Tag: Day

Harvard. Money, Banking, Crises. Description, enrollment, final exams. Day, 1912-1913

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-08-19
No Comments on Harvard. Money, Banking, Crises. Description, enrollment, final exams. Day, 1912-1913

The Central Bank: Why should Uncle Sam establish one, when Uncle Pierpont is already on the job?

The origin of monetary macroeconomics at Harvard can be traced to the second decade of the twentieth century when money and banking became merged with the topic of commercial crises as taught by Edmund Ezra Day. This post offers rich biographical detail about the two teaching assistants for the course as an added bonus to the course description, enrollment and semester examinations.

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Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1912/13

Links to earlier course material for Banking, Foreign Exchange, and Crises from Harvard, 1902-03 through 1911-12.

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Meet the Teaching Assistants

John Christopher Ise (Ph.D., 1914)

JOHN ISE, Mus.B.( Univ. of Kansas) 1908, A.B. (ibid.) 1910, LL.B.( ibid.) 1911, A.B. (Harvard Univ.) 1912. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economics of Agriculture. Thesis, “The History of the Forestry Policy of the United States.” Assistant Professor of Economics, Iowa State College.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1913-1914, p. 93.

For greater biographical detail, see the post: Economics Ph.D. Alumnus, John Christopher Ise, 1914

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Frederic Ernest Richter (A.M., 1916)

General Examination in Economics, Monday, May 18, 1914.
Committee: Professors Sprague (chairman), Turner, Gay, Day, and Anderson.
Academic History: Harvard College, 1909-13; Harvard Graduate School, 1913—. A.B., 1913. Assistant in Economics, Harvard, 1912—.
General Subjects: 1. Economic Theory and its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Statistics. 4. Money, Banking and Commercial Crises. 5. Economics of Corporations. 6. History of American Institutions since 1783.
Special Subject: Economics of Corporations.
Thesis Subject: “Underwriting and Marketing Securities in the United States and England.” (With Professor Sprague.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examinations for the Ph.D. (HUC 7000.70), Folder “Examinations for the Ph.D., 1913-14”.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1917)

Born at Brooklyn, N.Y., Jan. 25, 1889.
Parents: Charles, Mary Emma (Lockwood) Richter.
School: Boys’ High School and Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Years in College: 1909-13.
Degrees: A.B. 1913; A.M. 1916.
Unmarried.
Occupation: Assistant Professor.

Address: (home) 235 Bergen St., Brooklyn, N.Y.; (business) 31 West Lake St., Chicago, Ill.

THE three academic years following graduation I spent at Harvard, doing graduate work in economics; holding in the first two years an assistantship and in the last an instructorship and a tutorship in the department. I was, during this time, and am still, a candidate for a Ph.D. in economics. My doctoral thesis is “The Copper Industry of the United States, 1845-1915.” In connection therewith I was granted a small Sheldon Travelling Fellowship for the summer of 1915, for a trip to the chief copper-mining camps and copper smelteries of the United States. I had planned to stay at Harvard until I had received my doctorate, but in May of last year (1916) I was offered the position I now hold and accepted it. I now hope to come up for my degree in 1918.

During the summer of 1914, I carried on a little investigation into the seasonal character of the employment of labor on municipal work in and around Boston. This was done under the auspices of the American Association for Labor Legislation and a committee of the Boston Chamber of Commerce. It resulted in the first of the two articles mentioned below.

I am engaged to be married to Miss Eutha C. Downs of Baltimore, Maryland.

PUBLICATIONS: “Seasonal Fluctuations in Public Works,” in American Labor Legislation Review, June, 1915; “The Amalgamated Copper Company: a Closed Chapter in Corporation Finance,” in Quarterly Journal of Economics, February, 1916.

MEMBER: Harvard Club of Chicago; University Club of Evanston, Illinois; American Economic Association; American Statistical Association.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Secretary’s Second Report, (June, 1917), p. 262.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1920)

…TAKING up the narrative from 1916, I spent the academic year as Assistant Professor of Money and Banking at Northwestern School of Commerce, Chicago and Evanston, Ill. On June 27, 1917, I was married in Baltimore. In September, 1917, I was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the Adjutant General’s Department. I was assigned to duty in Washington, where I remained until February, 1918, when I was ordered overseas. I was abroad until July, 1919, during most of which time I was Statistical Officer at the Air Service Headquarters. Immediately on my return to this country I was discharged [July 9, 1919, as 1st Lieutenant].
On August 13, 1919, I began work with the Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, at their main office, as a member of the editorial staff of the publicity department….

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Secretary’s Third Report, (June, 1920), pp. 311-312.

Frederick Ernest Richter (1928)

Address (home): 81-28th St., Jackson Heights, L.I., N.Y. (business): c/o American Telephone & Telegraph Co., 195 Broadway, New York City.
Occupation: Economic Statistician.
Married: Eutha C. Downs, June 27, 1917.
Child: Eutha Helen, November 6, 1925.

Still with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, in New York, where, as economic statistician, am in charge of the general economic research work and specifically of the studies of external business conditions. Been with the company since September, 1921. This being the case, and my residence being the same as it has been since 1921, and nothing exciting having happened to me, there’s nothing to report except the birth of our daughter, chronicled herewith. Said young lady has been the greatest of joys to her parents.

Necessarily do a great deal of writing of one sort or another, but have produced no books. Various articles on divers economic subjects have appeared over my signature (which means I really wrote ’em !) in the Harvard Business Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the ( Harvard ) Review of Economic Statistics, the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Annalist, and the Bell Telephone Quarterly.

Source: Harvard College Class of 1913, Fifteenth Anniversary Report, (1928), pp. 168-169.

Frederick Ernest Richter (d. 7 Feb 1974)

F.E. Richter, economist, dies

Princeton, N.J., (Special)—Frederic Ernest Richter, an economist and former Baltimore resident died at a nursing home near here yesterday after a long illness.

Mr. Richter, who was 85 and lived in Princeton in recent years, had lived at the Broadview Apartments, in Baltimore, from 1961 to 1968.

He had moved to Baltimore, the hometown of his wife, the former Eutha Charlotte, Downs, whom he married in 1917, after his retirement as an economic consultant to the federal Renegotiation Board.

Before his 10-year association with the board in Washington, he had served as an economist with several New York firms.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y. he graduated from Harvard University in 1913. He then taught at Harvard while obtaining a masters degree there.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Gavin Hildick-Smith, of Princeton, and two grandsons.

Source: The Baltimore Sun, 8 February 1974, p. 11.

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ECONOMICS 3
Course Description
1912-13

[Economics] 3 (formerly 8). Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. Day, assisted by ——.

This course aims to analyze the principal problems of money and credit. An examination is first made of the more important existing monetary systems. This is followed by a careful review of the more instructive chapters in the monetary history of England, Germany, France, the United States, Austria, British India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

The nature, origin, and early growth of commercial banking are considered. An investigation of present banking practice in England, France, Germany, and Canada is followed by a study of banking history and present banking problems in the United States. In this connection foreign exchange and the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined.

Finally attention is turned to those problems of money and credit which appear most prominently in connection with economic crises. Though emphasis is thrown upon the financial aspects of the trade cycle, the investigation covers the more fundamental factors causing commercial and industrial fluctuations.

Short papers upon assigned topics will be required of all students.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, p. 60.

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ECONOMICS 3
Course Enrollment
1912-13

[Economics] 3. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises. Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Messrs. Ise and F. E. Richter.

Total 119: 3 Graduates, 31 Seniors, 67 Juniors, 16 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination
1912-13

Assuming the laws of the United States to remain unchanged, how would our monetary stock be affected if the market ratio of gold and silver should become 18 to 1; 15 to 1; 12 to 1?
What monies circulated in the United States in 1810; 1850; 1862; 1887; 1900?
State briefly the arguments for and against international bimetallism. How does the case for national bimetallism differ? What has caused bimetallism to disappear as an important political issue?
In Austria, “after 1870, — the value of paper money with respect to silver steadily rose until in 1878 it reached parity with silver. … In 1879 the free or private coinage of silver was stopped.” Consider whether, after this action, the (1) silver pieces, and (2) the paper notes were commodity, credit, of fiat money? Had Austria not closed the mints to the free coinage of silver, how would the following have been affected in that country: (a) the monetary stock; (b) the monetary standard; (c) the value of money?
Compare the clearing-house certificate with the clearinghouse loan certificate. What advantages result from the issue of the loan certificate? It has been said that, in 1907, by the issue of loan certificates, “all the reserves of all the banks were made available for those banks which were in temporary straits.” Do you agree? Why or why not?
Explain briefly: (a) free-banking principle; (b) asset banking; (c) safety-fund system; (d) bond-secured circulation; (e) branch banking. Indicate, if possible, one advantage and one disadvantage in each. Cite an illustration of each in banking in the United States before 1860.
Compare the joint-stock banks of England, the credit companies of France, and the credit banks of Germany with reference to: (a) their business; (b) the size and composition of their reserves; (c) their relation to their respective central banks.
On November 11, 907, sterling exchange was quoted in New York at the following rates: long bills, 4.79 at ½ ; sight bills, 4.86 at ¼ ; cables, 4.89 at ¼ . Explain the differences in these rates.
On the same day, gold was engaged by the New York banks for import. How do you account for this?

Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.

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ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination
1912-13

What factors favored the monetary rehabilitation of silver in the United States during the 70’s? Which of these factors are still operative? Explain the disappearance of the others.
What banking abuses were most common in the United States early in the nineteenth century? When and how, if at all, have these since been eliminated?
What is the relation between the Bank of England rate and the London market rate of discount when (a) funds are abundant; (b) funds are relatively scarce? In what ways does varying the Bank rate accomplish the protection of the English banking reserves?
What is meant by a free gold market? Are the following such: London; Paris; Berlin; New York? In each case, why or why not?
How will the rate of sterling exchange in New York be affected by: (a) a crop failure in the United States; (b) hoarding of specie in Europe; (c) a slump on the New York Stock Exchange; (d) a banking panic in this country?
“The call-loan market . . . furnishes to the banks of the country under the present organization of banking, their only means of mobilizing their reserves, of liquifying their assets, and of securing flexibility in their lending power.” Explain and criticize. How, if at all, should this feature of our system be changed?
In the equation of exchange given by Professor Fisher, what is the relation of M, M’, V, and T (a) during a period of rising prices; (b) during a period of settled prices?
Describe the crisis of 1873 with reference to: (a) its general antecedents; (b) its more important causes in the United States; (c) its final outbreak in this country; (d) the territorial extent of the reaction; (e) the severity and duration of the subsequent depression.

Sources: Harvard University Examinations. Papers set for final examinations in history, history of science, government, economics, philosophy, social ethics, education, fine arts, music in Harvard College (June 1913), pp. 41-42.

Image Source: Frank A. Nankivell’s cover drawing “The central bank” for Puck, vol. 67, no. 1718 (2 February 1910). J. Pierpont Morgan clutching to his chest with his right arm large New York City buildings labeled “Billion Dollar Bank Merger”; in the foreground, a young child puts a coin in a “Toy Bank” as Morgan’s left arm reaches around the buildings to grab the toy bank for himself. United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C.

