please disregard the last post, I meant to save a working copy that contains information from a previous post for a different Harvard PhD alumnus that I am updating.
Categories
Month: January 2025
_______________________
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.
Harry Edward Miller, born October 11, 1897 at Boston Mass.
II. Academic Career: (Mention, with dates inclusive, colleges or other higher institutions of learning attended; and teaching positions held.)
Boston University, 1915-19
Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences 1919-21
III. Degrees already attained. (Mention institutions and dates.)
A.B., Boston University, 1919
A.M., Harvard University, 1920
IV. General Preparation. (Indicate briefly the range and character of your under-graduate 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.)
Full-year courses in Modern & Medieval European History, American History, Comparative Government. Full-year courses in Principles of Economics, and half-year courses in Public Finance, Economic History of the U.S., Socialism, History of Economic Theory.
4 years of high-school Latin and one of college.
3 years of high-school French and one of college.
2 years of high-school German and 3 of college.
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 and Its History. (Econ. 11, 14, and 15. Half-year undergraduate course at Boston University in the history, full-year course in the theory.
- Economic History since 1750 (Econ. 2 with additional reading and a half-year undergraduate course at Boston Univ.).
- Statistical Method and its Application (Econ. 41).
- Public finance (Econ 31 and a half-year undergraduate course at Boston University).
- History of Political Theory. (Gov’t 6).
- Money, Banking and Commercial Crises (Econ. 3 with additional reading, and Econ 382 hf. (to be taken during second semester of this year))
VII. Special Subject for the special examination.
Money, Banking and Commercial Crises. (Econ.3)
VIII. Thesis Subject. (State the subject and mention the instructor who knows most about your work upon it.)
To be determined.
[added by someone else] “Theories of Banking in the United States before the Civil War.” (with Professor Young)
IX. Examinations. (Indicate any preferences as to the time of the general and special examinations.)
I should prefer the general examination in the late spring of this year.
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: Harry E. Miller.
Approved: January 25, 1921.
Ability to use French certified by C. J. Bullock, March 28, 1921.
Ability to use German certified by C. J. Bullock, March 28, 1921.
Date of general examination Thursday, 3 November 1921, passed – A.A. Young
Thesis received April 1, 1923
Read by Professors Young, Sprague and
Approved Bullock
Date of special examination May 25, 1923. Passed – A.A. Young
Recommended for the Doctorate June 5, 1923
Degree conferred 21 June 1923
Remarks. [left blank]
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Certification of reading knowledge
of French and German for Ph.D.
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
March 28, 1921
My dear Haskins:
I have this morning examined Mr. Henry E. Miller, and find that he has such a knowledge of French and German as we require of candidates for the doctorate.
Very sincerely yours
[signed]
Charles J. Bullock
Dean C. H. Haskins
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Passed General Examination
6 Hilliard Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
November 5, 1921.
Dear Dean Haskins,
On behalf of the committee in charge of the general examination of Mr. Harry Edward Miller for the degree of Ph.D., I beg to report that Mr. Miller passed the examination, which was held on Thursday, November 3.
Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young
Dean Charles H. Haskins
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Supplementary Information for
General Examination of H. E. Miller
6 Hilliard Street, Cambridge, Mass.,
November 21, 1921.
Dear Haskins:
I have your note of November 8 asking for supplementary information respecting H. E. Miller’s general examination for the Ph.D. degree.
It was the unanimous opinion of the committee that Miller’s examination was unusually creditable. He showed himself well prepared in each of the subjects offered; he thought clearly; and he was always in command of himself and of his information. In several fields the examination could easily be called brilliant; in all fields it showed unusual competence.
Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young
Professor Charles H. Haskins, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
24 University Hall,
Cambridge, Mass.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Reminder to Young: special examination
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Division of history, Government, and Economics
Cambridge, Massachusetts
22 May 1923
My dear Professor Young:
This is to remind you that you are chairman of the committee for the special examination of H. E. Miller for the Ph.D. in Economics, to be held on Friday, 25 May, at 4 p.m., in Widener U. I enclose Mr. Miller’s papers herewith, also an envelope for their return.
