the University of Pennsylvania from Its Foundation to 1770, page 500.

An advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette of December 11, 1750 [sic, not found in that issue, but see below], shows that the course of study included “Merchants’ Accounts.” We also mention this fact at the risk of introducing irrelevant material into this paper. However, used in its broadest sense, the Economics of the present time includes Accounting, and we felt justified in making reference to the course in “Merchants’ Accounts,” given in the University in 1750.

The Pennsylvania Gazette (Friday, 18 December 1750), p. 3.

As stated above, the first course in Political Economy, as far as we have been able to determine, was given during the year 1855-56 by the Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy. In 1868 the course was given by the Professor of English. In 1869, no course in Political Economy was given, but a course in Social Science was substituted for the course in Political Economy. The new course in Social Science undoubtedly included Political Economy as Carey was used as a text [see below]. In 1875, the course was changed again and given under the title “Social Science and National Economy.” The teacher at this time was Rev. Robert Ellis Thompson, who was appointed Assistant Professor of Social Science in 1874. The course was given in the Towne Scientific School as well as in the Department of Arts.

* * * * * * * * *

Carey, Henry Charles.
Principles of Political Economy.

Part the First: of the Laws of the Production and Distribution of Wealth. Philadelphia:1837.

Part the Second: of the Causes which Retard Increase in the Production of Wealth, and Improvement in the Physical and Moral Condition of Man. Philadelphia: 1837.

Part the Third and Part the Fourth: Of the Causes which Retard Increase in the Numbers of Mankind; Of the causes which Retard Improvement in the Political Condition of Man. Philadelphia: 1840.

* * * * * * * * *

The year 1881 was an outstanding year in the history of the University as far as the teaching of Economics is concerned. In that year the Wharton School of Finance and Economy, as it was then called, was founded. There was no Department of Political Economy but the course of study given under the Department of Social Science indicates the great emphasis placed upon the teaching of Economics in all its phases.

In the Senior year, the Economic studies were carried still further and the course of study included:

Lectures on Living Issues (Land, Labor, Monetary Questions in their popular aspects, Socialism and Communism, Free Trade and Protection, Charity Organization, Popular and Industrial Education);
Mulford’s Nation was studied, and
Original Research in the Theory and History of Economical Questions was made under direction of the Professor. (4)

(4) University Catalogue, 1881-82.

In the same year that the Wharton School was founded the University catalogue announced that “the University possesses what is believed to be the largest and most complete library of works on economic science that is to be found in any educational institution of the world. The foundation was laid by the great collection of the late Stephen Colwell, comprising between seven and eight thousand volumes, and including nearly every important book in this science in the English, French and Italian languages, besides many in German. This has been supplemented (1) by the gift from Mr. McCalmont of London, of a collection of some three thousand English pamphlets, covering the period from the close of the seventeenth century till our own time, and bound in chronological order; (2) by the bequest of the library of the late Henry C. Carey, including many works and pamphlets which appeared since Mr. Colwell’s death, and especially rich in statistical literature, European Governmental reports, and the like.” (5)

(5) University Catalogue, 1881-82, page 39.

The first Professorship of Political Economy in the University was established in 1888 and was held by Simon Nelson Patten. (6) Previous to the establishing of this professorship and the appointment of Professor Patten, Edmund Janes James, who had been appointed Professor of Finance and Administration in 1883 was one of the principal teachers of the various Economic subjects.

(6) Catalogue of Matriculates of the College, 1749-1893, prepared by a Committee of the Society of the Alumni, page XXIV.

Source: Columbia University Libraries Manuscript Collections. Joseph Dorfman Collection. Box 52 (Seligman, E.R.A.), Folder “E.R.A. Seligman, Correspondence”.

Image Source: University of Pennsylvania, PennLibraries. University Archives & Records Center website. “Henry Vethake, 1790-1866”.

Tags PlummerWC

Berkeley Brown Carnegie Institute of Technology Carnegie Mellon Chicago Columbia Cornell Duke Economics Programs Harvard Illinois Indiana Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas M.I.T. Michigan Michigan State Minnesota North Carolina Northwestern NYU Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Purdue Rochester Stanford Texas UCLA UWash Vanderbilt Virginia Virginia Tech Washington University Wisconsin Yale

U.S. Economics Graduate Programs Ranked, 1957, 1964 and 1969

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-07-29

Recalling my active days in the rat race of academia, a cold shiver runs down my spine at the thought of departmental rankings in the hands of a Dean contemplating budgeting and merit raise pools or second-guessing departmental hiring decisions.

But let a half-century go by and now, reborn as a historian of economics, I appreciate having the aggregated opinions of yore to constrain our interpretive structures of what mattered when to whomever.

Research tip: sign up for a free account at archive.org to be able to borrow items still subject to copyright protection for an hour at a time. Sort of like being in the old reserve book room of your brick-and-mortar college library. This is needed if you wish to use the links for the Keniston, Carter, and Roose/Andersen publications linked in this post.

___________________________

1925 Rankings

R. M. Hughes. A Study of the Graduate Schools of America (Presented before the Association of American Colleges, January, 1925). Published by Miami University at Oxford, Ohio. (See earlier post that provides the economics ranking from the Hughes’ study)

1957 Rankings

Hayward Keniston. Graduate Study and Research in the Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania (January 1959), pp. 115-119,129.

Tables from Keniston transcribed here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror:
https://www.irwincollier.com/economics-departments-and-university-rankings-by-chairmen-hughes-1925-and-keniston-1957/

1964 Rankings

Allan M. Cartter, An Assessment of Quality in Graduate Education Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1966.

1969 Rankings

Kenneth D. Roose and Charles J. Andersen, A Rating of Graduate Programs. Washington, D.C.: American Council on Education, 1970.

Tables transcribed below.

___________________________

Graduate Programs in Economics
(1957, 1964, 1969)

				Percentage of Raters Who Indicate:
Rankings				“Quality of Graduate Faculty” Is:
1957	1964	1969	Institution	Distiguish- ed and strong	Good and adequate	All other	Insufficient Information
Nineteen institutions with scores in the 3.0 to 5.0 range, in rank order
1	1*	1*	Harvard	97	–	–	3
not ranked	1*	1*	M.I.T.	91	–	–	9
2	3*	3	Chicago	95	–	–	5
3	3*	4	Yale	90	3	–	7
5*	5	5	Berkeley	86	9	–	5
7	7	6	Princeton	82	9	–	10
9	8*	7*	Michigan	66	22	–	11
10	11	7*	Minnesota	65	19	–	15
14	14*	7*	Pennsylvania	62	22	–	15
5*	6	7*	Stanford	64	25	–	11
13	8*	11	Wisconsin	63	26	–	11
4	8*	12*	Columbia	50	37	–	13
11	12*	12*	Northwestern	52	32	–	16
16	16	14*	UCLA	41	38	–	21
not ranked	12*	14*	Carnegie-Mellon Carnegie-Tech (1964)	39	35	–	26
not ranked	not ranked	16	Rochester**	31	39	1	29
8	14*	17	Johns Hopkins	31	56	–	13
not ranked	not ranked	18*	Brown**	20	52	1	27
15	17	18*	Cornell**	21	56	2	21
		*Score and rank are shared with another institution.
		**Institution’s 1969 score is in a higher range than ist 1964 score.