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Exams from earlier years

1902/03-1907/08. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (A.P. Andrew)
1906/07. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1907/08. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1908/09. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (Wesley Clair Mitchell)
1908/09. Banking and Foreign Exchange (W.C. Mitchell)
1909/10. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles [Not offered].
1909/10. Banking and Foreign Exchange (O.M.W. Sprague)
1910/11. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade (E.E. Day)
1910/11. Banking and Foreign Exchange (E.E. Day)
1911/12. Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises (E.E. Day)

Tags Day, Ise

Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, enrollment, and final exams. Taussig and Day, 1912-1913

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-08-12
No Comments on Harvard. Principles of Economics. Description, enrollment, and final exams. Taussig and Day, 1912-1913

Frank William Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day

In the beginning (of economics instruction) was Economics 1. And the Word was Frank Taussig’s at early 20th century Harvard.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1911/12

1871-75	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01	1910-11
	1881-82	1891-92	1901-02	1911-12
	1882-83	1892-93	1902-03
	1883-84	1893-94	1903-04
	1884-85	1894-95	1904-05
	1885-86	1895-96	1905-06
1876-77	1886-87	1896-97	1906-07
1877-78	1887-88	1897-98	1907-08
1878-79	1888-89	1898-99	1908-09
1879-80	1889-90	1899-00	1909-10

Frank Taussig completed the first edition of his Principles of Economics [Volume I; Volume II] in March 1911 [Preface]. Links to the references from that first edition have been posted. Taussig expected his students to acquire a personal copy of the textbook and wrote a letter (transcribed and posted here) to Harvard President Lowell, dated October 6, 1911 giving his reasons for not putting a large number of copies into libraries as a reference book for students for them to consult. Taussig did allow one major exception to his textbook ownership policy: “I do not want to compel the poor fellows to buy my book. There is a text-book loan library in Phillips Brooks House, and this I have supplied with a sufficient number of copies for the use of the needy.”

For those seeking further questions, one might consult the book first published in 1915 by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis, Questions on the Principles of Economics (New York: Macmillan, 1915). From their Preface (p. vi): “The book is arranged particularly for use with Professor Taussig’s ‘Principles of Economics’ (revised edition, 1915).”

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Meet the Teaching Assistants
Econ. 1. Principles of Economics
1912-13

Heilman, Ralph Emerson. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

RALPH EMERSON HEILMAN, Ph.B. (Morningside Coll.) 1906, A.M. (Northwestern Univ.) 1907.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Social Ethics. Thesis, ” Chicago Traction: A Study in the Efforts of the City to Secure Good Service.” Assistant Professor of Economics, State University of Iowa.

Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.

Jones, Eliot. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

ELIOT JONES, A.B. (Vanderbilt Univ.) 1906, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1908.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Railroad Transportation. Thesis, ” The Anthracite Coal Combination in the United States, with some Account of the Early Development of the Anthracite Industry.” Instructor in Economics, University of Pennsylvania.

Source: Report of the President 1912-13, p. 90.

Burbank, Harold Hitchings. Ph.D. Harvard 1915.

HAROLD HITCHINGS BURBANK, A.B. (Dartmouth Coll.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1910.
Subject, Economics. Special Field, Public Finance. Thesis, ” The General Property Tax in Massachusetts, 1775 to 1792, with some Consideration of Colonial and Provincial Legislation and Practices.” Instructor in Economics, and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard University.

Source: Report of the President 1914-15, p. 103.

Crosgrave, Lloyd Morgan. A.B. (Indiana) 1909, A.M. (Harvard University) 1911.

Travelling Fellow. Frederick Sheldon Fellow. Economics. Brussels. Instructor in Economics, University of Minnesota. From Report of the President 1913-1914, p. 98.;

Source: Harvard University. Quinquennial catalogue (1930), pp. 63, 712.

Lloyd M. Crosgrave

BIRTH. 21 Apr 1887. Jamestown, Chautauqua County, New York, USA

DEATH. 19 Jun 1961 (aged 74). Muncie, Delaware County, Indiana, USA

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LLOYD CROSGRAVE, EX-UNIVERSITY PROF, DIES HERE

Lloyd M. Crosgrave, 74, 2320 S. Walnut St., died at home at 11:30 a.m. Monday after an extended illness. Crosgrave was born in Jamestown, N.Y., and moved to Muncie when he was five years old.

He attended Purdue University, received his bachelor’s degree at Indiana University and his master’s in economics at Harvard. He taught economics at Harvard, IU, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Pittsburgh.

He retired from teaching several years ago due to failing health. Since then he has owned and operated a greenhouse at his home where he grew house plants, specializing in the growing of African violets.

Crosgrave was a member of the Senior Citizens of Muncie.

He is survived by a sister, Miss Pearl G. Crosgrave, who resided at the same address.

Muncie Evening Press. Mon, Jun 19, 1961, p. 8

Source: Find-A-Grave webpage for Lloyd W. [sic] Crosgrave.

Eldred, Wilfred. Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1919).

WILFRED ELDRED, A.B. (Washington and Lee Univ.) 1909, A.M. (ibid.) 1909, A.M. (Harvard Univ.) 1911. Subject, Economics. Special Field, Economic History. Thesis,’ The Wheat and Flour Trade of the United States under the Control of the Food Administration.” Statistician, U. S. Grain Corporation, 42 Broadway, New York, N. Y.

Source: Report of the President 1918-19, p. 81.

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ECONOMICS 1
Course Description
1912-13

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. It may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1….

[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day, assisted by Messrs. ——, ——.

Course 1 gives a general introduction to economic study, and a general view of Economics for those who have not further time to give to the subject. It undertakes a consideration of the principles of production, distribution, exchange, money, banking, international trade, and taxation. The relations of labor and capital, the present organization of industry, and the recent currency legislation of the United States will be treated in outline.

The course will be conducted partly by lectures, partly by oral discussion in sections. A course of reading will be laid down, and weekly written exercises will test the work of students in following systematically and continuously the lectures and the prescribed reading. Course 1 may not be taken by Freshmen without the consent of the instructor.

Source: Harvard University. Division of History, Government, and Economics, Courses of Instruction, 1912–13, pp. 57-58.

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ECONOMICS 1
Course Enrollment
1912-13

[Economics] 1. Professor Taussig and Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Messrs. Heilman, Jones, Burbank, Crosgrave, and Eldred. Principles of Economics.

Total 481: 1 Graduate, 21 Seniors, 93 Juniors, 307 Sophomores, 21 Freshmen, 38 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Reports of the President and the Treasurer of Harvard College, 1912-13, p. 57.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Final Examination
1912-13

[Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions; and give your reasons in every case.]

Give examples of each of the following:—

vertical combination;
internal economies;
localization of industry;
increasing returns.

In the case of a commodity produced under constant returns, does demand determine the price of the commodity or the quantity produced? Illustrate by diagram.
Would your answer be the same if the commodity were produced under diminishing returns?
The cost of raising wheat on new land in Canada is said to be far below the average cost raising of wheat in the United States. Supposing this to be the case, can wheat grown in the United States continue to be sold in foreign countries in competition with Canadian wheat?
How would a great increase in the world’s supply of gold affect:—

(1) The value of the gold dollar.
(2) The value of the silver dollar.
(3) The price of silver bullion.
(4) The price of gold bullion.

State briefly what was the course of prices in the United States (a) between 1860 and 1870, (b) between 1900 and 1910. What were the causes of the price changes in each period; what evils arose; and how could the evils have been avoided?
Arrange the following items of a bank statement in their proper order:—

Loans	$380,000
Bonds	$50,000
Notes	$50,000
Capital	$100,000
Other Assets	$40,000
Surplus	$30,000
Undivided Profits	$10,000
Real Estate	$22,000
Deposits	$350,000
Due from banks	$10,000
Notes of other banks	$3,000
Cash	$35,000

Could this be the statement of a national bank, conducting its business in conformity to law?
Suppose the bank to sell bonds which on this statement are carried as worth $20,000; selling them at a profit of $1,000, and receiving cash for them. Rearrange the statement, and consider whether it could then be the statement of a national bank conducting its business in conformity to law.

How would a great increase in the production of gold in the United States affect:—

the imports and exports of the United States;
the “balance of trade” of the United States;
the price of foreign exchange in New York?

Suppose large remittances to be made by immigrants from the United States to their native countries: what consequences would you expect on (1) the stock of specie circulating in the United States; (2) the relation between merchandise exports and imports; (3) the gain which the people of the United States secure from foreign trade?
Which of the following would you reckon as part of the wealth of the country? as part of its capital?

The Great Lakes,
The Panama Canal,
Deposits in banks.

Is the establishment of a manufacturing industry, brought into existence by a protective tariff, advantageous in that it creates a home market for agricultural products?

Source: Harvard University. Mid-year examinations, 1852-1943. Box 9, bound volume Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1912-13.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1912-13

To what extent and in what manner do the following contribute to the formation of capital: (a) a government loan; (b) the stock exchange; (c) commercial banks; (d) the corporate form of business organization?
Explain “margin of cultivation.” Distinguish between the intensive margin of cultivation and the extensive margin of cultivation. What is the relation between (a) the margin of cultivation in agriculture and the price of a bushel of wheat; (b) the margin in gold mining and the value of an ounce of gold?
Assume that a monopoly produces a commodity under conditions of constant cost. What determines the extent to which the monopoly price will be above the price which competition, if existent, would establish? Illustrate by diagram.
The rentals from a New York office building amount to $50,000 a year. The building is worth $200,000. To provide for insurance, depreciation and such fixed items, $10,000 is expended annually. The current rate of interest upon investments of equal security is 5%. What is the value of the land?
What is “dumping “? What induces it? To what extent is it dependent upon (a) monopoly conditions; (b) tariff barriers?
Explain briefly why (a) the rates of wages are generally higher in the United States than in Germany; (b) higher for plumbers than for unskilled laborers; (c) for domestic servants than for women employed in shops and factories. Suppose a socialist community apportioning wages on the basis of equality of sacrifice: would these differences persist?
How are the wages and the number employed within a particular industry affected, immediately and ultimately, by the invention of labor-saving devices in that industry?
Explain: (a) railroad rebates; (b) over-capitalization; (c) public service industries; (d) “reasonable restraint of trade”; (e) stoppage at the source.

Image Source: Frank William Taussig and Edmund Ezra Day’s portraits from The Harvard Class Album, 1915.

Tags Burbank, Crosgrave, Day, Elfred, Heilman, JonesEliot, Taussig

Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Money, Banking, and Crises. Description, Enrollment, and Year-end Exam. Day, 1911-1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-07-16

I don’t know why the department of economics felt a need to merge two semester courses into a single two semester sequence, but in 1911-12 Edmund Ezra Day’s two distinct courses were joined into a single sequence covering money, banking and crises. Maybe it was really a desire to reduce three semester courses (1) money (2) banking and foreign exchange (3) and commercial crises into two semesters.

The mid-year exam for the first term of the two-semester course on money, banking, and crises was not found with the other exams of the 1911-12 academic year in the Harvard archives. One has to make do with what one’s got.

Professor Edmund Ezra Day’s biographical timeline was posted earlier.

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Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1911/12

Links to earlier course material for Banking, Foreign Exchange, and Crises from Harvard, 1902-03 through 1910-11.

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Meet the Course Teaching Assistant

Thomas York (1883–1941)

Dec. 22, 1883 — Born, Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, son of Walenty (“Valentine”) and Anna York, Polish immigrants.

1900 — Graduates Mount Carmel High School.

