For this post I have put together a timeline for the life and career of the Columbia University economics Ph.D (1938), Mildred Benedict Northrop. Other than her dissertation (cited below), I could find little of substantive research by her. Nonetheless she did attract an obituary notice by the New York Times (see below) and I was able to find an instance of Congressional testimony given by her in 1948:
United States Senate. Eightieth Congress, Second Session. Extending Authority to Negotiate Trade Agreements. Hearings before the Committee on Finance on H. R. 6566. Washington, D.C.: June 1-5, 1948. [Incidentally Alger Hiss testified at those hearings.]
During the twenty-five years that she was on the faculty at Bryn Mawr College, Northrop taught a broad portfolio of courses that included industrial organization, Keynesian macroeconomics, international economics, comparative economic organization, history of economic thought, and development of underdeveloped areas.
For a backgrounder on women researchers at Bryn Mawr before Mildred Northrop, see:
Mary Ann Dzuback. Women and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College, 1915-40. History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 4, Special Issue on the History of Women and Education (Winter, 1993), pp. 579-608.
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Mildred Benedict Northrop, life and career
1899. July 12. Born in Kansas City, Missouri.
1922. A.B. University of Missouri
1923. A.M. University of Missouri
1923-26. Executive Secretary of the Social Service League, Easton, Pennsylvania
1926-31. Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Hood College
1931-34. Instructor in Economics, Hunter College
1934-35. Fellow of The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C.
1935-38. Division of Research and Statistics, United States Treasury Department
1938. Ph.D., Columbia University. Thesis adviser: James W. Angell
Published Ph.D. dissertation Control Policies of the Reichsbank, 1924-1933 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938).
1938-39. Lecturer in Economics, Bryn Mawr College
1939-41. Assistant Professor in Economics, Bryn Mawr College
1941. Associate Professor (elect), Bryn Mawr College
War service: chief of export-import branch of the War Production Board; Foreign Economic Administration
1945-46. Adviser to State Department’s Office of Finance and Development Policy
1946-47. Acting Director of the Carola Woerishoffer Graduate Department of Social Economy and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College
1948-49. Professor (elect), Bryn Mawr College
1949-. Professor, Bryn Mawr College
1949-50. Leave of absence.
1963. November 19. Died in Bryn Mawr. According to the coroner’s report (November 20, 1963), the immediate cause of death was pneumonia that was due to burns to over 30% of her body resulting from a fire from smoking in bed.
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Mildred Benedict Northrop, Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Associate Professor-elect of Economics.
A.B. University of Missouri 1922 and M.A. 1923; Ph.D. Columbia University 1938. Executive Secretary of the Social Service League, Easton, Pennsylvania, 1923-26; Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Economics and Sociology, Hood College, 1926-31; Instructor in Economics, Hunter College, 1931-34; Fellow of The Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., 1934-35; Division of Research and Statistics, United States Treasury Department, 1935-38. Lecturer in Economics, Bryn Mawr College, 1938-39, Assistant Professor, 1939-41 and Associate Professor-elect 1941.
Source: Bryn Mawr College Catalogue and Calendar, 1941-1943, p. 20.
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Northrop’s entry in the AEA Handbook, 1956
NORTHROP, Mildred Benedict, Bryn Mawr Col., Bryn Mawr, Pa. (1942) Bryn Mawr Col. Prof., teach., dept. head, res.; b. 1899; A.B., 1922, M.A., 1923, Missouri; Ph.D., 1938, Columbia. Fields 9ab, 3b, 2c. Doc. Dis. Control policies of the Reichsbank, 1924-33 (Columbia Univ. Press, 1938). Dir. Amer. Men of Sci., III, Dir. Of Amer. Schol.
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Obituary. New York Times.
Dr. Mildred B. Northrop, Economist at Bryn Mawr.
Bryn Mawr, Pa., Nov. 19—Dr. Mildred B. Northrop, chairman of the department of economics at Bryn Mawr College, died today in Bryn Mawr Hospital after a brief illness.
Dr. Northrop joined the Bryn Mawr faculty in 1938. She taught previously at Hood and Hunter Colleges.
She was born in Kansas City, Mo., and was graduated from the University of Missouri in 1922. The following year she earned a master’s degree there. She received her doctorate from Columbia University in 1938.
During World War II, Dr. Northrop was chief of the export-import branch of the War Production Board and an adviser to the Foreign Economic Administration. In 1945 and 1946 she was adviser to the State Department’s Office of Finance and Development Policy.
Dr. Northrop is survived by a brother Eugene S. Northrop, of Darien, Conn., and a sister, Mrs. Robert D. Ayars of Cuernavaca, Mexico.
Source: New York Times (November 20, 1963), p. 43.
Image Source: Bryn Mawr Yearbook 1942.