The last name “Sydenstricker” is certainly not all-too-common which is probably a reason that it lodged in my memory after I transcribed the 25th anniversary of the University of Chicago’s Department of Political Economy. Elgar Sydenstricker was included there in the list of “Fellows of Political Economy”. Nonetheless, I had no record of him ever completing a Ph.D. there (he never did).
With the coming of the Covid-19 pandemic, I thought it might be worth a look to see which economists (if any), were involved in the scientific analysis of the influenza epidemic of 1918-19. The name “Edgar Sydenstricker” was everywhere. And yes, it was the University of Chicago ABD, Edgar Sydenstricker.
I realized there was a significant gap in my rather exclusive focus on Ph.D. academic economists. Someone like Edgar Sydenstricker had an academic economist’s training, but he was not part of the self-perpetuating caste of economics professors.
With the influenza epidemic of 1918-19, Edgar Sydenstricker became a leading statistician in the efforts to advance epidemiology. Today’s post gives information about his career and publications.
Fun fact: his younger sister was Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (1938 Nobel Prize in literature).
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Best single source about Edgar Sydenstricker
(includes a bibliography)
Kasius R.V., ed. The challenge of facts. Selected public health papers of Edgar Sydenstricker. New York: Prodist, for the Milbank Memorial Fund, 1974.
Wiehl, D.G. Edgar Sydenstricker: a memoir. pp. 1-17.
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Edgar Sydenstricker’s Time-line.
(b. July 15, 1881 in Shanghai; d. Mar 19, 1936 in New York City).
Parents were missionaries from West Virginia, Rev. Dr. Absalom and Caroline Stulting Sydenstricker.
1896. Edgar Sydenstricker came to United States
1900. A.B., Fredericksburg College (Virginia).
1902. M.A. (honors) in sociology and economics at Washington and Lee.
1902-1905. High school principal in Onancock, Virginia
1905. Editor of the Daily Advance in Lynchburg, Virginia
1907-08. Graduate study at University of Chicago [fellow in political economy]
1908-1915. United States Immigration Commission and Commission on Industrial Relations. Extensive surveys of wages, working conditions, and scales of living of industrial workers, especially in industries with large numbers of foreign born.
1915. Joins United States Public Health Service as first statistician ever. He was hired to assist Dr. B. S. Warren [studied health and economic status of garment workers in New York City, sickness insurance in Europe].
1916-20. Sydenstricker and Joseph Goldberger studied causes of pellagra in the American South.
1917. Elected member of the American Statistical Association.
1918. With Wade Hampton Frost research on statistics of influenza [papers by Sydenstricker, Wade Hampton Frost, Selwyn D. Collins, Rolo H. Britten and others at the Public Health Service giving “a most comprehensive history of influenza from 1910 to 1930”].
1920. Appointed head of Office of Statistical Investigations.
1921. Begins Hagerstown Morbidity Survey [which later became the U.S. National Health ].
1922. Becomes fellow of the American Statistical Association
1923. League of Nations invited him to establish the Epidemiological Service of the Health Organization.
1925. Consultant to Milbank Memorial Fund
1928. Director of research of Milbank Memorial Fund.
1931-34. Represented ASA at Social Science Research Council.
1935. Scientific director of Milbank Memorial Fund
1936, March 19. Died of cerebral hemorrhage.
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The important influenza studies of the Public Health Reports, U.S.
United States Treasury Department and the Public Health Service. Influenza Morbidity and Mortality Studies, 1910-1935. Reprints from the Public Health Reports. Washington: USGPO, 1938.
Influenza-pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States, 1920-29. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1355, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 8 (February 21, 1930), pp. 361-406.
Influenza and pneumonia mortality in a group of about 95 cities in the United States during four minor epidemics, 1930-35, with a summary for 1920-35. By Selwyn D. Collins and Mary Gover. Reprint 1720, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 50, No. 48 (November 29, 1935), pp. 1668-1689.
Mortality from influenza and pneumonia in 50 large cities of the United States, 1910-29. By Selwyn D. Collins, W. H. Frost, Mary Gover, and Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1415, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 45, No. 39 (September 26, 1930), pp. 2277-2328.
Excess mortality from causes other than influenza and pneumonia during influenza epidemics. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1553, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 47, No. 46 (November 11, 1932), pp. 2159-2179.
The incidence of influenza among persons of different economic status during the epidemic of 1918. By Edgar Sydenstricker. Reprint 1444, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 4 (January 23, 1931), pp. 154-170.
Age and sex incidence of influenza and pneumonia morbidity and mortality in the epidemic of 1928-29 with comparative data for the epidemic of 1918-19. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1500, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 46, No. 33 (August 14, 1931), pp. 1909-1937.
The influenza epidemic of 1928-29 in 14 surveyed localities in the United States. By Selwyn D. Collins. Reprint 1606, from Public Health Reports, Vol. 49, No. 1 (January 5, 1934), pp. 1-42.
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Other Sydenstricker articles on public health
Edgar Sydenstricker. Existing Agencies for Health Insurance in the United States,” in U.S. Department of Labor, Proceedings of the Conference on Social Insurance, 1916 (Washington, D.C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1917), pp. 430-75.
Edgar Sydenstricker. Preliminary Statistics of the Influenza Epidemic, in Epidemic Influenza. Prevalence in the United States. Public Health Reports. Vol. 33, No. 52 ( December 27, 1918), pp. 2305-2321.
Sydenstricker, E., King W.I.A. A method for classifying families according to incomes in studies of disease prevalence. Public Health Reports 1920; 35: 2828-2846.
Sydenstricker, E. Health and Environment. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1933.
Sydenstricker, E. Health and the Depression. Milbank Memorial Fund Q 1934; 12:273-280.
Sydenstricker, E. The incidence of illness in a general population group: General results of a morbidity study from December 1, 1921 through March 31, 1924 in Hagerstown, Md. Public Health Reports. 1925; 40: 279-291.
Milbank Memorial Fund. Program of the Division of Research 1928-1940. (1941)
Image Source: Portrait of Edgar Sydenstricker in Washington and Lee University Yearbook The Calyx, 1902.