At the time of his premature death at age 43, the assistant professor of political economy at Princeton University, Walter A. Wyckoff, had been a member of the American Economic Association for a dozen years. His passing in May 1908 was noted in the AEA’s Economic Bulletin (June 1908, p. 114) where he was described as being “one of the best known of the younger economists.” Wyckoff cultivated the intersection of sociology and economics and made a name for himself through a pair of books that described his observer-participant experiences as a casual laborer during a year and a half tramp across the United States in 1891-93.
Sociologists today appear to claim exclusive rights to Wyckoff but in his own day, it was far from clear that his particular brand of sociology was anything but a subfield of political economy, labor economics if you will. He can be compared to Edward Cummings at Harvard.
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Wyckoff’s Greatest Hits
The Workers, an Experiment in Reality: The East. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1897.
The Workers, an Experiment in Reality: The West. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1898.
A Day with a Tramp, and Other Days. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901.
“In justice to the narratives it should be explained that they are submitted simply for what they are, the casual observations of a student almost fresh from college whose interest in life led him to undertake a work for which he had no scientific training.”
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Three internet sources about the life of Walter A. Wyckoff
Brett Tomlinson, The worker: How a cross-country trek defined the life of one of Princeton’s first social scientists. Princeton Alumni Weekly, 23 September 2009.
Beau Driver, “ ‘A place among original investigators’: Walter Wyckoff, Alfred Pierce, and Me” originally published in the blog of the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (March 5, 2019). Republished in his personal blog 26 December 2019.
Website by Albert and Phyllis Krause “On the Trail of Walter A. Wyckoff” that traced his cross-country travels 1891-1893.
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Wyckoff’s life
Born April 12, 1865 in Mainpuri, India. Son of a Presbyterian missionary.
Prepared for college at the Hudson Academy and Freehold Institute.
1888. B.A. from College of New Jersey (i.e., Princeton).
Enrolled at the Princeton Theological Seminary for a year and then left to study and travel in Europe.
1891-1893. Spent 18 or 19 months as an unskilled worker. Left July 1891 to work from Connecticut to California reaching San Francisco in early 1893.
1893-1894. Travelled twice around the world.
1894. Appointed Social Science Fellow upon return to Princeton.
1895. Wyckoff appointed lecturer in sociology at Princeton
Wyckoff’s 1895-96 course
- Sociology. An historical review of the evolution of modern industrialism. A critical analysis of the principal theories of social reconstruction. The genesis and development of a science of sociology. A review of the methods and results of sociological study. Senior Elective and Graduate course; second term [2]. Mr. Wyckoff. Lectures and recitations.
Note: this course was offered in “III. History and Political Science” that was distinct from “IV. Jurisprudence and Political Economy”
Source: Catalogue of the College of New Jersey at Princeton 1895-1896, p. 41.
1898. Promoted to assistant professor of political economy.
1899. Accompanied Princeton biologists on excursion to northern Greenland.
1900-1901. Princeton academic department V. Political Economy and Sociology (staffed by Daniels and Wyckoff)
Wyckoff’s course listings 1900-1901.
- History of Social Theory. An historical and critical analysis of the principal theories of social reconstruction from the early Utopias to the various forms of modern anarchy and socialism. Senior Elective, open to both Academic and Scientific students; first term [2]. Lectures. Professor Wyckoff.
- Private Property Rights. The origin of private property rights and their subsequent modifications in civilized society, with special reference to present problems of land tenure and to private and public ownership and management of monopolies. Senior Elective, open to both Academic and Scientific students; second term [2]. Lectures. Professor Wyckoff.
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Economic Seminary
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- Genesis of Industrial Order. An ethnological study of industry, including the earliest forms of the division of labor, the domestication of animals and plants, the rise of slavery, the use of money, etc. Seminary course, open to graduates and approved Seniors, both Academic and Scientific; first term [2], not given in 1900–1901. Professor Wyckoff.
- Development of Industrialism. This course will continue and supplement course 7, and will treat of the rise of a new industrial order as an outcome of the industrial revolution, of the fac tory system, its development in the growth of capitalism and in the organization of labor, involving combinations, trusts, monopolies, and trades unions. Seminary course, open to graduates and approved Seniors, both Academic and Scientific; second term [2]. Professor Wyckoff.