1903 — Enters Phillips Exeter Academy in preparation for Harvard; matriculates at Harvard College, 1903.

1903–06 — In residence at Harvard College.

1907 — Receives A.B., summa cum laude, with the Class of 1907 (having completed the course in three years).

1907–1910 (c.) — Teaches Latin and Greek at the Morristown School, a boys’ boarding school in Morristown, N.J.

1910 — Returns to Harvard, entering the Graduate School to study economics.

1911 — Receives A.M.

1911–1913 — Serves as Assistant in Economics, Harvard University, under Professor Day, including work on Economics 8 (Money, Banking and Crises).

1913 (c.) — Leaves Harvard without pursuing the Ph.D.; joins the staff of the Wall Street Journal.

Sept. 4, 1918 — Marries Isabel Smith of Mount Carmel, in New York City (Mount Carmel Item, Sept. 6, 1918).

Sept. 12, 1918 — WWI draft registration; listed as reporter, Wall Street Journal; residence 609 West 127th Street, New York, with wife Isabel.

1920 — Publishes Foreign Exchange: Theory and Practice.

1920 (c.) — Leaves the Wall Street Journal after seven years on its staff (having risen to Foreign Exchange Editor); joins the Ronald Press Company, New York, publishers of business and financial books.

1920–1922 — Prepares an enlarged edition of his foreign-exchange book.

1923 — Publishes International Exchange, Normal and Abnormal; favorably reviewed in the New York Times (Apr. 8, 1923) and celebrated in his hometown paper, the Mount Carmel Item (Apr. 9, 1923).

1920–1941 — Serves twenty years on the editorial board of the Ronald Press Company, supervising numerous finance and business titles; contributes to financial periodicals and lectures at financial conventions; frequently consulted by banking and brokerage houses.

(undated, pre-1941) — Works on an unpublished manuscript on banking, accounting, and corporation law, left incomplete at his death.

Jan. 12, 1941 — Dies suddenly of a heart attack at his home, 5 West 65th Street, New York City, age 57.

Jan. 13–14, 1941 — Death reported in the Mount Carmel Item and the New York Times.

(after 1941) — Widow Isabel Smith York donates his unpublished manuscript to Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School.

Sources: Harvard College Class of 1907, Secretary’s First, Second, Fourth, and Fifth (Quindecennial) Reports; Cambridge, Mass. city directories (1912–13); Mount Carmel Item (Sept. 6, 1918; Apr. 9, 1923; Jan. 13, 1941); New York Times (Apr. 8, 1923; Jan. 14, 1941); WWI draft registration card (Sept. 12, 1918); Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School, finding aid (bak01111).

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THOMAS YORK [as of 1922]

BORN at Mt. Carmel, Pa., Dec. 22, 1883.
SON OF: Walter, Anna York.
PREPARED AT: Phillips Exeter Academy, Exeter, N.H.
YEARS IN COLLEGE: 1903-06.
DEGREES: A.B. 1907, Α.Μ. 1911.
MARRIED: Isabel Smith, September 1918, Mt. Carmel, Pa.
OCCUPATION: Publisher.
ADDRESS: c/o Ronald Press Co., 20 Vesey St., New York, N.Y.

                  I HAVE been engaged in sundry occupations since leaving College. For three years I taught Latin and Greek at the Morristown School, a private institution for boys at Morristown, N.J. The classics, however, offered little opportunity for my rising ambition, and I, therefore, decided to turn to matters of more up-to-date interest. So in the fourth year of graduation I came back to Harvard to enter the Graduate School, and there I spent three diligent years delving into the dismal science, otherwise known as economics. I still had teaching in view, but at the close of my graduate course I definitely abandoned the idea. I hasten to add, lest there be some misunderstanding, that I am not the possessor of the Ph.D. A constitutional dislike of the grind that is the condition precedent of obtaining that degree turned me away from pursuit of it.

                  Having accumulated a modicum of knowledge about banking and finance during my Graduate School days, I decided to try my fortune in financial journalism. So I am next found on the staff of the Wall Street Journal. Here I had a varied experience, marketwise and otherwise. I made valiant attempts during my first years in the Street to find the proverbial pot of gold. Not meeting with success I turned to less distracted, though more laborious, pursuits, visible evidence of which is furnished by a book on foreign exchange. Not satisfied with this maiden effort at authorship, I undertook to get out an enlarged edition of the book, and this has engaged my spare time for the last two years. I have in the meantime also been contributing to some financial periodicals.

                  I left the Wall Street Journal two years ago, after serving seven years on its staff. Since then I have been associated with the Ronald Press Company, 20 Vesey Street, New York, publishers of business and financial books.

                  In September of 1918 I joined the ranks of the benedicts. My wife was Miss Isabel Smith of my home town, Mt. Carmel, Pa.

Source: Secretary’s Fifth Report. Harvard College Class of 1907 (June, 1922), pp. 596-597.

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Course Description
1911-12

[Economics] 8. Money, Banking, and Crises. Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. Day.

The nature, origin, and early growth of commercial banking are considered. A thorough investigation of present banking practice in England, France, Germany, and Canada is followed by a study of banking history and present banking problems in the United States. In this connection foreign exchange and the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined.

Short papers upon assigned topics will be required of all students. The course is open to those only who have passed in Economics 1.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics: 1911-12 (1st ed.). Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. VIII, No. 23 (June 15, 1911), p. 64.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 8. Dr. E. E. Day, assisted by Mr. York. — Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.

Total 120: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 70 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 1 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 64.

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ECONOMICS 8
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

Give (in not more than 100 words, using tabular form if you wish) the history of the silver dollar in the United States. What is its present position? Is it a source of weakness in our monetary system? If so, why? If not, why not?
Describe the monetary experience of India from 1893 to 1901. What were the immediate and ultimate standards of value in India in (1) 1895, (2) 1899, (3) 1901?
Compare the bank note issues of Germany and Canada with reference to (1) elasticity; (2) limitations upon the aggregate circulation; (3) ultimate security. Which system seems to you preferable for the United States? Why?
Define discount market. Describe the English discount market. How has the absence of such a market affected banking in the United States? What provisions of the Aldrich Bill are designed to establish a discount market in this country?
To what degree does the rate of discount vary in different parts of (1) Canada, (2) the United States? How in each case is the absence of perfect uniformity to be accounted for? If the Aldrich Plan were adopted, could the Reserve Association probably control the rate of discount in the United States? If so, how? If not, why not?
Describe briefly the following phenomena in the crisis of 1907: (a) currency premium; (b) hoarding; (c) the domestic exchanges; (d) substitutes for cash.
State concisely the theory of crises advanced by Professor Fisher in “The Purchasing Power of Money.” Discuss the theory critically.
Indicate fully the significance of the following “indices” in an analysis of general business conditions:

(1) Value of the corn crop;
(2) Railway net earnings;
(3) Business failures;
(4) Gold exports.

In each case explain why the “index” has or has not significance.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University — Examination papers, 1873-1915. Box 6. Bound volume, Examination Papers, 1912. Harvard University Examinations. Papers Set For Examinations in History, History of Science, Government, Economics […], pp. 54-55.

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Exams from earlier years

Source: Edmund Ezra Day (colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror) in the Harvard Class Album 1915.

Tags Day

Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of economics. Enrollment, description, exams. Taussig, 1911-1912

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-07-07

Today we begin a march through the economics course offerings at Harvard for the academic year 1911-12 with Frank W. Taussig’s Economics 1, Principles of Economics, an obvious starting point.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1910/11

1871-75	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01	1910-11
	1881-82	1891-92	1901-02
	1882-83	1892-93	1902-03
	1883-84	1893-94	1903-04
	1884-85	1894-95	1904-05
	1885-86	1895-96	1905-06
1876-77	1886-87	1896-97	1906-07
1877-78	1887-88	1897-98	1907-08
1878-79	1888-89	1898-99	1908-09
1879-80	1889-90	1899-00	1909-10

_________________________

Course Announcement
1911-12

[Economics] 1. Principles of Economics. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor [Frank William] Taussig, assisted by Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day, and Messrs. [Eliot] Jones, [Alfred Burpee] Balcom, [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis, and [Harold Hitchings] Burbank.

Source: Division of History, Government, and Economics 1911-12 (1^st edition) published as number 23 in Volume VIII of the Official Register of Harvard University (June 14, 1911). Transcribed and posted here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Course Enrollment
1911-12

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, assisted by Dr. E. E. Day, and Messrs. Jones, Balcom, J.S. Davis, Burbank, and Jay Morrison. — Principles of Economics.

Total 438: 1 Graduate, 19 Seniors, 85 Juniors, 252 Sophomores, 54 Freshmen, 27 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1911-1912, p. 63.

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ECONOMICS 1
Hour Examination.
Nov. 18, 1911.

Explain what is meant by
— capital,
— producer’s goods,
— consumer’s goods.

Can it be said that a monopolist has greater power over the price of producer’s goods than over that of consumer’s goods? If so, why? If not, why not?

Explain briefly but carefully:—
— vertical combination;
— by-products;
— steam-engine theory of the efficiency of labor;
— quantity theory of money.
“On grounds of general reasoning we are led to expect that the value of the precious metals will conform in the long run to their cost of production at the poorest mine, or at the poorest part of the better mines. It will conform, we should expect, to marginal cost of production.” What is the general reasoning here referred to? Does it apply to the precious metals as “we should expect”? If so, in what manner? If not, why not?
—
1. Is the marginal utility of water greater or less than that of molasses? Is its total utility?
  Is the marginal utility of copper greater or less than that of steel? Its total utility? (The price of copper per pound is usually about ten times that of steel.)
  Is the marginal utility of diamonds greater or less than that of glass? Its total utility?
2. Is consumer’s surplus larger (or more significant) for water than for molasses? For diamonds than for glass?

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination.
1911-12

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

Is it for the advantage of the community, and if so, wherein, that there should be
— standardizing,
— grain exchanges,
— brokers’ business?
Is it for the advantage of the community, and if so wherein, that there should be
— corporations,
— transferability of corporate shares,
— stock exchanges?
Arrange the following in the order of elasticity of demand; setting down first that for which you think demand is least elastic, last for which you think demand is most elastic. Give concisely the reasons for your arrangement.
— Wheat,
— Shakespere’s works,
— sugar,
— eye-glasses.

Assume now that each of these is in the hands of monopoly: which of them would it be for the interest of the monopolist to market at a high price, which at a low price? (By “high price” is meant a price much in excess of cost of production). Illustrate by a diagram.

Explain what is meant by
— weighted index number,
— specie premium,
— “real depreciation” of paper money,
— multiple standard.
Is a period of rising prices advantageous (a) for the community at large, (b) for any classes or sections in the community?
Is a low value of money, once settled, advantageous to the community at large? To any classes or sections in the community?
What are the restrictions on the total amount of banknotes that may be issued in (1) the United States, (2) England, (3) France? What degree of elasticity is found in the banknote issue of each country? Are there grounds for saying that elasticity of note issue is more important in one of these countries than in the others?
How is the volume of deposits in the United States affected by
1. the quantity of lawful money (specie and its equivalent);
2. the requirements of law;
3. the temper of the business community.
“We need not fear labor competition with Christendom. The readjustment would involve some temporary hardship, but it would be only temporary. But to compete with the wages paid in India, China, and Japan would be impossible. In some cases American wages would fall; in other cases the American manufactures would cease. Wages at three or four dollars a day could not be long kept up in competition with wages at twenty-five, fifty, or even seventy-five cents a day. Oriental wages would rise a little; American wages would fall a great deal.”
Would you agree?