Ten institutions with scores in the 2.5 to 2.9 range, in alphabetical order (1969)
	Duke
	Illinois
	Iowa State (Ames)
	Michigan State
	North Carolina
	Purdue
	Vanderbilt
	Virginia
	Washington (St. Louis)
	Washington (Seattle)

Sixteen institutions with scores in the 2.0 to 2.4 range, in alphabetical order (1969)
	Buffalo*
	Claremont
	Indiana
	Iowa (Iowa City)
	Kansas
	Maryland
	N.Y.U.
	North Carolina State*
	Ohio State
	Oregon
	Penn State
	Pittsburgh
	Rice*
	Texas
	Texas A&M
	Virginia Polytech.*
* Not included in the 1964 survey of economics

Bryn Mawr Columbia Economists NYU Pennsylvania Wellesley

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

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-06-30

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.

_____________________

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.

Tags Douglas, DuBois, Mussey

Economic History Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Rejected proposal to the Committee on Research in Economic History. Kuznets, ca. 1941

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2022-05-23

The economic historian Earl J. Hamilton’s papers at the Economists’ Papers Archive at Duke University are, we shall say, rather disheveled, though not quite in the archival dusty way that John Maurice Clark’s papers at Columbia University are found by the rummaging historian. There are numbers of folders that might as easily be labelled “Everything plus the kitchen sink, 1930-1970” and it was in one such folder that the following undated memorandum of Simon Kuznets was found.

The backstory to this memo is that sometime around 1941 Simon Kuznets (then a forty-year old professor at the University of Pennsylvania) self-nominated his quantitative approach to economic history to become one of the pillars of a major project in economic history to be supported by the Rockefeller Foundation through the Social Science Research Council. His project was rejected which just might have had something to do with his later resignation from the Committee. The larger context is described in Arthur H. Cole. The Committee on Research in Economic History: An Historical Sketch. The Journal of Economic History, vol. XXX, No. 4 (December 1970), pp. 723-741.

In the debate pertinent to the fields most worthwhile for the Committee, considering the whole situation of public needs, quantum of research funds, paucity of existing talent, and the like, two proposals were elaborated for Committee consideration, both of which caused much debate and a postponement of decision on the selection of suitable subjects. One was submitted by [Edwin] Gay. He had apparently been much impressed by the summaries of changes in national foreign policies which Arnold Toynbee was then preparing for publication in England. (One of Gay’s personal connections was that of treasurer and active member of the Council on Foreign Relations.) He suggested a continuing group to record the significant alterations of conditions in the principal segments of the American economy. After lengthy debate, it was decided that this project would entail too great a commitment of our limited funds, and the proposition was tabled-and never called back into debate. The second scheme was that which Kuznets has prosecuted over the past two or three decades. At the period of our debate, he seemed unable to outline his program and define his objectives in a manner that satisfied his fellow members of the group. In the end this proposal also was shelved-permanently. Happily Kuznets did secure other financial backing within a few years and has been busy with the investigation ever since: the measurement of economic change and a determination of its cause. [p. 728]

In an earlier article, the (losing) Kuznets and Gay proposals were not mentioned however the winning topics were named in Arthur H. Cole, Committee on Research in Economic History: A Description of Its Purposes, Activities, and Organization. The Journal of Economic History. Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter, 1953), pp. 79-87.

The Committee on Research in Economic History owes its start to the scholarly interests of Dr. Joseph H. Willits and Dr. Anne Bezanson, at that time both associated with the Rockefeller Foundation. A committee of inquiry was nominated by them; a report of the needs of economic history was drafted by the committee; and, at the instance of Dr. Willits, a grant was made by the Foundation. In all these latter proceedings, Dr. Edwin F. Gay, director of research at the Huntington Library and the dean of American economic historians, was the energizing element. The grant was made in 1940.
During the following ten years, the committee operated as an organ of the Social Science Research Council. Subsequently it withdrew from the Council, secured incorporation as a nonprofit institution under the laws of the District of Columbia, and is now an independent body.
The objective specified for the committee in the grant of the Rockefeller Foundation was broad but simple: merely to develop the field of economic History….
…The specific areas in economic history which the committee found to be especially worthy of research attention and to which it decided initially to devote effort were (i) the relation of the state to American economic development; (2) the evolution of the corporation in the United States and Canada; (3) the history of banking in these same areas; and (4 ) the role of entrepreneurship in our economic progress. [pp. 79-80]