Very truly yours,
[signed]
Esther W. Hinckley
Secretary of the Division
P.S. Professor Vanderblue is to take Professor Dewing’s place on the committee.
Professor A.A. Young
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Passed Special Examination
6 Hilliard Street,
Cambridge, Massachusetts
May 26, 1923.
My dear Haskins,
On behalf of the committee appointed to conduct the special examination of Mr. Harry E. Miller for the degree of Ph.D., I beg to report that Mr. Miller passed the examination. He made a very creditable showing, – distinctly above the average.
Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Allyn A. Young
Professor Charles H. Haskins, Dean
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
University Hall.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Record of Harry Edward Miller
|
|
Grades | |
| 1919-20 | Course |
Half-Course |
|
Economics 2a1 |
|
B plus |
|
Economics 2b2 |
|
A minus |
|
Economics 11 |
A |
|
|
Economics 31 |
B plus |
|
|
Economics 41 |
A |
|
| 1920-21 | Course |
Half-Course |
|
Economics 14 |
A minus |
|
|
Economics 15 |
A |
|
Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics, Ph.D. Degrees Conferred 1929-30. (UA V 453.270), Box 09.
__________________________
Course Names and Instructors
1922-23
Economics 2a 1hf. European Industry and Commerce in the Nineteenth Century. Assistant Professor Usher.
Economics 2b 2hf. Economic History of the United States. Assistant Professor Usher.
Economics 11. Economic Theory. Professor Taussig.
Economics 31. Public Finance. Professor Bullock.
Economics 41. Statistical Theory and Analysis. Professors Young and Day.
1923-24
Economics 14. History and Literature of Economics to the year 1848. Professor Bullock.
Government 6. History of Political Theory. Professor McIlwain.
Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College for 1922-23, 1923-24.
__________________________
Howard Sylvester Ellis
Timeline of his life and career
1898. Born July 2 in Denver Colorado.
1916-20. State University of Iowa.
1920. A.B. State University of Iowa.
1920. Summer term, University of Chicago.
1920-1922. Half-time graduate work half-time instructor of Economics, University of Michigan.
1922. A.M. University of Michigan.
1922-23. Thayer Fellow, Harvard.
1923. Ricardo Prize awarded for the best essay written in a special examination held in economics. (Harvard Crimson, 9 June 1923)
1924. February. A.M. in economics, Harvard.
1923-24. Teaching section leader in Economics A (Principles of Economics), Harvard.
1924-25. Non-resident, Frederick Sheldon Travelling Fellowship, Harvard. Studied at the University of Heidelberg.
1925-38. Taught at the University of Michigan.
1929. Ph.D. in economics, Harvard. (Report of the President of Harvard College, 1928-29, p. 103)
1930. Awarded the David A. Wells prize in Economics for best Ph.D. thesis in three years. (Harvard Crimson, 2 June 1930)
1938-65. Flood Professor of Economics. University of California, Berkeley.
1943-45. Assistant director of Research and Statistics at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington.
1944-45. Visiting professor at Columbia.
1948. Edited A Survey of Contemporary Economics for the American Economic Association. (12 printings)
1949. President of the American Economic Association.
1951. Visiting professor at the University of Tokyo sponsored by a Rockefeller Foundation grant.
1953-55. President of the International Economic Association.
1955. (with Norman Buchanan). Approaches to Economic Development published.
1958-59. Visiting professor at Bombay.
1969. Visiting professor at Claremont, California
1972. Visiting professor at Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1992. Died April 14 in Capitola, California. (University of California. In Memorium); also the biography at the History of Economic Thought website)
Image Source: Portrait of Howard S. Ellis (ca. 1925) in Marjorie C. Brazer “The Economics Department of the University of Michigan: A Centennial Retrospective” in Economics and the World around It, edited by Saul H. Hymans (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1980). Colorized at Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.