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination.
1911-12

In what manner are saving and the formation of capital promoted or retarded by

(a) government borrowing;
(b) the corporate organization of industry;
(c) progressive inheritance taxes.

What part is played by (1) savings banks, (2) commercial banks, in the creation of capital? In the creation of deposits? How, if at all, do these two sorts of banks influence the effectiveness of capital?
The establishment of a postal savings system in the United States is expected to bring about a diminution in the remittances made to foreign countries by those who have recently immigrated to this country. Would such a change be to the advantage of the United States? If so, wherein? If not, why not?
Explain carefully,

— increasing returns;
— monopoly profit;
— unfair competition;
— potential competition;
— “the earmarks of effective monopoly.”

Suppose an urban site which, if utilized to best advantage, would secure an economic rent of $2000 a year; suppose an appropriate building to be erected on it, costing $50,000; suppose the current rate of interest to be 4%. What would be the net rental of the property (due allowance having been made for repairs, taxes, and the like), and what would be its capital value (selling price)?
Suppose now that an inappropriate building had been erected on it, and that the property, thus utilized, had proved to command a net rental of $2500; what would be the capital value (selling price) of the property?
Explain and illustrate

— equalizing differences of wages;
— real differences of wages.

Broadly speaking, are the differences which appear in existing society of the first kind or of the second?
What is the effect of immigration into the United States on these differences of wages?

What is to be said for, what against,

— “making work”;
— insurance against unemployment;
— the employer’s power of discharge.

In what sense, if in any, can it be said that government ownership and management (of railways, for example) is socialistic? In what sense, if in any, can it be said that compulsory arbitration between employers and workmen is socialistic?
Explain progressive, regressive, degressive, and proportional taxation. Of which sort would you consider the following (discuss three only):

— the British income tax;
— the general property tax in the United States;
— the import duty upon sugar;
— a tax upon the unearned increment in urban sites?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Prof. F. W. Taussig, Examination Papers in Economics 1882-1935 (Scrapbook).

Image Source: Frank William Taussig, Harvard Class Album 1915.

Tags Balcom, Burbank, DavisJS, Day, JonesEliot, Taussig

Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard

Harvard. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles. Description, enrollment, final exam. Day, 1910-11

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-02-24

After a year gap, a business cycle course was offered in 1910-11 with a new instructor, Edmund Ezra Day. One-third of the exam was devoted to “‘barometers’ or indices of general business conditions”.

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About Edmund Ezra Day

https://www.irwincollier.com/harvard-1909-phd-alumnus-edmund-ezra-day-cornell-memorial-minute-1951/

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Earlier Exams

1902/03-1907/08. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (A.P. Andrew)

1908/09. Commercial Crises and Trade Cycles (Wesley Clair Mitchell)

1909/10. Not offered.

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Course Announcement and Description
1910-11

12 ¹hf. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade. Half-course (first half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 10. Dr. Day.

Course 12 begins with a brief review of the more important crises occurring before 1870. This is followed by an intensive study of the cycles of trade culminating in the crises of 1873, 1893, and 1907. The influence upon commercial fluctuations of the present organization of industry, of government finance, of foreign trade, of agricultural conditions, of the money supply, of speculation, of banking methods, and of other such factors is discussed. The so-called barometers of trade are examined. Finally some consideration is given to the theory of economic crises, to the methods which have been employed in different countries for relieving crises, and to proposed reforms designed to prevent them.

Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, will be required of all students.

The course is open only to those who have passed satisfactorily in Economics 1.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VII No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 59.

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Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 12 ¹hf. Dr. E.E. Day. — Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 99: 1 Graduate, 40 Seniors, 43Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 3 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 49.

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ECONOMICS 12
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Give at least one-third of your time to Part II.

I

“The real cause of the crisis of 1893 was the bungling and incompetent legislation of our Federal Government.” Was this so? If so, why? If not, why not?
In what particulars were the conditions in the United States prior to the crisis of 1857 similar to those before 1907? In what respects were the conditions different?
Describe accurately the relation between:—
1. (1) Changes in the price level and (2) merchandise imports and exports.
2. (1) Merchandise imports and exports and (2) international gold movements.
3. (1) International gold movements and (2) banking reserves.
In the theory of crises what is meant by overproduction? To what different causes may this overproduction be assigned?

Arrange in the order of importance the following “barometers” or indices of general business conditions: —
1. Wheat production.
2. Cotton production.
3. Railroad construction.
4. Price of pig iron.
5. New York bank clearings.
6. Business failures.

Analyze the value and limitations of each of these indices.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers, Mid-Years, 1910-11.

Image Source: “A dangerous bubble” by J.S. Pughe. Illustration published in Puck (22 October 1902). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Tags Day

Exam Questions Harvard International Economics

Harvard. Banking and Foreign Exchange. Course description, enrollment, and examination. Day, 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-02-17

Edmund Ezra Day was awarded his Harvard economics Ph.D. in 1909 and he was subsequently appointed assistant professor of economics in 1910-11. This was a transition year for monetary economics at Harvard. In 1911-12 Day consolidated the three half-courses Econ 8a (Money), Econ 8b (Banking and Foreign Exchange), and Econ 12 (Commerical Crises and Cycles of Trade)into the full course “Money, Banking, and Commercial Crises.”

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Exams from earlier years

1906-07. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1907-08. Banking and Foreign Exchange (A.P. Andrew)
1908-09. Banking and Foreign Exchange (W.C. Mitchell)
1909-10. Banking and Foreign Exchange (O.M.W. Sprague)

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Economics 8b
Course Description
1910-11

8b ²hf. Banking and Foreign Exchange. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 1.30. Dr. [Edmund Ezra] Day.

In Course 8b, after a summary view of early forms of the development, legislation, and present practice of banking in leading countries, — such as England, Scotland, France, Germany, and Canada, — are reviewed and contrasted. Particular attention is given to banking history and experience in this country: the two United States banks; the more important features of banking in the separate states before 1860; the beginnings, growth, operation, and proposed modification of the national banking system; and credit institutions outside that system, such as state banks and trust companies; and the growth and influence of the independent government treasury.

The peculiarities of the money markets of London, Paris, Berlin, and New York are examined, and the various factors, such as stock exchange dealings, and international exchange payments, which bring about fluctuations in the demand for loans, and the rate of discount in these markets will be considered.

Written work, in the preparation of short papers on assigned topics, and a regular course of prescribed reading will be required of all students.

The course is open to those who have taken Economics 1.

Source: History and Political Science, Comprising the Departments of History and Government, and Economics, 1910-11. Published in the Official Register of Harvard University. Vol. VI,I No. 23 (June 21, 1910), p. 58.

Economics 8b
Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 8b ²hf. Dr. E. E. Day. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 123: 1 Graduate, 26 Seniors, 55 Juniors, 27 Sophomores, 5 Freshmen, 9 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 49.

Economics 8b
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Carefully distinguish the clearing house certificate from the clearing house loan certificate. Describe the manner in which the loan certificate has been customarily issued.
What is the primary function of the loan certificate? Explain Professor Sprague’s statement: “The result (from failure to equalize or pool reserves) has been to convert the clearing house loan certificate into an instrument which inevitably and immediately leads to the suspension of payments by the banks.”
To what new uses was the loan certificate put in 1907? To what extent would you expect this practice of 1907 to be followed were another crisis to occur under our present banking laws?
Describe the manner in which commercial banking in England arose from the business of the “new fashioned” goldsmiths.
Contrast the banking systems prevailing in 1860 in New England and New York.
In the English banking system, what are the functions of (1) the accepting house, (2) the bill-broker, (3) the discount house? What is the size and form of the English banking reserves? Are these reserves adequate? If so, why? If not, why not?
Describe the following features of bank note issue in Canada: (1) number of issuing banks; (2) limitations upon issue; (3) security of notes; (4) current redemption of notes; (5) elasticity of issue.
Describe the elasticity, from year to year, season to season, and during crises, of’ (1) gold coin, (2) bank notes, and (3) deposit currency, in the United States.
Contrast Professor Sprague’s proposed central bank with the Reserve Association advocated by Senator Aldrich. Which, in your opinion, the better assures the banking reform needed in the United States? Why?

Source: Papers set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics, …, Landscape Architecture, Music in Harvard College. June 1911, p. 44. In Harvard University Archives, Examination papers, 1873-1915 (HUC 7000.25). Box 9. Examination Papers, 1910-11, p. 47.

Image Source: Edmund Ezra Day in Harvard Class Album 1915. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Tags Day

Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and semester examinations for principles of economics. Taussig, 1910-1911

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2026-02-01

After a pause dedicated to revising a paper, I return to the task of transcribing the economics mid-year and year-end examinations from Harvard University. The first table below provides links to four decades worth of introductory exams, ending in January and June 1910. Material for the other economics courses taught at Harvard in 1910-11 will be posted over the next couple of months.

In 1910-11 Frank Taussig was back in the saddle after a leave of absence taken during the previous year. He completed the first edition of his Principles of Economics [Volume I; Volume II] in March 1911 [Preface]. Links to the references from that first edition have been posted.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1909/10

1871-75	1880-81	1890-91	1900-01
	1881-82	1891-92	1901-02
	1882-83	1892-93	1902-03
	1883-84	1893-94	1903-04
	1884-85	1894-95	1904-05
	1885-86	1895-96	1905-06
1876-77	1886-87	1896-97	1906-07
1877-78	1887-88	1897-98	1907-08
1878-79	1888-89	1898-99	1908-09
1879-80	1889-90	1899-00	1909-10

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Course Announcement
1910-11

Principles of Economies. Tu., Th., Sat., at 11. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. Huse, Day, and Foerster, and Messrs. Sharfman, and Balcom.

Course 1 is introductory to the other courses. It is intended to give a general survey of the subject for those who take but one course in Economics, and also to prepare for the further study of the subject in advanced courses. It is usually taken with most profit by undergraduates in the second year of their college career. Students who plan to take it in their first year are strongly advised to consult the instructor in advance. History 1 or Government 1, or both of these courses, will usually be taken to advantage before Economics 1.

[…]

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Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 1. Professor Taussig, assisted by Drs. [Charles Phillips] Huse [Ph.D., 1907] , [Edmund Ezra] Day, [Ph.D. 1909] and [Robert Franz] Foerster [Ph.D. 1909], and Mr. [Alfred Burpee] Balcom [A.M. 1909] — Principles of Economics.

Total 531: 5 Graduates, 14 Seniors, 96 Juniors, 272 Sophomores, 99 Freshmen, 45 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1910-1911, p. 48.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Give your reasons in all cases.

