Economics in the Rear-view Mirror has sought from time to time (more accurately, from post to post) to contribute to the cause of documenting the careers of women economists who have historically been kept far from the academic and professional limelight. Scrolling through the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellows in economics, I stumbled across Katharine Snodgrass and I figured that she fit the bill. Good enough to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship yet a name unknown to me (and I am hardly sticking my neck out when I hazard a guess that very few economists today would have heard of her). So what became of Katharine Snodgrass, born May 8 or 9, 1893 in Marion, Indiana?
It is a sad story, but instead let us begin with what I have been able to learn about her life and career.
Her story in the history of economics met a tragic end. Two local newspaper accounts of her suicide on September 25, 1930 (only nine days after her early return from England) complete this post.
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From: Bryn Mawr College Calendar, Register of Alumnae and Former Students (1920), p. 154.
Snodgrass, Katharine. 26 Grove Street, New York City
Prepared by the Shortridge High School, Indianapolis.
Bryn Mawr College
Maria Hopper Sophomore Scholar, 1912-13
Anna Hallowell Memorial Scholar, 1913-14.
A.B. 1915, group, English and French.
A.M., Columbia University in Economics, 1918.
Statistical Work, State Charities Aid Association, New York City, 1915-17
Statistician, War Industries Board, Washington, 1918-19
Research Assistant, Federal Reserve Board, New York City, 1919
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From: Membership listing from the American Statistical Association, 1922, p. 27.
Miss Katharine Snodgrass. Research Department, Chemical National Bank, 270 Broadway, New York City.
From: Membership listing from the American Statistical Association, 1922, pp. 56, 60.
Note: International etc. International Price Indexes. Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. XVII. No. 131 (1920-1921).
A New Price Index for Great Britain. Publications of the American Statistical Association, Vol. XVIII. No. 138 (1922-1922).
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From: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Katharine Snodgrass, Fellow 1930.
Katharine Snodgrass
Fellow: Awarded 1930
Field of Study: Economics
Competition: US & Canada
As published in the Foundation’s Report for 1929–30:
Snodgrass, Katharine: Appointed to make a study of the dietary fats of Northern Europe, with particular reference to the displacement of dairy fats by vegetable fats, being a study in the economics of food substitution; tenure, nine months from June 15, 1930.
Education:
Bryn Mawr College, A.B., 1915;
Columbia University, A.M., 1918;
Stanford University, 1928-29.
Employment:
Research Assistant, 1918–19, War Industries Board;
Research Assistant, 1919–22, Federal Reserve Board;
Associate Editor, 1923, New York Journal of Commerce;
Research Associate, 1924–29, Food Research Institute, Stanford University.
Publications:
“Price of Wool and Wool Products,” 1919;
“Copra and Coconut Oil,” 1928;
“Margarine as a Butter Substitute” (in collaboration), 1930.
Articles in Wheat Studies, Stanford University, Food Research Institute.
Source: John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Katharine Snodgrass, Fellow 1930.
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Guggenheim Grant Financed European Research Trip Cut Short
Katharine Snodgrass was listed as outward passenger from Southampton (New York via Cherbourg) on the United States Lines “Leviathan” August 28, 1930 departure. [Not clear was the voyage cancelled, or was she unable to embark.]
Katharine Snodgrass arrived 16 September 1930 in New York from London on the S.S. Minnekahda. Her ship departed London on Sept. 6, 1930.
California “U” Teacher Found Dead in Her Home (sic)
Minneapolis, Sept. 25. (UP)—Katherine Snodgrass, 35, University of California instructor (sic), was found dead today below her open fourth floor window at the university hospital here.
Miss Snodgrass was visiting her sister, Mrs. Margaret Harding, member of the University of Minnesota teaching staff on a leave of absence from the California school [Stanford!].
Miss Snodgrass was suffering from an acute nervous ailment and had been placed in the university hospital for treatment. The coroner’s verdict was suicide.
St. Cloud Times. (25, September 1930), p. 17.
Woman Dies in Four-Story Leap
Despondent because of her illness, Miss Katherine Snodgrass, 35-year-old patient at University hospital, leaped to her death from a fourth floor window of the institution early today. The woman, formerly an instructor at the University of California [sic], came here for treatment two weeks ago because a sister is a member of the faculty at the university here. Miss Snodgrass suffered a breakdown while touring Europe.
Attendants saw Miss Snodgrass at 2 a.m. and two hours later, when a nurse again entered her room, she was missing. Search disclosed the body in a court below the window. She had died of a skull fracture.
The Minneapolis Star (25 September 1930), p. 12.