_________________________

Memorandum on General Bases of the Research Program

To: Members of Committee on Research in Economic History
From: Simon Kuznets

The concern of economic history is to describe and analyse changes over time in the structure and performance of an economic system. This should comprise not only qualitative changes in character of economic organization or faults in its structure (associated with such events as wars or revolutions), but also (b) quantitative measures of the economic factors and of their performance. Whatever may be said of the adequacy with which the discipline of economic history carried through task (a), it has, for various reasons, neglected (b). Yet it is in the combination of study of qualitative changes and structural faults with a quantitative analysis of factors, their interrelations and their performance, that lies the way to significant results.
The aims of economic history may be viewed as (a) providing economic changes, raw materials so as to reveal the lines of causal relation among them, and the patterns of quantitative change — all in application to the concrete historical unfolding of economic events, but with a view to results that can serve as tests and cornerstones for analysis of the present and prognosis of the future. The two aims are interdependent. Whatever may be said of the past efficiency of the discipline of economic history in satisfying aim (a), there appears to be a pressing need for strengthening its performance in attaining aim (b). Also, there is an obvious relation between the neglect by economic history in the past of quantitative analysis of the substantive performance of the economic system and its failure to interpret economic change in analytical categories (i.e., between 1b and 2b)
The adequacy or inadequacy of any specific study of qualitative changes in economic structure, or of any collection of raw materials, is to be judged in terms of the analytical uses to which the results can be put. The need for new data, whether qualitative or quantitative, can be seen clearly only in the light of a study guided by some significant problem which one intends to analyse in terms of historical experience. There is no way, barring the extreme and unimportant cases of complete absence of any empirical data, to determine the adequacy of raw materials and the character of the lacunae, except by coming to the data with a broad and well articulated question to which one seeks an answer.
Hence, the Committee should, in planning its research program, consider the advisability of selecting at least one broad problem, one comprehensive study that could serve as a focus of whatever narrower undertakings may be launched. In view of the need of emphasizing a combination of historical-qualitative, statistical and analytical methods of inquiry, the broad central study should force the investigators to use fully each and all of these types of research tools. This, of course, does not mean that similar combination of research tools should not be employed in any of the narrower studies the Committee may wish to launch.
As stated in my earlier communication, it seems to me that such a central comprehensive study could be formulated on, the broad topic of economic change in this country, to comprise: (a) a study of long term changes; (b) a study of shorter term recurrent fluctuations; and supplemented by (c) a chronological record of specific changes of the type provided by economic annals. (a) The study of long term or secular changes would deal with the quantitative aspects of the growth of population, production, size and organization of enterprise, various facets of the trade, transportation and credit systems, relation of domestic and foreign trade, relation of government etc. to the economic system, and so on. It would attempt to show how fast or slow such changes were in the past; what were the quantitatively measurable or qualitatively recordable factors that appeared to determine these rates or their changes; and what elements of persistence and variation in these long term trends can be discerned. (b) The study of shorter term fluctuations would attempt to present a record of business cycles in this country in their historical succession their peculiarities, in the light of qualitative and quantitative data available as well as of the hypotheses offered by economic theory. (c) Economic annals will seek to record the succession of specific events, which are of bearing upon both long and short term changes in the economy, events that do not appear clearly in continuous quantitative records. They will thus provide largely the qualitative materials needed for studies (a) and (b), and indeed will follow the principles of selection imposed by these broader studies.
Objections may be raised to the effect that such studies are impossibly wide; that we don’t have the materials for a complete story of secular changes of business cycles in the economy of this country; that the compilation of economic annals, if taken seriously, would alone absorb the efforts of a score of investigators for years to come. To all these objections I would reply that to wait with initiation of such broad, synthetic studies until materials are relatively complete would be to wait until the Greek Kalends; that if such studies are essentially impossible, we had better give up economic history; and that we shall contribute much more to the enrichment of society’s knowledge and understanding through a glorious allure in such broad undertakings than through inglorious successes in more specific, pedestrian studies. I would also point to a complete absence of even a single broad history of business fluctuations in this country: to the relative inadequacy of the synthesis of secular changes offered in the available literature; and to the reasonable assumption that a tentative synthesis now is not the less valuable because it is necessarily tentative and will give room to a more thoroughly grounded one in the decades to come.
The need for such a broad comprehensive study is suggested also by the following two considerations. First, a large literature already exists on the long term changes in various special fields, such as population various industries, some segments of the banking system, foreign trade, tariffs, business organization, etc.; and yet there are few thoroughgoing attempts, if any, to pull the threads together and weave the secular tendencies in these various, essentially related aspects of the economic system into a coherent study that would use adequately quantitative and qualitative data as well as theoretical hypotheses. On cyclical fluctuations too there are a number of special published studies, inadequate as they may be in toto. Even if the proposed inquiries of secular change and of business cycles accomplish nothing more than to bring the results of already published studies together, evaluate them critically, and point to the questions still unanswered, a valuable service will be performed. But naturally, the inquiries proposed may and will in addition utilize primary data that have not yet been analysed and published.
The second important consideration is that at present, in times of rapid change in structure and performance of our economic and social system, it is particularly necessary to think through our past in terms that will shed some light on the present and on the future. I do not suggest that the broad studies proposed will provide a definitive answer as to where we go from here, or enable us to establish immutable trends and laws. But they should help us to distinguish durable from transient phenomena; guard us and others against interpreting the past and present in terms of emotionally determined patters of group or class thinking; and thus bring the results of dispassionate social study to bear most efficiently and directly to the understanding and solution of present problems. I fail to see how studies of narrower scope can be expected to perform this important function.
It will be noted that the broad studies proposed involve no confining scheme except the distinction among various types of economic change by the temporal span of their persistence. This distinction is so fundamental that it cannot and should not be neglected in any historical study. Within the framework of each type of change, all the related processes of economic life should be considered — in proportion to their relative importance in determining the character and significance of the changes under study. The other topics suggested in our discussions and correspondence so far, such as the increasing control by the state, or influence of free land, or studies of firms in a given industry, or studies of a region, all appear to be too narrow to serve as the focusing point and central study of the Committee’s research program. They can be justified only within a broader framework that should explain why this and not another facet of economic life is to be studied; and how the studies so circumscribed can be expected to yield results of analytical validity without consideration of related factors presumably excluded.
The carrying out of the central, basic group of studies would provide the justification for narrower undertakings, since they will supply the framework for the latter. It is the broad picture of secular changes and recurrent fluctuations in the economy of this country that will provide the needed background against which, e.g., a tendency towards increasing control by the state can be understood and studied. This does not mean that in actual practice we should wait with beginning the more specific studies until the synthetic studies are completed. But it does mean that the latter are an indispensable core of the program; should be envisaged, planned, and initiated among the first; and serve throughout the Committee’s activity as the focusing point of the whole range of undertakings.
The narrower studies should be launched only in so far as they are seen to contribute to the broader picture of trends and fluctuations in this country’s economy: either directly and immediately through their results or because they suggest new types of data, new types of approach, new methods which we wish to encourage because, if multiplied and followed, they will add significantly to the understanding of changes in the past and present. Some such criterion is indispensable if we are to guard against lowering the potential value of our efforts by devoting them to following beaten tracks, and adding to a large body of already existing data another batch, of low marginal utility.
This memorandum is intended as an amplification of the proposals submitted before; and to serve, if the Committee so wishes, as a basis for discussion at its forthcoming meeting. It need not be added that, strongly as I am inclined to the views presented here, I realize that they may be unduly influenced by past personal experience in economic and statistical research, by ignorance of the literature of economic history, and by a predilection towards broad canvas and general results; and I am therefore looking forward with interest to whatever critical comments the members of the Committee may wish to offer.

Source: Duke University. David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Economists’ Papers Archive. Earl J. Hamilton Papers, Box 2, Folder “Correspondence—Misc. 1930’s-1960s and n.d.”.

Tags Gay, Kuznets

Chicago Economic History Harvard NYU Pennsylvania Wisconsin

Minnesota. Interview about banking/financial historians. Heaton, 1955

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-12-11

In an earlier post we are provided with a glimpse of Minnesota professor Herbert Heaton’s wit in his answer to the question “What are economic historians made of?“. In preparing that post, I came across the following 1955 interview that provided some background assessments of economic historians who he judged might have been interesting for a Brookings project on the history of the Federal Reserve System.

A 2007 tribute from the Newsletter of the Economic History Association has been appended to this post for further biographical/career information.

___________________

Backstory to Heaton Interview

In 1954, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant to the Brookings Institution to undertake “a comprehensive history of the Federal Reserve System.” The collection consists of documents gathered or generated between 1954 and 1958, during the course of the Committee’s work.

MA (the interviewer below) was Mildred Adams “a New York journalist specializing in economic affairs”.

“Deputy Treasurer of the United States W. Randolph Burgess expressed his interest in writing a “definitive” history of the Federal Reserve System when he retired from federal service….”

“On January 21, 1954, the Rockefeller Foundation awarded a grant of $10,000 to the committee for an ‘exploratory study of the historical materials relating to the Federal Reserve System.’ The grant was to be administered by Brookings.”

“From January 1954 to June 1956, Mildred Adams served as research director of the project….Meanwhile, however, Burgess had been appointed under secretary of the Treasury and decided that he would not be able to start the planned comprehensive history any time soon. The committee spent the next two years searching for an able economic historian to assume direction of this major study.”

“By the spring of 1956, the committee’s failure to find a qualified scholar and Allan Sproul’s retirement from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and subsequent resignation as chairman of the committee caused problems. With no historian, the committee redefined its goals and requested the Rockefeller Foundation to relieve the committee of its obligation to write a ‘definitive’ major study and instead allow it to encourage smaller, topical studies of the Federal Reserve System.”

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER. Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System: Guide to the Brookings Institution Archives.

___________________

Notes from interview with Herbert Heaton

June 11, 1955

Internal Memorandum

Interview with Dr. Herbert Heaton, Professor of Economic History at the University of Minnesota

I went out to see Dr. Heaton on a Saturday morning at his home in Minneapolis and found him a charming Yorkshireman with a delightful sense of humor and a wide knowledge of both economics and history. Were he a little younger, he might prove to be the ideal person to do this work, although I have not yet read his books. I discussed the whole project with him in detail and then asked for any suggestions of people he might have for our purposes.

Dr. Heaton confirmed what we have already found, namely that the field is a rather arid one in the realm where history and economics meet. He himself had been on the committee which set up the economic history group with which Professor Arthur Cole of Harvard works. He agreed with Dr. [Walter W.] Stewart that that had rather worked itself out, though he said that the Hidys [Ralph Willard Hidy and Muriel E. (Wagenhauser) Hidy] were doing good work in their chosen field. They are to spend this summer in Minneapolis working on the Weyerhauser Lumber business.

Dr. Heaton said that John [K.] Langum was a brilliant student in the Harvard Business School. He had a minor in economic history and a fine historical sense.