“Economic productivity is not a matter of piety or merit or deserving, but only of commanding a price. Actors, teachers, preachers, lawyers, [sic, “prostitutes,” was the last item on H. J. Davenport’s list on p. 112, see link.] all do things that men are content to pay for. So wages may be earned by writing libels against a rival candidate, or by setting fire to a competitor’s refinery. The test of economic productivity in a competitive society is the fact of private gain, irrespective of any ethical criteria.” [H.J. Davenport. Social productivity versus private acquisition. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol 25, No. 1 (Nov. 1910), pp. 96-118.]
Would you agree? In which of the cases above-mentioned, if any, do you find economic productivity?
Draw a diagram illustrating how the price of a commodity is related to its cost of production under conditions of diminishing return (i.e. increasing cost). Explain the diagram, and indicate rent on it.
What is the influence of cost of production on value in the case of a copyrighted book? cotton seed? a bushel of wheat?
Suppose prices to have been as follows: —

	1909	1910
Wheat (bushel)	$1.00	$1.20
Cotton (pound)	0.10	0.12
Iron (ton)	10.00	13.00
Copper (pound)	0.10	0.06
Quicksilver (pound)	1.00	0.50

(a) Construct an index number, using the simple arithmetic mean, to show how general prices in 1910 were related to prices in 1909.

(b) Next, weight the commodities,—

…giving to wheat	a weight of 5
…giving to cotton	a weight of 4
…giving to iron	a weight of 4
…giving to copper	a weight of 1
…giving to quicksilver	a weight of 1

Construct a second index number, using the weighted arithmetical mean.

Which index number would you consider the more trustworthy!

In spite of recent great increases in the world’s gold production, the price of an ounce of gold in the United States has remained steadily at $20.67; in England, at £3 17s. 10½d. How do you explain this steadiness? Has there been the same steadiness in the value of gold?
Explain briefly: —

Free coinage.
Mint ratio.
Bimetallism.
Limping standard.
Subsidiary coin.

In 1850 the United States coined silver and gold at the ratio of 16 to 1. The market ratio then was 15.7 to 1. Which metal would you expect to be brought to the mint for coinage, and why?
Wherein is the regulation of note-issue for the Reichsbank of Germany similar to its regulation for the Bank of England? Wherein different? Which of the two plans of regulation has proved the more successful?
Explain briefly: —

Legal reserves.
“The essential similarity of notes and deposits.”
“Deposits as currency.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1910-11.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

Suppose a great issue of inconvertible paper money (fiat money) in the United States: what would be the effects, temporary or permanent, on the rate of interest; the value of money; the rate of foreign exchange; imports and exports?
Is it true that “rent does not enter into the cost of production of agricultural produce”?
A shop-keeper, on a side street off Massachusetts Avenue in Cambridge, advertised: “We can sell at low prices because we pay low rent.” Do you think it probable that he could?
A corporation is formed, with a capital (paid in) of $1,500,000. It buys a city site for $1,000,000, and erects on it an office building which costs $1,000,000; the sum of $500,000 toward the cost of the building being borrowed at 5%. By good management it succeeds in paying to its stockholders from the rentals of the offices (after meeting all expenses and interest on the money borrowed) dividends of 8%.
What determined the price at which the site was purchased? Is the return received by the stockholders interest, rent, business profits, wages?
A business firm is made up of three partners, A and B, active partners, and C, an inactive (or silent) partner. The firm has $150,000 capital, contributed in equal shares by the three partners. Its articles of agreement provide that the net earnings shall be divided as follows: first, a dividend of 6% on the capital; second, if net earnings permit, a salary of $4,000 to each of the active partners; lastly, any remainder to be distributed as further dividend on the capital. The firm’s net earnings in 1908 were $23,000.
What were the “business profits” of the firm? What were its “profits” in the sense in which Mill used that term?
Explain: —

non-competing groups;
“real” differences of wages;
“the forces of environment”;
social stratification.

Would you regard a great extension of public ownership (to such industries as railways, street railways, gas works, coal mines) as “socialistic”? If so, in what sense? If not, why not?
Would you regard a tax on the future increase of economic rent as “socialistic”? If so, in what sense? If not, why not?
From a speech made in 1909 by a member of Congress: —
“During the past few years the United States have imported from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 worth of antimony… largely from Japan, Mexico, China, and Labrador. Practically every ton of it is imported, notwithstanding the fact that in ten or twelve of the western states it is found in abundance…. I have no doubt that (with a proposed duty on antimony) within twelve months, instead of importing all our antimony, we shall produce every pound of it in the United States. We shall have the money and our antimony too.”
What would you say of this reasoning?
Can a country advantageously import a commodity in producing which its labor is more effective than labor is in producing that commodity in the country whence it is imported?
Can a country (A) send exports to a country (B) if the current rate of wages is $2.00 a day in country A and $1.00 a day in country B?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 9, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1910-11 (HUC 7000.25) Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1911), pp. 38-39.

Image Source: From the cover of the Harvard Class Album 1946.

Tags Balcom, Day, Foerster, Huse, Taussig

Harvard Suggested Reading Syllabus

Harvard. Course Readings for Economics and Social Ethics, 1920-1921

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-11-13

Old Gate at Harvard College (August 6, 1920)

The artifact transcribed and linked for this post was found in last of ten boxes in the Harvard Archives collection “Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003”. I had worked through the previous nine boxes containing folders chronologically ordered by academic year. Box 10 contained five folders of poorly sorted course materials that were undated, requiring some effort to establish a probable time range for any of the artifacts.

In the first folder I found an eight page typed list of courses, with the names and assigned readings (for most of the courses offered to both undergraduate and graduate students, though no reading lists for the courses that were primarily offered for graduate students) which was relatively easy to date by looking at the course staffing announced in the annual catalogue for the Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21. There is one reference to Taussig’s third edition (Dec. 1921) in the list which would suggest that the list was probably prepared for the 1921-22 or 1922-23 year using materials gathered from the earlier 1920-21 academic year. But the perfect correspondence of course staffing between the transcribed list below and the published announcement for 1920-21 is sufficient for me to assign the 1920-21 academic year to the post.

Square brackets […] have been used to distinguish additional information from the typed list. All explicit titles have been linked, increasing the value of this post considerably.

______________________

Course Descriptions for
Economics and Social Ethics,
1920-21

Division of History, Government, and Economics, 1920-21 published in the Official Register of Harvard University, Vol. XVII (May 22, 1920) No. 27.

______________________

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir
of the 1920s

Carlson, Valdemar. “The Education of an Economist before the Great Depression: Harvard’s Economics Department in the 1920’s.” The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol. 27, no. 1, 1968, pp. 101–12.

______________________

ASSIGNED READINGS IN ECONOMICS

A. PRINCIPLES OF ECONOMICS

[Assistant] Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank and assistants

Readings:

Taussig, [Frank William], Principles of Economics

[First Edition (1911): Volume I; Volume II]
[Second Edition, Revised (1915): Volume I; Volume II]
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]
[Fourth Edition (1939) requires readers to set up an individual account at archive.org for temporary access: Volume I; Volume II]

[Questions on the Principles of Economics by Edmund Ezra Day and Joseph Stancliffe Davis (Revised for the thrid edition of Taussig’s Principles of Economics) edition, 1922.]

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

1a. ACCOUNTING

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

[none listed]

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

1b. STATISTICS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

Readings:

Secrist, Introduction to Statistical Methods, 1-77, 116-424

King, Elements of Statistical Method, pp.1-19, 64-82, 167-196

Elderton, W. P. and E. M., Primer of Statistics, ch. 1-4

U.S. Census, The Story of the Census, 1790-1915

Field, “Some Advantages of the Logarithmic Scale in Statistical Diagrams,” Journ. Pol. Econ., Oct. 1917

Persons, W. M., Measuring and Forecasting General Business Conditions

Joint Committee on Graphic Standards, Preliminary Report
[Publications of the American Statistical Association 14, no. 112 (1915): 790–97. https://doi.org/10.2307/2965153]

Additional;

Unprescribed portions of King and Secrist

List of references appended to chapters in King and Secrist

References for Statistical Work (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

Questions and Exercises in Statistics (Prepared for Economics 1b, 1920)

The Review of Economic Statistics

Lists of references in specific fields

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

2a. EUROPEAN INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

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

2b. ECONOMIC HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

Readings:

See printed bibliography on file in Tutorial Library

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

3. MONEY, BANKING, AND COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

Readings:

[none listed]

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

4a. ECONOMICS OF TRANSPORTATION

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Railroad Rates, vol. 1, (not vol. II)

Ripley, Railway Problems

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

4b. ECONOMICS OF CORPORATIONS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Ripley, Trusts, Pools, and Corporations

Haney, Business Organization and Combination

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

5a. PUBLIC FINANCE, EXCLUSIVE OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Daniel [sic], Public Finance [Possibly: Winthrop More Daniels, Elements of Public Finance (1899)]

Adams, H. C., Public Finance [sic]
[Probably: The Science of Finance, An Investigation of Public Expenditures and Public Revenues (1912)]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Darwin, Municipal Trade

Stourm, The Budget

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

5b. THE PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF TAXATION

Asst. Professor [Harold Hitchings] Burbank

Readings:

Bastable, Selections on Public Finance

Bullock, Selected Readings in Public Finance
[Second edition, 1921]

Seligman, Essays in Taxation

Means, Methods of Taxation

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

6a. TRADE-UNIONISM AND ALLIED PROBLEMS

Professor [William Zebina] Ripley

Readings:

Webb, Industrial Democracy

Commons, Trade Unionism

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

7a. THEORIES OF VALUE AND DISTRIBUTION

Professor [Edmund Ezra] Day

Readings:

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Carver, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Principles of Economics (1921 edition)
[Third Edition, (Dec. 1921): Volume I; Volume II]

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Walker, Political Economy

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Böhm-Bawerk, Capital and Interest

Fetter, Economic Principles

Davenport, Economics of Enterprise

Veblen, The Theory of Business Enterprise

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Anderson, Social Value

Anderson, The Value of Money

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

7b. SOCIALISM, ANARCHISM, THE SINGLE TAX

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

See printed circular on file in the Tutorial Library

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

8. PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Bristol, Social Adaptation

Carver, Sociology and Social Progress

Sumner, Folkways

Spencer, Principles of Sociology [Vol. 1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3]

Carver, Essays in Social Justice

Giddings, Sociology

Tardl [sic], Social Gains [sic] [Looks like a typographical error. Probably Social Laws, An Outline of Sociology by Gabriel Tarde (1899 translation from the French)[

Kidd, Social Evolution

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

9a. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Principles of Rural Economics

Carver, Selected Readings in Rural Economics

Various bulletins and reports

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

9b. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF POLICIES

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

Readings:

Taussig, Free Trade, the Tariff and Reciprocity

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Smith, Wealth of Nations

State Papers and Speeches on the Tariff

Taussig, Selected Readings (to appear shortly)

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

10. ECONOMIC THOUGHT AND INSTITUTIONS

Dr. [Arthur Eli] Monroe

Readings:

Aristotle, Politics, Bk. I, ch. 1-11; Bk. II, ch. 1-6; IV, ch. 11-13; V, ch. 1-9

Maine, Ancient Law, ch. 5-8

Ashley, Economic History of England, vol. I, ch. 3

Mun: England’s Treasure by Forraign Trade

Turgot, Reflections on the Formation and Distribution of Wealth

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. I, 1-3, 5-9, 11 (secs. 1,2)

Smith, Wealth of Nations, Bk. II, 3-5; IV, 1, 2, 9

Malthus, Essay on Population, [Vol. I, 6th ed. ] Bk I, 1, 2; Bk. II, 13; [Vol. II, 6th ed.] III, 2, 3; Bk. IV, 1, 2, 3. (Or selections in Ashley’s Classics)

