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.
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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
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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”.
One reply on “Pennsylvania. Sketch of origins of economics instruction. Plummer, 1925”
The Dorfman papers contain several bits of material from other sets of papers he was using. I found copies of two of Wesley Mitchell’s addresses in Mitchell’s handwriting in Dorfman’s papers. He was not careful about putting things back!