He suggested that we talk to [Charles] Ray Whittlesey of the Wharton School who is interested in banking history. He thought that Whittlesey might have useful recommendations and called him one of the best insofar as historical interests in economic matters are concerned.

He spoke of Herman Kruse [sic, Herman E. Krooss] of New York University as someone who wrote well on financial history. He said that Mr. Kruse had energy, capacity and ability to handle material, but he seemed to think that he was lacking in tact, and he was not quite sure what he might do with an assignment in this project.

A young man named Robert Jost, now at Minnesota doing a doctor’s thesis on the Chatfield Bank, may be a possibility later on in the project, depending on what he makes of the Chatfield Bank. It is a small bank in Minnesota which, for some fortunate reason, has kept all its records and is making a very interesting study.

At the University of Wisconsin Dr. Heaton said that Rondo Cameron was working on the Credit Mobilier in Paris was worth watching. This again is a matter of seeing what he turns out.

He said that [Walter] Rostow at M.I.T., who has been devoting himself to business cycles, would ask the right questions of the material. Rostow has a quick mind and the right range of interests for this project. Oxford and Cambridge had both invited him for next year. His research expert is Mrs. [Anna] Schwartz. His brother [Eugene Rostow] is Dean of the Law School at Yale. In Dr. Heaton’s opinion, Mr. Rostow ought certainly to be explored.

Dr. Heaton says that Arthur Marget is someone he has known in the past as being brilliant on history or theory. He did not know that Mr. Marget had now gone to the Board and wondered if this might rule him out so far as the international sphere is concerned.

He also spoke of Frank A. Knox, who got his Ph.D at the University of Chicago and now writes reviews in the Canadian Journal of Economic and Political Science. Mr. Knox has not published much, but he is worth watching in Dr. Heaton’s opinion.

Dr. Heaton promised to keep the project in mind. He will talk with his associates about it and will send us any other suggestions which come up in the course of his work at the University of Minnesota.

We explored the things which he himself was doing, and he said that he had just turned 65 and did not believe that one should take on these big projects after that age. I had the feeling that he might, however, be interested in the project sufficiently so that he would take a piece of it. I had no authority to discuss it with him at that time, but I think this is worth considering. As a beginning, it might be worthwhile to read his “Economic History of Europe.”

MA:IB

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. FRASER. Committee on the History of the Federal Reserve System.

___________________

Past Presidents of the EHA:
Herbert Heaton

Herbert Heaton was one of the founding members of the Economic History Association, serving as one of its two inaugural vice presidents, ascending to the presidency in 1949, and remaining active in the association until his death. Along with E.A.J. Johnson and Arthur Cole, he drafted a grant application to the Rockefeller Foundation, which resulted in a $300,000 award in December of 1940. The grant financed research in economic history over the next four years. Heaton was a member of the original board of trustees of the EHA. Each of the five original members went on to serve as president of the association: Edwin F. Gay (1941-42), Heaton (1949-50), Earl J. Hamilton (1951-52), E.A.J. Johnson (1961-62), and Shepard B. Clough (1969).

Heaton was active in the formation of the EHA and was personally responsible for the recruitment of most of the members from the Midwest. He was an enthusiastic scholar of the evolution and applications of economic history, authoring several articles on the history of the discipline and a biography of Edwin Gay, the first president of the EHA. In an article entitled “Clio’s New Overalls,” published in The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science(November, 1954), Heaton was one of the first authors to discuss the marriage of clio and its metric partner in regard to the study of economic history. His discussion of the metric side of the equation was anything but enthusiastic however. Instead, he criticized the tendency of young scholars to use technical tools to make precise measurements of what he considered to be inaccurate data.

Heaton was born in England on June 6, 1890, the son of a blacksmith. He studied history and economics at the University of Leeds, earning his B.A. in 1911. He earned his M.A. in 1912 from the London School of Economics before accepting a position as assistant lecturer in economics under (Sir) William Ashley at the University of Birmingham. While there, he earned another Masters degree in 1914. He then moved to Australia and began a post as lecturer in history and economics at the University of Tasmania.

While in Tasmania Heaton developed the study of economics and encouraged research into Australian economic history. His controversial comments on the war provoked the censure of the more conservative elements of the Tasmanian press and public. In 1917 he moved to the University of Adelaide where he expanded the economics discipline and developed the diploma of commerce. Once again his liberal opinions aroused the ire of the conservative business class. Heaton argued that capitalism was the root of all the evils of individual and corporate life. He subscribed to the Marxist belief that capitalism would eventually give way to socialism. Consequently, the university refused to establish a degree in economics while Heaton led the discipline. As a means of preserving his academic career, he accepted a chair of economic and political science at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario in 1925. He stayed in Canada for two years before moving to the University of Minnesota, where he remained until he retired in 1958.

In 1936, Heaton compiled his research on Europe and published the Economic History of Europe, which was for a long time the standard text on the subject. Heaton said that he wrote the book especially for students with no background in economic history. He summed up economic history as the story of how man has worked to satisfy his material wants, in an environment provided by nature, but capable of improvement, in an organization made up of his relations with his fellows, and in a political unit whose head enjoys far-reaching power to aid, control, and appropriate. Such lofty views of the discipline were what made Heaton such a dedicated and valuable member of the Economic History Association.

Herbert Heaton died on January 24, 1973 in Minneapolis, survived by his three Australian-born children and his wife Marjorie Edith Ronson. He was an active scholar to the end of his life, publishing his ninth and final article in the JEH in June of 1969, nearly 28 years after his first JEH appearance.

Sources

Archives of the Economic History Association, Hagley Museum, Wilmington, DE.

Blaug, Mark, ed., Who’ s who in economics: a biographical dictionary of major economists, 1700-1986, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986, 2nd ed.

Bourke, Helen, “Heaton, Herbert (1890-1973),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 9, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp. 250-251.

Cole, Arthur H., “Economic History in the United States: Formative Years of a Discipline,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Dec., 1968), pp. 556-589.

de Rouvray, Cristel, “‘Old’ Economic History in the United States: 1939- 1954,” Journal of the History of Economic Thought, Vol. 26, No. 2 (June, 2004), pp. 221-39.

Harte, N.B., “Herbert Heaton, 1890-1973: A Biographical Note and a Bibliography [Obituary],” Textile History Vol. 5 (1974), p. 7.

Payne, Elizabeth, “Herbert Heaton,” term paper for Professor Robert Whaples, Wake Forest University, 2006.

Selected writings of Herbert Heaton

“Heckscher on Mercantilism,” The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 45, No. 3 (June, 1937), pp. 370-93.

“Rigidity in Business Since the Industrial Revolution,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, Part 2, Supplement, Papers and Proceedings of the Fifty-second Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (Mar., 1940), pp. 306-313.

“Non-Importation, 1806-1812,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Nov., 1941), pp. 178-98.

“The Early History of the Economic History Association,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 1, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (Dec., 1941), pp. 107-09.

“Recent Developments in Economic History,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 47, No. 4 (July, 1942) pp. 727- 46.

“The Making of an Economic Historian,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 9, Supplement: The Tasks of Economic History (1949), pp. 1-18.

“Clio’ s New Overalls,” The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Nov., 1954), pp. 467-77.

“Twenty-Five Years of the Economic History Association: A Reflective Evaluation,” The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), pp. 465-79.

Modern economic history, with special reference to Australia, Melbourne: Macmillan & Co., 1925.

A history of trade and commerce, with special reference to Canada, Toronto: T. Nelson & Sons, 1928.

The British Way to Recovery: Plans and Policies in Great Britain, Australia, and Canada, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1934.