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. I], Bk. I, 5; Bk: II, 11; Bk. III, 1-5

Mill, Political Economy [Vol. II], Bk. IV, 3,4; Bk. V, 8, 10, 11 (sec. 1-9)

List, National System of Political Economy, Bk. II, 2-5, 7

Carlyle, Past and Present (selected chap.) or
Ruskin, Unto this Last, ch. 1, 3

Bücher, Industrial Evolution, chs. 3, 4

Ashley, Economic Organization of England, ch. 1-7

Wells, Mankind in the Making

(Several optional assignments to be announced later)

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

11. ECONOMIC THEORY

Professor [Frank William] Taussig
[“Maurice Beck Hexter’s notes from Harvard University, 1921-22” and “Supplemental notes from F.W. Taussig’s Course in economic theory with contributions by A.A. Young” edited by Marianne Johnson and Warren J. Samuels in Research in the History of Economic Thought and Methodology, Vol. 28-C (2010), pp. 11-176]

Readings:

Ricardo, Principles of Political Economy
[Third edition, 1821]

Mill, Principles of Political Economy

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Clark, Distribution of Wealth

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fetter, Principles of Economics

Hobson, Work and Wealth

Veblen, Theory of Business Enterprise

Divers separate articles and chapters in other books

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

9a. THE DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

Readings:

Carver, Distribution of Wealth

Marshall, Principles of Economics

Böhm-Bawerk, Positive Theory of Capital

Fisher, The Rate of Interest

Clark, The Distribution of Wealth

Taussig, Work [sic] and Capital [Wages and Capital]

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

14. HISTORY AND LITERATURE OF ECONOMICS TO THE YEAR 1848

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

15. MODERN SCHOOLS OF ECONOMIC THOUGHT

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

31. PUBLIC FINANCE

Professor [Charles Jesse] Bullock

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

32. ECONOMICS OF AGRICULTURE, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO AMERICAN CONDITIONS

Professor [Thomas Nixon] Carver

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

33. INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND TARIFF PROBLEMS

Professor [Frank William] Taussig

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

34. PROBLEMS OF LABOR

Professor [William Ripley] Ripley

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

35a. BUSINESS CORPORATIONS

Asst. Professor Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

35b. BUSINESS COMBINATIONS

Asst. Professor [Joseph Stancliffe] Davis

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

36a. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP: HISTORICAL, THEORETICAL, AND PRACTICAL ASPECTS

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

36b. PUBLIC REGULATION AND CONTROL OF PRIVATE INDUSTRY WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO PUBLIC SERVICE INDUSTRIES

Dr. [Edmund Earle] Lincoln

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

37. COMMERCIAL CRISES

Professor [Warren Milton] Persons

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

38. SELECTED MONETARY PROBLEMS

Professor [Allyn Abbott] Young

PRIMARILY FOR GRADUATES

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

[ASSIGNED READINGS]
IN SOCIAL ETHICS

1. SOCIAL PROBLEMS AND SOCIAL POLICY

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster and Asst. Professor [James] Ford

Readings:

Booth, Life and Labour of the People of London, vol. 1 of Series 1, 3-8, 24-73, 131-171

Conklin, Heredity and Environment, rev. ed. pp.197-242, 256-258, 297-306, 416-456, 475-497

Dewey, and Tufts, Ethics, ch. 15, pp. 297-304; ch. 18-26, pp. 364-606

Flexner, and Baldwin, Juvenile Courts and Probation, Pts.1, 2, pp. 3-78

Oppenheimer, The Rationale of Punishment, pp. 1-4, 171-175, 234-295

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, vol. 1, pt. 3, ch. 9 and 12, pp. 686-724, 745-756

Warner, American Charities, 3rd ed., ch. 4, 6-10, 12, 14-15, 17-22, pр. 64-90, 113-225, 248-284, 305-346, 363-476

Wines, Punishment and Reformation, ch. 8, 10, 12-14 (3rd ed.) pp. 133-167, 199-234, 265-412

Committee of Fifty to Study the Liquor Problem, Summary of Investigations, pp. 15-134

Burritt, Dennison, Gay, Heilman, and Kendall, Profit Sharing, pp. 159-257

Commons and Andrews, Principles of Labor Legislation, pp. 1-414, 454-464

Fay, Cooperation at Home and Abroad, pp. 273-285, 310-354

Foerster, A Promising Venture in Industrial Partnership, Annals American Academy of Political and Social Science, Pub. 703, November 1912, pp. 97-103

Hoxie, Scientific Management and Labor, pp. 25-139

King, Industry and Humanity, ch. 7, 8, pp. 167-303; ch. 10, pp. 364-390

British Labor party, Sub-committee on Reconstruction, report, Labor and the New Social Order, reprint from the New Republic, Feb. 16, 1918, pp. 12

Lee, Play in Education, pp. 319-391, 423-494

Schaeffle, Quintessence of Socialism, pp. 39-127

Schloss, Industrial Remuneration, pp. 286-309

Spargo, Applied Socialism, pp. 87-325

Veiller, Housing Reform, pp. 3-190

Williams, Profit-sharing, pp. 17-42, 146-171

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

4. AMERICAN POPULATION PROBLEMS: IMMIGRATION AND THE NEGRO

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Reading:

Byington, Homestead: The Households of a Mill Town, ch. 9-11, pp.131-157

Fairchild, Immigration, ch. 1-5, 7, 9, 10, 12-14, 16, pp. 1-105, 123-143, 163-212, 233-368, 393-415

Foerster, The Italian Emigration of Our Times, ch. 21-24, pp. 415-525

Ibid. Quarterly Journal of Economics, Aug.1913, Review of Hourwich’s book on immigration, pp. 656-671

Hourwich, Immigration and Labor, ch. 4, 5, 12-15, 18, 23, pp. 82-112, 284-352, 375-383, 489-501, 414-431 and in chapter 21, Report of the MASS. COMMISSION ON IMMIGRATION, 1914, pp. 54-104

Millis, The Japanese Problem in the United States, ch. 1, pp. 1-29

Reely, Selected Articles on Immigration (Debaters’ Handbook) pp. 131-134, 200-204, 219-222, 225-229

Roberts, The New Immigration, ch. 9, 11-13, pp. 124-138, 156-199

Ross, The Old World in the New, ch. 1-4, 6, 11, pp. 1-92, 120-140, 259-281

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 39, pp. 5-81, 127-129

Walker, Discussions in Economics and Statistics, vol. 2, pp. 417-426

Warne, Slav Invasion, pp. 28-38, 47-83

U. S. Immigration Commission, vol. 1, pp. 491-541; vol. 4, pp. 239-281, 337-348

Ovington, Half a Man, ch. 4-8, pp. 75-217

Shaler, The Neighbor, pp. 278-336

Stone, Studies in the American Race Problem, pp. 149-208

Tillinghast, The Negro in Africa and America, Amer. Econ. Review, May 1902, pp. 28-45, 60-79, 102-170

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

6. UNEMPLOYMENT AND RELATED PROBLEMS OF THE WORKING CLASSES

Asst. Professor [Robert Franz] Foerster

Readings:

Beveridge, Unemployment, pp. 1-237

Webb, Seasonal Trades, ch. 1, 2, pp. 1-90

U. S. Bureau of Labor, Report on Women and Child Wage-Earners, vol. 7, pp. 43-60, 64-67, 177-192

Barnes, The Longshoremen, pp. 55-92, 199-206, 210-227

Chicago, Report of the Mayor’s Commission on Unemployment, 1914, pp. 107-165

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Bulletin 206, B. Lasker, British System of Labor Exchanges, pp. 1-56

Kellor, Out of Work, Ch. 6, pp. 157-193

Gibbon, Unemployment Insurance, pp. 187-203

Dawson, Vagrancy Problem, ch. 4, 11, pp.104-132; 229-249

Ibid. Social Insurance in Germany, ch. 2-4, 7-9, pp. 22-127,182-265

Gibbon, Medical Benefit …Germany and Denmark, ch. 2, 6, 9, 12, 18 pp. 10-14, 43-52, 81-106, 125-131, 192-203

Rubinow, Standards of Health Insurance, Ch. 5-9, pp.67-152

Belloc, The Servile State, pp. 155-189

24th Annual Report of the U.S. Commissioner of Labor, 1909, Vol. 2, pp. 1499-1530, 1540-1544

Foerster, The British National Insurance Act, Q. J. of Econ., Feb. 1912, pp. 275-298, 305-312

Bernhard, Undesirable Results of German Social Legislation, pp. 39-75

Mass. Commission on Old Age Pensions, 1910 Report, pp. 112-122, 164-203, 224-259, 268-284, 300-344

U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Bulletin 195, Unemployment in the United States, 1916

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003. Box 10, Folder “Economics, undated (1 of 5)”.

Image Source: Old Gate at Harvard College (Leon H. Abdalian, photographer). Boston Public Library Arts Department. [No Copyright – United States]

Tags Burbank, Carver, DavisJS, Day, Foerster, Ford, Lincoln, Monroe, Ripley, Taussig, Young

Economists Harvard Math Michigan

Harvard. Application for PhD candidacy and graduate records. Olin Winthrop Blackett, 1926

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2025-06-08

The first two items posted below from the graduate records of Olin Winthrop Blackett (Harvard PhD 1926) are of particular significance, marking what appears to be the very first time that Mathematics was accepted as a field in the General Examination for a PhD in economics at Harvard. The decision to accept Mathematics as a minor field was made in November 1920, Blackett’s general examination took place in May 1922 and his PhD was awarded in 1926. The title of Blackett’s doctoral thesis was “The Cyclical Movements of the Prices of Raw materials in the Iron and Steel Industry.”

_________________________

Requesting approval of a mathematics minor in the General Examination

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
J. S. Davis
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
E. E. Lincoln
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole

Cambridge, Massachusetts

November 5, 1920

Prof. C. H. Haskins,
Harvard University,
Cambridge, Mass.

Dear Mr. Haskins,

I enclose herewith O. W. Blackett’s application for candidacy for the degree of Ph.D. in Economics. Blackett’s program is perfectly regular with the possible exception of the offering Mathematics as his minor. It seems to me that even in this particular the program is normal. I have talked over the Mathematics minor with the Department of Mathematics, particularly with Professor Huntington and have come without difficulty to an understanding which seems to assure a minor in that Department fully the equivalent of any of the other more common minors, and particularly serviceable for men who propose to specialize, as does Blackett, in the field of Statistical Method.

If Blackett’s program is approved, one or two others of similar kind will be submitted at an early date. I doubt not, furthermore, that Mathematics minors will become common among those expecting to specialize along statistical lines. Statistical method clearly is developing in directions that make a sound mathematical training an indispensable element in an adequate professional equipment.

Should Mathematics be accepted for men specializing in Statistics, I would suggest that you try to obtain the services of Professor Huntington as examiner when the field is up at the General Examinations. Professor Huntington has a definite interest in the application of Mathematics to Statistical Methode and is thoroughly acquainted with the material upon which candidates in Economics may most profitably be examined.

Sincerely yours,
[signed] Edmund E. Day

EED A
Encl.