Source. Catalogue of Princeton University 1900-1901, p. 59-60.
Early 1900s. interviewed workers in London and Paris.
1903. Marriage to Leah Ehrich from Colorado (they had one daughter).
One of his students Norman Thomas (1905) joked that his (Wyckoff) professor “did a pretty good if by no means lasting job” of explaining to him why socialism could never work.
Economics Course Offerings at Princeton in 1907-08
Princeton University
Department of History, Politics, and Economics
Courses of Instruction in Economics 1907-08
Economics Faculty
Walter Maxwell Adriance, A.M., Preceptor in History, Politics, and Economics
Ernest Ludlow Bogart, Ph.D., Preceptor in History, Politics, and Economics
Winthrop More Daniels, A.M., Professor of Political Economy
Royal Meeker, Ph.D., Preceptor in History, Politics, and Economics.
Walter Augustus Wyckoff, A.M., Assistant Professor of Political Economy
Courses of Instruction
35, 36. Elements of Economics. This course will comprise the essential elements of the abstract theory of economics and some of the more essential applications and exemplifications of the theory, such as money, banking, transportation, international trade, and monopoly problems. There will be regularly one lecture a week, and two recitations in small groups to test the student’s apprehension of the subject matter covered in the reading. Fetter: Principles of Economics. Junior course, both terms, 3 hours a week. Prerequisite course: History 22. Prerequisite to Public Finance and General Social Theory. Professor Bogart and Professor Wyckoff.
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- Economics. Public Finance. This course will cover the theory of public finance. Lectures with weekly conferences. Daniels: Public Finance. Reference book: Bullock: Selected Readings in Public Finance. Senior course, first term, 3 hours a week. Prerequisite courses: History 22 and Economics 35, 36. Professor Bogart.
- Economics. Social Theory. The course will cover the development of theories of social reconstruction with special reference to modern socialism and anarchy. Rae: Contemporary Socialism. Reference books: Webb: Industrial Democracy; Hobson: Evolution of Modern Capitalism. Senior course, second term, 3 hours a week. Prerequisite courses: History 22 and Economics 35, 36. Professor Wyckoff.
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THE PRO-SEMINARY. In the Department of History, Politics, and Economics there will be a pro-seminary both terms; the pro-seminary to be divided into sections, one for history, one for politics, and one for economics. Admission to the pro-seminary will be conditioned upon a student’s obtaining in the Junior year courses in the Department the standing prescribed for entrance upon pro-seminary work. Professor Garfield will be the director of the pro-seminary, and will will take special charge of the pro-seminary section in politics. Professors Paul van Dyke and McElroy will conduct the historical section, and Professors Wyckoff and Meeker the economic section.
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- Advanced Economic Theory. An exposition of economic theory; essentially a contrast of the classical and post-classical theories of distribution. Seminary course for competent graduates. Graduate course, second term, 3 hours a week. Professor Daniels.
121, 122. History of Economics. A résumé of economic ideas from the Middle Ages to modern times. Graduate course, both terms, 3 hours a week. Professor Adriance.
- Economic Regulation. A study of Factory Acts, Tenement Acts, Limited Liability Acts, and Employer’s Liability Acts, conducted in connection with the pro-seminary in 1907-1908. Graduate course, second term, 3 hours a week. Professor Wyckoff.
- History and Theory of Transportation. A survey of the improvements in methods and instruments of transportation since the application of steam, with the consequent changes in legal and economic theories relating to public carriers. The questions of state control, ownership, and operation are treated with special reference to American conditions. A reading knowledge of French and German will be helpful. Graduate course, first term, 3 hours a week. (Given in connection with the pro-seminary in 1907-1908.) Professor Meeker.
- The Industrial Evolution of the United States. An investigation in the development of typical American industries, domestic and foreign commerce, labor organizations, and similar problems. Graduate course, second term, 3 hours a week. Professor Bogart.
Source: Catalogue of Princeton University, 1907-1908, pp. 127, 129-132.
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Walter Augustus Wyckoff died May 15, 1908 in Princeton at age 43 following an aneurysm of his aorta.
Source: The Princeton yearbook Brick-a-Brack 1910, p. 16. The portrait has been colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.