Economic History of Europe, New York: Harper, 1948.

A Scholar in Action, Edwin F. Gay, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1952.

Source: Past Presidents of the EHA: Herbert Heaton, The Newsletter of the Economic History Association (ed. Michael Haupert), No. 31 (December 2007), pp. 16-18.

Image Source: Newsletter of the Economic History Association, No. 31 (December 2007), p. 16.

Tags Cameron, ColeAH, Heaton, Hidy, Jost, Knox, Krooss, Langum, Marget, RostowWW, Schwartz, Whittlesey

Brown Chicago Columbia Cornell Dartmouth Economics Programs Harvard Illinois Kansas M.I.T. Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Purdue Rochester Swarthmore Vanderbilt Vassar Virginia Washington University Wellesley Williams Wisconsin Yale

United States. Courses of Study of Political Economy. 1876 and 1892-93.

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-11-22

The first article in the inaugural issue of The Journal of Political Economy, “Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93,” was written by the founding head of the University of Chicago’s department of political economy, J. Laurence Laughlin. This post provides Laughlin’s appendix that provided information about economics courses taught in 65 colleges/universities in the United States during the last quarter of the 19th century. The bottom line of the table is that “aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 [were] more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876”.

__________________________

“How little Political Economy and Finance were taught only fifteen years ago, as compared with the teaching of to-day, must be surprising even to those who have lived and taught in the subject during that period…. At the close of the war courses of economic study had practically no existence in the university curriculum; in short, the studious pursuit of economics in our universities is scarcely twenty years old. These considerations alone might be reasons why economic teaching has not yet been able to color the thinking of our more than sixty millions of people. But about the close of the first century of our national existence it may be said that the study of Political Economy entered upon a new and striking development. This is certainly the marked characteristic of the study of Political Economy in the last fifteen years. How great this has been may be seen from the tables giving the courses of study, respectively, in about 60 institutions in the year 1876 and in 1892-3. (See Appendix I.) The aggregate hours of instruction in 1892-3 are more than six times the hours of instruction given in 1876.” [Laughlin, p. 4]

__________________________

Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93.

Note: Returns could not be obtained from Johns Hopkins University, Amherst College, and some other institutions.