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

Request Granted

8 November 1920

Dear Day:

I cordially approve of Blackett’s programme, with the explanation given in your letter. It seems to me that when we accept Mathematics, we should be sure of men’s general Economics preliminary training, and that these men in particular get the courses in Economic History. Our plans ought always to be flexible enough to include the acceptance of an outside subject, where it is essential to the student’s work. What you say about the necessity of Mathematics for statisticians is sound, and I hope we shall encourage other men to take the same field. I shall bring the plan up at the next meeting of the Division.

Sincerely yours,
[unsigned copy of C. H. Haskins]

Professor E. E. Day.

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

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

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

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

Olin Winthrop Blackett. July 12, 1895. Winthrop, Mass.

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

Wesleyan University, 1914-17, & 1919-20.
Rich Fellow and Assistant in Economics, Wesleyan, 1919-20.

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

B.A. Wesleyan, 1917.
M.A. Wesleyan, 1920.

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your undergraduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc. In case you are a candidate for the degree in History, state the number of years you have studied preparatory and college Latin.)

Economic Theory —1 year elementary —3 years advanced.
Money and Banking —1 year. Corporations —1 year.
Tariff and International Trade —1 year. Labor Prob. —1 year.
Socialism, Single Tax, etc. —2 years. Statistics — 1 year.
American History —1 year. English & European History —1 year.
Philosophy —2 years. German —2 years. Math —4 years.

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

Economics

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

Economic Theory. — This was my major study during three years of undergraduate work and one year of work for the masters degree. Taught theory 1 year in Wesleyan U. Eco. 11 & 14 at Harvard this year.
Money, Banking, and Crises. — 1 year course in Wesleyan University. Auditor in Eco. 3 this year.
Public Finance. — Eco. 31 this year at Harvard.
Statistics. — 1 year in Wesleyan University. Private study during the summer of 1920.
Economic History. — Studied in connection with courses in economics and history in Wesleyan U. Econ. 2a & 2b this year at Harvard.
Mathematics. — 4 years work in Wesleyan U. including algebra, trig. analytic geom., calculus, finite differences, reduction of observations, interpolation, theory of errors, least squares, moments.

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

Statistics

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

~~The Machine Tool Industry~~. Cyclical Price Movements of Raw Materials in the Iron and Steel Industry.
Prof. Persons.

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

As late as possible in the spring of 1921 for the general examination.

X. Remarks

[left blank]

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

[signed] Edmund E. Day — Chairman

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

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: Olin W. Blackett.

Approved: January 25, 1921.

Ability to use French certified by C. J. Bullock. 3 March, 1922.

Ability to use German certified by C. J. Bullock. 3 March, 1922.

Date of general examination May 19, 1922. Passed.

Thesis received October, 1925.

Read by Professors Persons, Crum, and Young.

Approved November 1925.

Date of special examination Monday. April 12, 1926.

Recommended for the Doctorate [left blank]

Degree conferred [left blank]

Remarks. Mr. O. W. Blackett was examined on Monday, April 12, at 4 p.m. in room 404 College House by Professors Persons (chairman), Crum, Huntington and W.M. Cole. The committee unanimmously voted that the examination be accepted as satisfactory.
[signed] Warren M. Persons, Chairman.

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

Postponing General Examination from Spring to Fall 1921

15 Park Vale
Brookline, Mass.,
March 2, 1921

My dear Miss Cogswell:

Please pardon the delay in returning the copy you sent me. The material is as complete as I am able to make it at the present time. I shall not be a candidate for the General Examination this spring but shall present myself probably in the fall.

Yours truly,
[signed] Olin W. Blackett.

[NOTE: The General Examination was in fact postponed to the following Spring, May 19, 1922]

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

Draft of Planned General Examination Announcement (undated)

OLIN WINTHROP BLACKETT.

GENERAL EXAMINATION in Economics

COMMITTEE [left blank].

ACADEMIC HISTORY: Wesleyan University, 1914-17, 1919-20; Harvard Graduate School, 1920-. A.B., Wesleyan, 1917; A. M., ibid., 1920. Assistant in Economics, Wesleyan University, 1919-20.

GENERAL SUBJECTS: 1. Economic Theory. 2. Money, Banking, and Crises. 3. Public Finance. 4. Statistics. 5. Economic History. 6. Mathematics.

SPECIAL SUBJECT: Statistics.

THESIS SUBJECT: [left blank].

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

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
J. H. Williams
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole
R. S. Tucker
R. S. Meriam

Cambridge, Massachusetts

March 3, 1922

Dear Haskins:

This certifies that I have examined Mr. O. W. Blackett and find that he has such a reading knowledge of French and German as we require of candidates for the Degree of Philosophy [sic].

Very truly yours,
[signed] Charles J. Bullock

Dean C. H. Haskins

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

Date and Place of General Examination

16 May 1922

My dear Mr. Blackett:

Your General Examination on Friday, 19 May, will be held in Widener U at 4 P.M.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division

Mr. O. W. Blackett.

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

Committee of General Examination

23 May 1922

My dear Sir:

Your general examination will come Friday, 19 May, unless otherwise notified. Professors Day, Huntington, Young, Burbank, and Dr. Clark, have ben appointed to examine you. Of course, the committee is tentative, not final.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned copy]
Secretary of the Division

Mr. O. W. Blackett.

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

General examination passed

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS

F. W. Taussig
T. N. Carver
W. Z. Ripley
C. J. Bullock
A. A. Young
W. M. Persons
E. E. Day
H. H. Burbank
A. S. Dewing
J. H. Williams
A. E. Monroe
A. H. Cole
R. S. Tucker
R. S. Meriam

Cambridge, Massachusetts

May 22, 1922

Dear Young,

For the purposes of final record may I report that Mr. Olin W. Blackett’s General Examination in Economics was conducted on the afternoon of the 19th by the following Committee: Professors Day (chairman), Huntington, Young, Burbank,and Dr. Clark. This Committee voted unanimously that the examination be accepted. I return herewith the papers covering Mr. Blackett’s candidacy.

Very truly yours,
[signed by “K” for] E. E. Day

Professor A. A. Young

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

Special Examination Date
When exactly?

Februrary 1, 1926

My Dear Mr. Blackett:

Mr. Robinson, the Secretary of the Graduate School, has communicated to me the contents of your letter to him in which you say that vou will not be able to reach Cambridge until April 12. Do you mean thet you would like to have your special examination on that date, or on some day later in the month? Your thesis has been approved.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned Gladys E. Campbell]
Secretary.

Mr. O. W. Blackett

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

Request for Special Examination during week of April 12th

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
School of Business Administration

February 4, 1926.

Miss Gladys E. Campbell
Div. of History, Gov. and Econ.
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Miss Campbell,

I have your letter of February 1st and would appreciate it very much if you would make arrangements for my special examination in Statistics during the week of April 12th.

Very truly yours,
[signed] O. W. Blackett

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

Request to Confirm Special Examination during week of April 12th

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
School of Business Administration

March 18, 1926.

Miss Gladys E. Campbell
Div. of History, Gov. and Econ.
Harvard University
Cambridge, Mass.

My dear Miss Campbell,

I have not heard from you whether arrangements have been made for my special examination in Statistics during the week of April 12th. Would you let me know as soon as final arrangements can be made?

Very truly yours,
[signed] O. W. Blackett.

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

Date and Committee
for Special Examination

March 18, 1926.

My dear Mr. Blackett:

I have your note of March 13 asking if arrangements had been made for your special examination. The date has been arranged for April 12 at four o’clock and the committee consists of Frofessors Persons (chairman), Crum, Cole, and Huntington. The place will be named later.

Letters addressed to Professor Haskins or to me will reach us more quickly if sent to 774 Widener Library.

Very truly yours,
[unsigned Gladys E. Campbell]
Secretary of the Division.

Mr. O. W. Blackett

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

Record of Olin Winthrop Blackett in the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
(2 November 1925)

1920-21

	Grades
	Course	Half-Course
Economics 2a¹		B
Economics 2b²		C
Economics 11	A
Economics 14	A minus
Economics 31	A

1921-22

	Grades
	Course	Half-Course
Economics 15¹		A
Economics 41	A

1922-23

	Grades
	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20	A

1923-24

	Grades
	Course	Half-Course
Economics 20 (1st half)		A

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Examinations, Box 6: 1924-26.

__________________________

Course Names and Instructors

1920-21

Economics 2a ¹hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Dr. E. E. Lincoln assisted by Mr. Hyde.

Economics 2b ²hf. Economic and Financial History of the United States. Dr. E. E. Lincoln assisted by Mr. Hyde.

Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.

Economics 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Professor Bullock.

Economics 31. Public Finance. Professor Bullock.

1921-22

Economics 15 ¹hf. Modern Schools of Economic Thought. Professor Young.

Economics 41. Statistical Theory and Analysis. Professor Day.

1922-23, 1923-24

Economics 20. Economic Research.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1920-21. Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Announcements of the Courses of Instruction, 1921-22.

__________________________

Olin Winthrop Blackett
His life and career

Olin Winthrop Blackett, Obituary

Olin Winthrop Blackett, born July 12, 1895 in Winthrop, MA, died peacefully on Sept. 12, 1993 [sic, September 7 is correct] in Tacoma, WA. He attended Wesleyan University, the United States Naval Academy and served in the U.S. Navy in World War I. He received a PhD in economics from Harvard University where he continued on to teach in the Harvard Business School. He moved to Ann Arbor, MI, in 1924 where he was Professor of Business Statistics at the University of Michigan Business School until his retirement in 1965. He then lived in Key Alegro, TX until the death of his wife, Ruth E. Blackett in 1978 when he moved to Tacoma…

Source: The News Tribune (Tacoma WA) 9 September 1995

Image Source: Portrait from the Anne Olson family tree, “Olin Winthrop Prof. Blackett” at ancestry.com

Tags Blackett, ColeWM, Crum, Day, Young

Economists Harvard Transcript

Harvard. Application for PhD candidacy. James Waterhouse Angell, 1921

Post author By Irwin Collier
Post date 2024-01-18

The empirical questions behind most of the collection of archival artifacts found here at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror can be reduced to i) what was being taught ii) who was teaching it, and iii) what was the pattern of the courses actually taken by young economists. These artifacts can be thought of as occupying cell(s) in a matrix of year by academic institution, e.g. this post deals with question (iii) and will be filed in the Harvard, early 1920’s cell.

James Waterhouse Angell (1898-1986) was a Harvard and Chicago trained economist who joined the Columbia faculty upon receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1924. He was a member of Columbia’s faculty for over forty years, interrupted by government service during World War II at the War Production Board and the Foreign Economics Administration. More about his life and career can be read in his New York Times obituary (April 1, 1986)

With this post we have the record for Angell in Harvard’s Division of History, Government, and Economics. It provides us with a wealth of information about his academic training. There will be a flow of such records for other graduate students that promises to match the flow of syllabi and exams, the stock of which constitute the core of archival material.

You should subscribe to Economics in the Rear-view Mirror if you are working on the history of economics. To do so scroll down (or search “Subscribe” on this page from your web browser).

_______________________

Autobiographical snippet

Angell’s personal statement in the 25th year anniversary report of the Harvard Class of 1918

_______________________

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

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

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

James Waterhouse Angell. May 20, 1898. Chicago.

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

Undergraduate: Harvard 1914-18. Graduate: University of Chicago, March 1919-June 1920; Harvard, September 1920-date. Teaching: Assistant in Economics, Univ. of Chicago, October 1919-June 1920.

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

A.B. Harvard, 1918. [magna cum laude]

IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your undergraduate studies in History, Economics, Government, and in such other fields as Ancient and Modern Languages, Philosophy, etc.) In case you are a candidate for the degree in History, state the number of years you have studied preparatory and college Latin.)

History. Harvard: Hist. A, 30a. Government. Univ. of Chicago: Elementary Comp. Govt. Economics. Harvard: Economics A, 2a, 2b, 4b, 5a, 5b. Univ. of Chicago: Labor Problems, Money and Banking, Statistics.

Greek: Harvard: Greek G, A, 2, 8. Latin. Harvard: Latin B, 8. French. Harvard: French 2. Philosophy. Univ. of Chicago: Social and Political Philosophy. Psychology. Harvard: Psychology A, Univ. of Chicago: Social Psychology.

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

Economics

Economic Theory and Its History. Harvard: Economics A, 11, 14; Univ. of Chicago: History of Econ. Thought. Teaching: Univ. of Chicago: 2 quarters of elementary theory, 1920.
Economic History since 1750. Harvard: Economics 2a and 2b.
Public Finance. Harvard: Economics 5a, 5b, 31
Money and Banking. Harvard: Economics 38. Univ. of Chicago: Elementary Money & Banking. Also private reading.
International Trade and Tariff Policy. Harvard: Economics 33; and private reading.
[Constitutional] History of the U.S., 1789-1914. Univ. of Chicago. 3 quarters of graduate study. (A. D. Mr. Laughlin)

VII. Special Subject for the special examination.

~~Special subject either Economic Theory or Public Finance; to be specified later.~~ Money and Banking

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

International Price Levels (With Professors Taussig and Young)

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

General: Last week in October, 1921.

X. Remarks

[Left blank]

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

[signed] Edmund E. Day

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

[Not to be filled out by the applicant]

Name: James W. Angell

Approved: April 29, 1921

Ability to use French certified by Charles J. Bullock. 10 March, 1922 B.S.M.

Ability to use German certified by Charles J. Bullock, 10 March, 1922 B.S.M.

Date of general examination June 2, 1922 Passed A.A.Y.

Thesis received Oct. 15, 1923

Read by Professors Taussig, Young, and Persons

Approved October 29, 1921

Date of special examination Thursday, March 6, 1924. Passed A.A. Young

Recommended for the Doctorate[left blank]

Degree conferred [left blank]

Remarks. [left blank]

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

Record of James Waterhouse Angell in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University

1920-21

Economics 11. [Economic Theory, Prof. Taussig]	A
Economics 14[History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848, Prof. Bullock]	A minus
Economics 31 [Public Finance, Prof. Bullock]	A
Economics 33¹ [half course] [International Trade and Tariff Problems, Prof. Taussig]	A
Economics 38² [half course] [Selected Monetary Problems, Prof. Young]	A

Attained the degree of Master of Arts.

1921-22

Economics 20 (F.W.T.)
[Economic Research (for Ph.D. candidates)]

Note: A transcript can also be found in Harvard University Archives, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Record Cards of Students, 1895-1930, Aab—Belcher (UAV 161.2722.5). File I, Box 1, Record Card of James Waterhouse Angell.

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

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Committee on Economic Research
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

Charles J. Bullock, Chairman

Charles F. Adams
Nicholas Biddle
Frederic H. Curtiss
Wallace B. Donham
Ogden L. Mills
Eugene V. R. Thayer

W.M. Persons, Editor
Review of Economic Statistics

J.B. Hubbard, Editor
Harvard Economic Service

F.Y. Presley
General Manager

March 10, 1922.

Professor Charles H. Haskins,
23 University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.

This is to certify that I have examined Mr. J. W. Angell and find that he has such a knowledge of French and German as we require of candidates for the doctor’s degree.

[signed] Charles J. Bullock

CJB/AMB

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

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
6 June 1922

I beg to report that Mr. James W. Angell passed the General Examination in Economics held on Friday, 2 June. Mr. Angell’s examination clearly earned a pass, but it is proper to say that the examination was not as distinguished and the margin was not as large as Mr. Angell’s brilliant course record indicated it would be.

[signed by D.C. for] Allyn A. Young

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

[Carbon copy]

26 February 1924

My dear Professor Young:

We are arranging J.W. Angell’s special examination for Thursday, 6 March, at 4 p.m. I will let you know the place later. The committee will consist of Professors Taussig, Williams, Sprague, and yourself as chairman.

Very truly yours,
Secretary of the Division.

Professor A. A. Young

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

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Cambridge, Massachusetts
March 7, 1924

Dear Haskins:

On behalf of the committee appointed to conduct the special examination of Mr. J. W. Angell, I beg to report that Mr. Angell successfully passed the examination. I may add that the examination as a whole was unusually satisfactory.

Very truly yours,
[signed by k. for] Allyn A. Young

Dean C. H. Haskins

Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government, and Economics. Ph.D. exams and records of candidates, study plans, lists, etc. pre-1911-1942. Box 5. Folder “J. W. Angell.”

_______________________

Annotated Typescript for
Division of History, Government, and Economics
Examinations for the Degree of Ph.D. 1923-1924

JAMES WATERHOUSE ANGELL.

SPECIAL EXAMINATION in Economics, passed. Thursday, March 6, 1924.

GENERAL EXAMINATION passed June 2, 1922.

ACADEMIC HISTORY: Harvard College, 1914-18; University of Chicago, March, 1919, to June, 1920; Harvard Graduate School, 1920-23. A.B., 1918; A.M., 1921. Assistant in Economics, University of Chicago, 1919-20; Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard, 1921-22; Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellow, Harvard, 1922-23; Instructor in Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics, Harvard, 1923-4.

GENERAL SUBJECTS: 1. Economic Theory and Its History. 2. Economic History since 1750. 3. Public Finance. 4. Money and Banking. 5. International Trade and Tariff Policy. 6. American History since 1789.

SPECIAL SUBJECT: Money and Banking.

COMMITTEE: Professors Young (chairman), Taussig, Williams,
and Sprague.

THESIS SUBJECT: The Theory of International Prices and its History.

COMMITTEE ON THESIS: Professors Taussig, Young, and Persons.

_______________________

Image Source: James Waterhouse Angell’s July 18, 1922 U.S. passport application. National Archives.

Tags AngelJW, Bullock, Day, Persons, Taussig, Young

Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1912/13

Meet the Teaching Assistants

John Christopher Ise (Ph.D., 1914)

Frederic Ernest Richter (A.M., 1916)

Frederick Ernest Richter (1917)

Frederick Ernest Richter (1920)

Frederick Ernest Richter (1928)

Frederick Ernest Richter (d. 7 Feb 1974)

ECONOMICS 3 Course Description 1912-13

ECONOMICS 3 Course Enrollment 1912-13

ECONOMICS 3 Mid-year Examination 1912-13

ECONOMICS 3 Year-end Examination 1912-13

Exams from earlier years

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines) of economics at Harvard 1870/71-1911/12

Meet the Teaching Assistants Econ. 1. Principles of Economics 1912-13

Heilman, Ralph Emerson. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

Jones, Eliot. Ph.D. Harvard 1913.

Burbank, Harold Hitchings. Ph.D. Harvard 1915.

Crosgrave, Lloyd Morgan. A.B. (Indiana) 1909, A.M. (Harvard University) 1911.

ECONOMICS 1 Course Description 1912-13

ECONOMICS 1 Course Enrollment 1912-13

ECONOMICS 1 Mid-year Final Examination 1912-13

ECONOMICS 1 Year-end Final Examination 1912-13

Banking, Foreign Exchange and Crises pre-1911/12

Meet the Course Teaching Assistant

Thomas York (1883–1941)

THOMAS YORK [as of 1922]

Course Description 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

ECONOMICS 8 Year-end Final Examination 1911-12

Exams from earlier years

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines) of economics at Harvard 1870/71-1910/11

Course Announcement 1911-12

Course Enrollment 1911-12

ECONOMICS 1 Hour Examination. Nov. 18, 1911.

ECONOMICS 1 Mid-year Examination. 1911-12

ECONOMICS 1 Year-end Examination. 1911-12

About Edmund Ezra Day

Earlier Exams

Course Announcement and Description 1910-11

Course Enrollment 1910-11

ECONOMICS 12 Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Give at least one-third of your time to Part II.

I

Exams from earlier years

Economics 8b Course Description 1910-11

Economics 8b Course Enrollment 1910-11

Economics 8b Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines) of economics at Harvard 1870/71-1909/10

Course Announcement 1910-11

Course Enrollment 1910-11

ECONOMICS 1 Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Give your reasons in all cases.

ECONOMICS 1 Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions. Answer all the questions.

Course Descriptions for Economics and Social Ethics, 1920-21

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir of the 1920s

ASSIGNED READINGS IN ECONOMICS

[ASSIGNED READINGS] IN SOCIAL ETHICS

Requesting approval of a mathematics minor in the General Examination

Request Granted

HARVARD UNIVERSITY DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Application for Candidacy for the Degree of Ph.D.

Postponing General Examination from Spring to Fall 1921

Draft of Planned General Examination Announcement (undated)

Certification of reading knowledge of French and German

Date and Place of General Examination

Committee of General Examination

General examination passed

Special Examination Date When exactly?

Request for Special Examination during week of April 12th

University of Michigan Ann Arbor School of Business Administration

Request to Confirm Special Examination during week of April 12th

University of Michigan Ann Arbor School of Business Administration

Date and Committee for Special Examination

Record of Olin Winthrop Blackett in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2 November 1925)

1920-21

1921-22

1922-23

1923-24

ECONOMICS 3
Course Description
1912-13

ECONOMICS 3
Course Enrollment
1912-13

ECONOMICS 3
Mid-year Examination
1912-13

ECONOMICS 3
Year-end Examination
1912-13

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1911/12

Meet the Teaching Assistants
Econ. 1. Principles of Economics
1912-13

ECONOMICS 1
Course Description
1912-13

ECONOMICS 1
Course Enrollment
1912-13

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Final Examination
1912-13

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Final Examination
1912-13

Course Description
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

ECONOMICS 8
Year-end Final Examination
1911-12

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1910/11

Course Announcement
1911-12

Course Enrollment
1911-12

ECONOMICS 1
Hour Examination.
Nov. 18, 1911.

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination.
1911-12

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination.
1911-12

Course Announcement and Description
1910-11

Course Enrollment
1910-11

ECONOMICS 12
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Economics 8b
Course Description
1910-11

Economics 8b
Course Enrollment
1910-11

Economics 8b
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1909/10

Course Announcement
1910-11

Course Enrollment
1910-11

ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Give your reasons in all cases.

ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1910-11

Arrange your answers
strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer all the questions.

Course Descriptions for
Economics and Social Ethics,
1920-21

One Harvard Graduate’s Memoir
of the 1920s

[ASSIGNED READINGS]
IN SOCIAL ETHICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German

Special Examination Date
When exactly?

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
School of Business Administration

University of Michigan
Ann Arbor
School of Business Administration

Date and Committee
for Special Examination

Record of Olin Winthrop Blackett in the
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
(2 November 1925)

Olin Winthrop Blackett
His life and career

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Committee on Economic Research
Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY
DIVISION OF HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, AND ECONOMICS

Annotated Typescript for
Division of History, Government, and Economics
Examinations for the Degree of Ph.D. 1923-1924