This post provides a transcription of the printed syllabus for the Harvard department of economics undergraduate principles of accounting course in 1915 with links to the textbooks and description of course requirements.
A course announcement and description together with the enrollment figures and the course final examination for this principles of accounting course have been posted previously.
An obituary for the instructor written by Joseph H. Willits, “Joseph Stancliffe Davis, (1885-1975)” , was published in The American Statistician 30, no. 4 (1976), p. 199.
______________________
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
ECONOMICS 1b2, 1915
Lectures.
Mon., Wed., and (occasionally) Fri, at 1.30. Part of the Wednesday lecture will ordinarily be devoted to discussion of the problems then handed in.
Text-books.
W. M. Cole. Accounts: Their Construction and Interpretation (1915 ed.).
W. M. Cole. Problems in the Principles of Accounts (1915).
Problems.
Assignments will be made weekly, usually on Wednesday, and solutions will be due at the beginning of the lecture hour on Wednesdays. Papers will ordinarily be returned on Mondays. Additional problems of the same general nature as those completed in the preceding week will be assigned each Monday (a) for men who received grade D or E on the original solutions, and (b) for men who failed to hand and solutions. The second set of papers will be handed to the laboratory assistant at the student’s laboratory period in the same week.
In neither case will be related solutions be accepted.
Laboratory Work.
There will be one two-hour period weekly. Sections will probably be arranged at each of the following periods: Wednesday, 2.30 – 4.30 (Pierce 307); Thursday, 9 – 11, 11 – 1 (Pierce 302); Thursday, 1.30 – 3.30, 3.30 – 5.30 (Pierce 307); Friday, 11 – 1, 2.30 – 4.30 (Pierce 307).
All possible choices, with order of preference, should be indicated on the individual registration cards.
An additional laboratory period, Wednesday, 7 – 9 p.m., will be held fortnightly for the completion of in completed work or the making up of work missed and absences excused at the Office.
New instructions and material for the work of the day will be given by the laboratory assistant at the beginning of the period, and men will greatly facilitate the work of the whole section by arriving with the utmost promptness.
Hour Examinations.
One will be held late in March, and a second may be given late in April. Just preceding the examination the usual problems or the laboratory work will be omitted.
Grading.
Problems, laboratory work, and examinations will be given roughly equal weight, but departures from the exact average will be made in the discretion of the instructor.
Problem solutions will be graded numerically, and the scale of equivalence will be: A, 90 – 100; B, 80 – 90; C, 65 – 80; D, 50 – 65. A 0 will be given for each failure to hand in either original or additional problems, and for each unexcused laboratory absence.
Form as well as accuracy will be given weight.
Consultation Hours:
J. S. Davis: Monday, 2.30 – 3.20, Upper Dane.
F. E. Richter: Friday, 1.30 – 2.30, Pierce 307.
T. D. Bool: Wednesday evening laboratory period, Pierce 307.
Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”. Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1915-1916”.
Image Source: Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Harvard Class Album, 1916.