Institution.	Description of Courses.	1876.		1892-3.
		No. hours per week.	No. weeks in year.	No. hours per week.	No. weeks in year.
University of Alabama.	Text Book and Lectures, Senior Year Finance and Taxation	— —	— —	4 2	36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
Boston University.	Principles of Political Economy	—	—	3	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.	Elementary (Required) Advanced (Elective)	5 —	14 —	4 4	12 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		88
Brown University, Providence, R. I.	Elementary History of Econ. Thought Advanced Course [2^nd] Advanced Course Seminary of History, Pol. Sci., and Pol. Econ.	2½ — — — —	16-17 — — — —	3 3 3 3 2	33-34 11-12 11 11 23
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	40-42½		242-250
University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.	1. Introductory Political Economy 2. Descriptive Political Economy 3. Advanced Political Economy 4. Industrial and Economic History 5. Scope and Method 6. History of Political Economy 7. Unsettled Problems 8. Socialism 9. Social Economics 10. Practical Economics 11. Statistics 12. Railway Transportation 13. Tariff History of U.S. 14. Financial History of U.S. 15. Taxation 16. Public Debts 17. Seminary	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	5 4 5 4 4 5 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4	12 12 12 24 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		996
Colby University, Waterville, Maine.	Elementary [1^st] Elementary [2^nd] Theoretical Historical	5 — — —	7 — — —	2 2 4 4	13 10 13 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	35		138
Columbia College (School of Political Science, New York City.	1. Principles of Political Economy (Element.) 2. Historical Practical Political Economy (Advanced) 3. History of Economic Theory (Advanced) 4. Public Finance (Adv.) 5. Railroad Problems (Adv.) 6. Finan. History of U.S. (Adv.) 7. Tariff History of U.S. (Adv.) 8. Science of Statistics (Adv.) 9. Communism and Socialism (Adv.) 10. Taxation and Distribution (Adv.) 11. Seminarium in Political Economy (Element.) 12. Seminarium in Public Finance and Economy (Adv.) 13. Law of Taxation (Adv.) 3 and 5, 6 and 7, 8 and 9 given in alternate years.	2 — — — — — — — — — — — —	17 — — — — — — — — — — — —	2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2	17 34 34 34 25 34 17 34 34 17 34 34 17
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	34		764
Columbian University, Washington, D.C.	Elements of Political Economy	—	—	5	8
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		40
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.	1. Elementary Political Economy 2. Advanced Political Economy 3. Finance 4. Financial History 5. Railroad Problems 6. Currency and Banking 7. Economic History 8. Statistics	2 — — — — — — —	11 — — — — — — —	3 2 2 2 2 2 2 1	34 34 34 13 11 10 34 34
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	22		408
Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced 3. Advanced Finance and Tariff	6 — —	6 — —	6 6 6	6 2/3 4 1/6 3 1/3
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		85
University of Denver, Col.	1. Ely’s Introduction 2. Ingram’s History 3. Gilman’s Profit-Sharing 4. Ely, Labor Movement in America 5. Kirkup’s and Rae’s Socialism 6. Finance and Taxation 7. International Commerce	— — — — — — —	— — — — — — —	2 1 1 2 2 4 2	15 5 5 5 5 5 5
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		90
DePauw University, Greencastle, Ind.	Economics (Elementary) Seminarium (Advanced)	4 —	12 —	4 2	18 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		144
Drury College, Springfield, Mo.	Elementary Course	5	6	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		60
Emory College, Oxford, Ga.	Jevons’ Text, and Lectures.	—	—	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
Franklin and Marshall College.	Political Economy, (Walker’s)	2	15	2	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		40
Georgetown College, Ky.	1. General Economics 2. Special Topics	5 —	15 —	3 3	20 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	75		120
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.	1. Introductory 2. Theory (Advanced) 3. Economic History from 1763 4. Railway Transportation 5. Tariff History of U.S. 6. Taxation and Public Debts 7. Financial Hist. of U.S. 8. Condition of Workingmen 9. Economic Hist. to 1763 10. History of Theory to Adam Smith Seminary	3 3 — — — — — — — — —	30 30 — — — — — — — — —	3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 2	30 30 30 15 15 30 15 30 30 15 30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	180		735
Haverford College, Pa.	Economic Theory	—	—	2	40
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		80
Howard University, Washington, D. C.	Elementary	5	10	5	10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	50		50
Illinois College and Whipple Academy, Jacksonville, Ill.	Newcomb’s Polit. Economy, Seniors	—	—	5	15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		75
University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill.	Senior Class	5	11	5	11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	55		55
Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa.	Political Economy Taxation Railroad Problems Socialism	5 — — —	10 — — —	3 3 3 3	37 14 12 11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	50		222
State University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa.	Elements of Economics Currency and Banking Industrial Revolutions of 18^thCentury Recent Econ. History and Theory Railroads, Pub. Regulation of Seminary in Polit. Econ.	5 — — — — —	14 — — — — —	5 5 2 2 2 1	14 11 14 11 10 35
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		230
Kansas State Agricultural College, Manhattan, Kan.	Elementary, 4^th year	5	8	5	11
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	40		55
Kansas State University, Lawrence, Kansas.	1. Elements of Political Economy 2. Applied Economics 3. Statistics 4. Land Tenures 5. Finance	5 — — — —	19 — — — —	5 3 2 2 2	19 19 19 19 19
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	95		266
Lake Forest University, Lake Forest, Ill.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced	3 —	11 —	3 3	16 13
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	33		87
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass.	1. Political Economy, Elem., Junior Year 2. Financial Hist. of U.S., Jun. and Sen. Year 3. Taxation, Junior and Senior Year 4. History of Commerce 5. History of Industry, Junior and Senior Year. 6. Socialism, etc. (Option), Jun. and Sen. Year 7. History of Economic Theory (Opt.), Senior 8. Statistics and Graphic Methods, Junior 9. Statistics and Sociology (Option) Senior	2 — — — — — — — —	15 — — — — — — — —	3 3 3 3 — 3 2 2 3	15 15 15 15 — 15 15 15 15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	30		375
Michigan Agricultural College.	Primary Course	—	—	5	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		60
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.	1. Elements of Political Economy 2. Elements of Political Economy 3. Hist. Devel. of Industr. Society 4. Finance 5. Problems in Pol. Econ 6. Transportation Problem 7. Land Tenure and Agrarian Movements 8. Socialism and Communism 9. Currency and Banking 10. Tariff History of U.S. 11. Indust. and Comm. Develop. of U.S. 12. History of Pol. Econ. 13. Statistics 15. Economic Thought 16. Labor and Monopoly Problems 17. Seminary in Finance 18. Seminary in Economics 20. Social Philosophy with Economic Relations 21. Current Econ. Legislation and Literature	2½ — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	18 — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	3 4 3 4 4 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 2 2 1 2	18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	45		756
Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont.	1. Elementary (Junior Class) 2. Advanced (Senior Class) 3. Finance (Senior Class) 4. Seminary	4 4 — —	10 10 — —	3 2 2 1	35 21 14 21
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	80		196
University of Minnesota.	1. Elementary 2. Advanced 3. Am. Pub. Economy 4. Undergraduate Seminary 5. Graduate Seminary	5 — — — —	13 — — — —	4 4 4 2 1	13 13 10 23 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	65		226
University of Mississippi, University, Miss.	Advanced	—	—	5	30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		150
Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.	Polit. Econ. (General) Polit. Econ. Seminary	— —	— —	4 2	12 12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		72
College of New Jersey at Princeton.	Pol. Econ. (Elem., Elective) Pol. Econ. (Elem., Required) Finance (Elective) Historics—Econ. Semin.	2 — — —	13 — — —	— 2 2 2	— 16 16 15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	26		94
College of the City of New York.		—	—	—	16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		48^*
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, Hanover, N. H.	Elementary—Perry or Walker	4	10-12	5	10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		50
Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio.	1. Elementary Polit. Econ. 2. Advanced Polit. Econ. 3. Finance 4. History Econ. Thought 5. Economic and Social Problems 6. “Money,” etc.	5 — — — — —	12 — — — — —	5 5 3 3 3 2	11 12 25 13 12 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	60		337
Ohio State University.	Elementary Advanced Finance Seminary (Indust. History)	— — — —	— — — —	2 2 2 2	38 26 12 38
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		228
Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio.		4	12	4	12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	48		48
Penn. Military Academy, Chester, Penn.	Elementary	—	—	5	13
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		65
University of Pennsylvania, Wharton, School of Finance and Economy, Philadelphia, Penn.	1. Grad. Course in Finance 2. Grad. Course in Theoretical Polit. Econ. 3. Grad. Course in Statistics 4. Elem. Course in Finance 5. Elem. Course in Theoret. Polit. Econ. 6. Elem. Course in Statistics 7. Elem. Course in Practical Polit. Econ. 8. Course in Money 9. Course in Banking 10. Advanced Course in Political Economy 11. Economic History of Europe 12. Grad. Course in Practical Polit. Econ. 13. Econ. and Fin. History of U.S. 14. Grad. Econ. History of the U.S. 15. Grad. English Econ. History from 13^th to 17^th century 16. Modern Econ. History.	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —	1 2 3 3 2 2 2 2 1 2 3 2 2 4 3 3	30 30 30 30 30 15 15 15 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 30
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		1020
Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.	Elementary Course	—	—	3	19
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		57
Randolph Macon College, Ashland, Va.	Elementary	2	32	2	32
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	64		64
University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y.	Elementary Econ. Polit. History U.S.	5 —	14 —	5 1	14 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	70		90
Rutger’s College.	Polit. Econ. (Elementary)	3	12	4	22
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		88
Smith College, Northampton, Mass.	Elementary Course Adv. Course in Theory Seminarium Practical Studies	3 — — —	12 — — —	3 3 2 2	14 14 10 12
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	36		128
South Carolina College, Columbia, S.C.	Polit. Econ. Senior Class Applied Polit. Econ.	— —	— —	2 2	40 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		120
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Penn.	Polit. Econ. (Walker) Finance Protection and Free Trade Money and Banking History of Econ. Theories	— — — — —	— — — — —	4 4 4 4 4	20 10 10 10 10
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		240
Syracuse University, Syracuse, N.Y.	Elementary Finance Industrial Development since 1850 Seminary	— — — —	— — — —	3 2 2 2	14 10 12 38
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		162
University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tenn.	Elementary Advanced (Post-Graduate)	— —	— —	3 2	20 Varies
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100?
University of Texas, Austin, Texas.	General	—	—	3	36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		108
Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut.	Elementary Advanced Finance	4 — —	13 — —	3 4 2	17 17 17
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	52		153
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee.	Political Economy, Elementary Political Economy, Advanced	3 —	36 —	3 3	36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	108		216
Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York.	Principles of Economics Economic History Railroads, Trusts, and Relation of State to Monopolies Labor Problem and Socialism Seminary	— — — — —	— — — — —	3 3 2 2 2	18 18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont.	Elementary Advanced	— —	— —	3 2	20 20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.	Theory of Economics Science of Society	3 —	26 —	3 2½	16 16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	78		88
Washington and Jefferson College, Washington, Pa.	Political Economy	3	11	3	16
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	33		48
Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.	Elementary Advanced	— —	— —	3 3	14 26
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		120
Washington University, St. Louis.	Prescribed Course	3	20	3	20
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	60		60
Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.	Industrial History Economic Theory Statistics (Seminary) Socialism (Seminary)	— — — —	— — — —	3 3 3 3	18 18 18 18
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		216
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.	General Introductory (Sen.) General Introductory (Jun.) Economic Problems	1½ — —	36 — —	2 3 2	36 18 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	54		198
West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia.	Elementary Pol. Economy Advanced Pol. Economy	— —	— —	2 2	14 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		100
Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.	Political Economy	6	14	3	15
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	84		45
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.	Econ. Seminary Distribution of Wealth History of Pol. Econ. Money Public Finance Statistics Recent Econ. Theories Synoptical Lectures Outlines of Economics	— — — — — — — — —	— — — — — — — — —	2 5 5 5 3 3 3 1 4	37 14½ 12 10½ 37 12 14½ 15 37
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	—		612½
Yale University, New Haven, Conn.	Pol. Econ.**—Elem. (2) Pol. Econ.—Adv. (3) Economic History (2) Finance, Public (2) Finance, Corporate (2) Mathematical Theory (1) Seminary Instruction (2)	3 2 — — — —	36 36 36 — — — —	4 3 4 2 3 1 1	36 36 36 36 36 36 36
	[Total hours of instruction per year]	180		648

_{* [College of the City of New York] A few hours additional are given in the work of the Department of Philosophy; the whole number amounting to some 52 or 53.}

_{** [Yale University] Figures in brackets represent numbers of courses under each head.}

Source: Appendix I to “The Study of Political Economy in the United States” by J. Laurence Laughlin, The Journal of Political Economy, vol. 1, no. 1 (December, 1892), pp. 143-151.

Image Source: J. Laurence Laughlin drawn in the University of Chicago yearbook Cap and Gown (1907), p. 208.

Tags Laughlin

Columbia Economists Pennsylvania Statistics

Columbia. Statistics PhD alumnus. Robert E. Chaddock, 1908

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-04-03

The post provides another life/career overview of a Ph.D. alum. Today’s Ph.D. went on to become professor of sociology and statistics at Columbia University, Robert Emmet Chaddock.

__________________________

Previous posts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror
with Chaddock content…

Request for funding for his statistical laboratory in 1911 (with a newspaper account of his 1940 suicide).

E.R.A. Seligman’s recommendation for Chaddock’s promotion to Associate Professor in 1912.

__________________________

Chaddock obituaries by…

Frederick E. Croxton in Journal of the American Statistical Association 36:213 (March, 1941), pp. 116-119.

William F. Ogburn in American Journal of Sociology 46:4 (January, 1941), p. 595.

__________________________

Robert E. Chaddock (1879-1940)

1879 born April 16, in Minerva, Ohio

1900 A.B. Wooster College

1900-05. Taught at Wooster College

1906 M.A., Columbia University

1906-08. University Fellow in Sociology, Columbia University

1908 Worked with the boy’s club of the Union Settlement (New York City)

1907-09. Instructor, Columbia University

1908 Ph.D. Columbia University.

1909-11. Assistant Professor of Economics and Statistics. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

1911-12. Assistant Professor of Statistics, Columbia University

1912-22. Associate Professor of Statistics, Columbia University

1917-24. Secretary-Treasurer of the American Statistical Association

1925 Publication of Principles and Methods of Statistics.

1922-40. Professor of Sociology and Statistics.

1925 President of the American Statistical Association

1925-1940. Member of the Joint Advisory Committee to the Director of the Census.

1928 Represented the Social Science Research Council as delegate to the International Conference on Population in Paris (July).

1929 LL.D. awarded by Wooster College

1933-36. Member of the Committee on Government Statistics and Informational Services (jointly established by the American Statistical Association and the Social Science Research Council)

1937 Chairman of the Joint Advisory Committee to the Director of the Census

1940 October 21. Death by suicide.

Other memberships

Member of the American Committee of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population Problems.

Chairman of the Research Committee, member of the Executive Committee of the Research Bureau of the Welfare Council of New York City.

Consultant statistician of the Commonwealth Fund

Member of the Advisory Council of the Milbank memorial Fund.

Member and Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Research in Medical Economics. Member of the editorial board of the quarterly journal Medical Care.

Fellow of the American Public Health Association

Member of the International Statistical Institute

Member of the American Sociological Society

Member of the Century Club (New York)

Phi Beta Kappa.

__________________________

Political Science Faculty Memorial Minute
Columbia University

Dec. 13, 1940

Robert Emmet Chaddock

Professor Robert Emmet Chaddock served his University for over thirty years. Born at Minerva, Ohio, 1879, he took his A.B. at Wooster College in 1900. From the time he first came to Columbia as a graduate student in 1905, his association with the University was broken only for two years, during which he was Assistant Professor of Economics and Statistics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. At Columbia he was in turn University Fellow in Sociology, Instructor in Economics, Assistant Professor of Statistics, Associate Professor, and from 1922 until his death Professor of Sociology and Statistics. In these various capacities he fulfilled his duties with unsparing devotion, giving attention to his students, whole-heartedly cooperating with his colleagues, freely participating in various organizations for the advancement of public welfare, and contributing always to the improvement of statistical application to social problems, especially those connected with population and public health. He was the author of numerous articles and reports on these and other subjects, and his work on Principles and Methods of Statistics has given guidance to a large number of students throughout the country. His recognition as a leader in this field was shown by the many calls made upon his services, from the Bureau of the Census, the Milbank Foundation, the Welfare Council of New York City, the Cities Census Committee, and the International Statistical Institute, and other bodies. To these calls Professor Chaddock never failed to respond. He won the regard of all who knew him. His death removes a man who gave himself without limit and without afterthought, to his University, to his family, to the community. His colleagues tender their respectful sympathy to those who intimately mourn for him, his wife and daughter.

Robert M. MacIver
Carlton J. H. Hayes
Roswell C. McCrea

Source: Columbia University Archives. Minutes of the Faculty of Political Science, 1940-1949, p. 881.

Image Source: Robert Emmet Chaddock from Barnard College, Mortarboard, 1919.

Tags Chaddock

Amherst Barnard Berkeley Brown Chicago Colorado Columbia Cornell Dartmouth Duke Harvard Illinois Indiana Iowa Johns Hopkins Kansas M.I.T. Michigan Michigan State Minnesota Missouri Nebraska North Carolina Northwestern NYU Ohio State Pennsylvania Princeton Radcliffe Rochester Stanford Swarthmore Texas Tufts UCLA Vassar Virginia Washington University Wellesley Williams Wisconsin Yale

U.S. Bureau of Education. Contributions to American Educational History, Herbert B. Adams (ed.), 1887-1903

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-02-22

I stumbled across this series while I was preparing the previous post on the political economy questions for the Harvard Examination for Women (1874). I figured it would be handy for me to keep a list of links to the monographs on the history of higher education in 35 of the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. Maybe this collection will help you too.

Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams

The College of William and Mary. Herbert B. Adams (1887)
Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. Herbert B. Adams (1888)
History of Education in North Carolina. Charles L. Smith (1888)
History of Higher Education in South Carolina. C. Meriwether (1889)
Education in Georgia. Charles Edgeworth Jones (1889)
Education in Florida. George Gary Bush (1889)
Higher Education in Wisconsin. William F. Allen and David E. Spencer (1889)
History of Education in Alabama. Willis G. Clark (1890).
History of Federal and State Aid to Higher Education. Frank W. Blackmar (1890)
Higher Education in Indiana. James Albert Woodburn (1891).
Higher Education in Michigan. Andrew C. McLaughlin. (1891)
History of Higher Education in Ohio. George W. Knight and John R. Commons (1891)
History of Higher Education in Massachusetts. George Gary Bush (1891)
The History of Education in Connecticut. Bernard C. Steiner (1893)
The History of Education in Delaware. Lyman P. Powell (1893)
Higher Education in Tennessee. Lucius Salisbury Merriam (1893)
Higher Education in Iowa. Leonard F. Parker (1893)
History of Higher Education in Rhode Island. William Howe Tolman (1894)
History of Education in Maryland. Bernard C. Steiner (1894).
History of Education in Lousiana. Edwin Whitfield Fay (1898).
Higher Education in Missouri. Marshall S. Snow (1898)
History of Education in New Hampshire. George Gary Bush (1898)
History of Education in New Jersey. David Murray (1899).
History of Education in Mississippi. Edward Mayes (1899)
History of Higher Education in Kentucky. Alvin Fayette Lewis (1899)
History of Education in Arkansas. Josiah H. Shinn (1900)
Higher Education in Kansas. Frank W. Blackmar (1900)
The University of the State of New York. History of Higher Education in the State of New York. Sidney Sherwood (1900)
History of Education in Vermont. George Gary Bush (1900)
History of Education in West Virginia. A. R. Whitehill (1902)
The History of Education in Minnesota. John N. Greer (1902)
Education in Nebraska. Howard W. Caldwell (1902)
A History of Higher Education in Pennsylvania. Charles H. Haskins and William I. Hull (1902)
History of Higher Education in Colorado. James Edward Le Rossignol (1903)
History of Higher Education in Texas. J. J. Lane (1903)
History of Higher Education in Maine. Edward W. Hall (1903)

Image Source: Cropped from portrait of Herbert Baxter Adams ca. 1890s. Johns Hopkins University graphic and pictorial collection.

Columbia Economists Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania. Economics Ph.D. alumnus. Columbia professor Henry R. Seager, 1894

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2020-02-07

Another post in the irregular series “Meet an economics Ph.D.” Henry Rogers Seager’s education and career took him from Ann Arbor (University of Michigan) through Baltimore (Johns Hopkins University), Germany/Austria (Halle, Berlin, Vienna), and Philadelphia (University of Pennsylvania before ending up in New York City (Columbia).

______________________

Earlier posts for Henry Rogers Seager
at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror:

List of papers published as of Seager’s appointment by Columbia in 1902.

Syllabus for “The Trust Problem”, 1907.

Published Lecture on Economics, 1907-08.

Memorial minute, 1930

______________________

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Seager, Henry Rogers (July 21, 1870-Aug. 23, 1930), economist, was born in Lansing, Michigan, the son of Schuyler Fiske Seager, a lawyer, and Alice (Berry) Seager. Graduating at the University of Michigan in 1890, he did further work during the succeeding years at the Johns Hopkins University, at the Universities of Halle, Berlin, and Vienna, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where he received the Ph.D. degree in 1894. That year he was appointed instructor in economics in the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, and in 1896 he was made an assistant professor; in 1902 he became adjunct professor and in 1905, professor, in Columbia University, where he served till death. On June 5, 1899, he was married to Harriet Henderson of Philadelphia who died in 1928; their son survived him.

Seager’s training as an economist was in English classicism, in the German historical method and in the peculiar Austrian approach. His published work shows clearly the influence of each. His greatest admiration was for Simon N. Patten (q.v.), with whom he served at the University of Pennsylvania but whose influence on his thought was slight. Seager’s mind was orderly and compressive rather than brilliant and generalizing; conservatism was perhaps its distinguishing characteristic. He was solid and patient, slow to conclude, and even slower to write his conclusions. One result of this was that he was less a writing scholar than one who worked with students. Literally hundreds of dissertations passed through his careful hands at Columbia and many generations of students heard his lectures on labor and on corporation problems. Always active in meliorative activities, he assisted materially in the establishment of a system of workmen’s compensation in New York; he was a supporter of the Survey (formerly Charities and the Commons) and for many years a member of its board of directors. During the war he served as secretary of the Shipbuilding Labor Adjustment Board, and in 1919-20, he was executive secretary of the President’s Second Industrial Conference. He was one of the founders and three times president of the American Association for Labor Legislation. He was frequently consulted by philanthropists, legislators and publicists; he was a member of the editorial board) of The Political Science Quarterly, and in 1922 was president of the American Economic Association. In all these varied activities he had one purpose: to better social conditions within the framework of laissez-faire. He possessed a determined faith that this could be done and worked constantly to show the way. Melioration consisted in making changes here and there, which while not disturbing fundamental arrangements, reduced their burden on less favored individuals. Improvement consisted in legal change and a large part of his effort was always directed toward reform by legislation.

His most considerable work is Principles of Economics, first published under this title in 1913, which grew out of his Introduction to Economics (1904 and later editions [3rd edition, 1910]) and appeared in its final form [3rd edition] in 1923. The most important of his other writings are Trust and Corporation Problems (1929), with C.A. Gulick, Jr. and the posthumous volume, Labor and Other Economic Essays (1931), to which is attached his complete bibliography. Somewhat more than the final half of the Principles of Economics is devoted to essays on important problems: banking, the tariff, railroads, trusts, taxation, labor and social insurance. The theoretical section begins with a consideration of consumption, progresses through value and production, and ends with distribution. There were many books published during this period with much the same outline; but Seager’s was characterized by emphasis on all that pertained to human welfare. This led to stress on consumption and on the demand side of the value equilibrium, as well as to extra consideration of monopoly gains. The discussion of distribution was carried out within the framework of the “specific productivity” analysis but with more than usual weight given to such subjective influences as the balancing, in consumers’ and producers’ minds, of marginal disutilities over against marginal utilities. The conclusions were usually optimistic. Seager believed in progress and believed that, under the going system, it was being achieved. He felt, for instance, that capital goods were multiplying more rapidly than population and that this would tend to raise standards of living. He did not believe, however, that the possibilities of progress which inhere in the system insure automatic betterment. Groups of interested people, with journals and propaganda, need to be vigilant in the public interest. This duty of the good citizen, as Seager saw it, was best exemplified in his own career. He never became aware of a duty that he did not forthwith perform. In his posthumous Labor and Other Economic Essays his program is outlined: “The two great objects to be aimed at are: 1. To protect wage-earners in the continued enjoyment of standards of living to which they are already accustomed. II. To assist them to attain to higher standards of living” (p.131). The contingencies which were the principal threats to existing standards were “(1) industrial accidents, (2) illness, (3) invalidity and old age, (4) premature death, (5) unemployment” (ibid.) All these, Seager felt, were legitimate objects of collective action. As for raising standards, this was largely dependent on industrial advance and on better education.

To all persons of Seager’s generation the rather the sudden rise of a complete alternative system in Russia offered a shock to which adjustment was necessarily slow. Because everything there was so antithetical to the system to which so many theoretical hostages had been given, the immediate impulse was to belittle Soviet accomplishments. Seager was exposed to the full force of the new ideas. Gradually they gained weight in his mind until at last his essential honesty compelled, not acceptance, but exploration. In 1930, with a group of companions, he undertook a journey to the scene of these new economic adventures, in the midst of which he was taken ill. He died in Kiev of pneumonia, August 23, 1930. He was thus lost to the world at the close of an old period and the beginning of a new one. His identification with economy of the opening decades of the nineteenth century was a fortuitous one, but his progress into the new years cannot be said to have fairly started. He remains an economist of laissez-faire, of more than usual significance in foreshadowing the ameliorative program which so soon became a center of Interest.

Source: Cornell University Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives. Henry R. Seager Research Notes and Monographs (Collection Number: 5249).

Image Source: From a 1915 portrait of Henry Rogers Seager at Wikiwand. Includes a survey of his books.

Tags Patten, Seager

Sampler of University of Pennsylvania Documents

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA PHILADELPHIA

THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

1925 Rankings

1957 Rankings

1964 Rankings

1969 Rankings

Graduate Programs in Economics (1957, 1964, 1969)

Other posts with Henry R. Mussey related content

Henry Raymond Mussey Timeline

Memorandum on General Bases of the Research Program

Backstory to Heaton Interview

Notes from interview with Herbert Heaton

Past Presidents of the EHA: Herbert Heaton

Courses of Study in Political Economy in the United States in 1876 and in 1892-93.

Previous posts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror with Chaddock content…

Chaddock obituaries by…

Robert E. Chaddock (1879-1940)

Other memberships

Political Science Faculty Memorial Minute Columbia University

Dec. 13, 1940

Robert Emmet Chaddock

Contributions to American Educational History, edited by Herbert B. Adams

Earlier posts for Henry Rogers Seager at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror:

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Sampler of University of Pennsylvania
Documents

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA

THE EARLY TEACHING OF ECONOMICS
AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

Graduate Programs in Economics
(1957, 1964, 1969)

Henry Raymond Mussey
Timeline

Past Presidents of the EHA:
Herbert Heaton

Previous posts at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror
with Chaddock content…

Political Science Faculty Memorial Minute
Columbia University

Earlier posts for Henry Rogers Seager
at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror: