Economics in the Rear-view Mirror is always (well, almost always) on the lookout for artifacts providing autobiographical detail on the economists whose course materials have been transcribed and posted here. While trawling the hathitrust.org archive yet another time for material on the Harvard economics/business professor O. M. W. Sprague, I found seven reports of the secretaries of the Harvard Class of 1894, of which Sprague was a distinguished graduate. Sprague’s personal reports are sometimes repetitive, but it is still handy to put them together in one post.
Bonus Material: Sprague’s brief faculty bio found in the 1924-25 Harvard Business School yearbook.
A recent earlier post provides Sprague’s lifetime c.v.
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, First Report (1895)
Misc. facts
A.B. Harvard College, June 1894 [p. 4]
Second Year Honors (1892-93) in History. [p. 25]
A.B. Final Honors in Political Science (Highest Honors) [p. 26]
A.B. Honorable Mention in History and Economics [p. 30]
Oration at Commencement (12 graduating students held orations) [p. 37]
Memberships:
Christian Association [p. 62]
Historical Club [p. 67]
International Law Club [p. 68]
Phi Beta Kappa [p. 69]
Graduate School. University Scholarship. Appointed in 1894. [p. 36]
Resident of the Graduate School 1894-95. Address: 40 Kirkland St., Cambridge [p. 139]
A.M. June 1895 [p. 31]
Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. I. (1895).
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Second Report (1897)
“Have been studying economics, especially economic history, at Harvard Graduate School. Received degree of A.M. in ’95, [and Ph.D. in ’97. Subject of doctor’s thesis, ‘The English Woolen Industry in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.’]”
Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. II. (1897), pp. 96-97.
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Third Report (1902)
“During the college year (’97-’98) was in England, holding a Rogers Fellowship. Since that time I have been teaching Economics at Harvard, aside from two months last winter on leave of absence to give a course on foreign travel at the University of Michigan. I have edited a new edition of the late Professor Dunbar’s little book on banking regularly used in Economics 1. I am now preparing essays for publication in book form.” [p. 106]
One publication listed [p. 191]:
Sprague, O.M.W. — “The German Coinage Act of 1900,” Quarterly Journal of Economics”.
Source: Harvard University Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. III. (1902).
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fourth Report (1904)
Sprague, Oliver Mitchell Wentworth, Professor, 21 Stoughton Hall, Cambridge.
Assistant Professor of Economics at Harvard University.
Source: Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. IV. (1904), p. 37.
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Fifth Report (1909)
Both my father, William Wallace Sprague, and my mother, Miriam Wentworth Sprague, were discended [sic] from early New England settlers. I was born at Somerville, Massachusetts, and prepared for college at St. Johnsbury (Vermont) Academy.
In college I loafed egregiously the first two years, and then specialized in Political Science, in which, largely through habits acquired from an almost Scotch turn for disputation, I received at graduation, Highest Honors and therewith a summa cum. Beguiled by this rather unexpected success, I turned aside from the law — my first love — and entered the Graduate School where in due course I received the A.M. degree in 1895, and the degree of Ph.D. in 189.
The following year, I studied in England, holding a travelling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual Instructor, then came three years as a Faculty Instructor; and in 1904 I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professor ship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted a cabled invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration. I have published a few articles on banking subjects and expect to publish many more. Am now engaged in preparing a report for the National Monetary Commission on the experience of the national banks during crises since the establishment of the system; and also a report upon banking in Japan.
Married Fanny Knight Ide, June 21, 1905, and have one child, Katherine Ide Sprague, born at Tokio, Japan, May 1, 1906. Address: 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Source: Fifteenth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. V (1909), pp. 227-228.
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Sixth Report (1914)
| Born | Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873. |
| Parents | William Wallace, Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague. |
| School | St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt. |
| Years in College | 1890-1894. |
| Degrees | A.B., 1894; A.M., 1896; Ph.D., 1897. |
| Married | Fanny Knights Ide, St. Johnsbury, Vt., June 21, 1905. |
| Children | Katharine Ide, May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, Sept. 1, 1911. |
| Business | University Professor. |
| Address | 18 Sumner Road, Cambridge, Mass. |
In 1898, I studied in England, holding a traveling fellowship. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years. From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905, I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient – a delightful episode I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as an Assistant Professor, on second appointment, in Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises Under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States.” Member: Boston Harvard Club, American Economic Association.
Source: Twentieth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VI (1914), pp. 207-208.
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OLIVER MITCHELL WENTWORTH SPRAGUE
Class of 1894, Seventh Report (1919)
Born at Somerville, Mass., April 22, 1873. Son of William Wallace and Miriam (Wentworth) Sprague. Prepared at St. Johnsbury Academy, St. Johnsbury, Vt.
In College, 1890-94; Graduate School, 1894-98. Degrees: A.B. 1894; A.M. 1895; Ph.D. 1897.
Married to Fanny Knights Ide at St. Johnsbury Vt., June 21, 1905. Children: Katharine Ide, born May 1, 1906; Theodore Wentworth, born Sept. 1, 1911.
Occupation: Teaching.
Address: (home) 32 Bates St., Cambridge, Mass.; (business) Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
After obtaining the degree of Ph.D. in 1897, I received a travelling fellowship and spent the following year studying in England. In the autumn of 1898, I returned to Harvard as Assistant in Economics, in which capacity I had the satisfaction of being of some slight use to Professor Dunbar, in his last years.
From this, its lowest rung, I began the toilsome ascent of the academic ladder. From 1899 to 1901, I served as an annual instructor, then came three years as a faculty instructor; and in 1904, I was appointed to an Assistant Professorship in Economics. In 1905 I resigned this position, to accept a professorship in the Tokio Imperial University. After three years in the Orient — a delightful episode — I accepted an invitation to return to Harvard as Assistant Professor of Banking and Finance in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and in March, 1913, I was appointed Edward Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance. I have written two books, a “History of Crises under the National Banking System,” and “Banking Reform in the United States,” and have revised and enlarged Dunbar’s “Theory and History of Banking.” During the war, I advocated in articles and in other ways the advisability of financing the contest mainly by taxation. I am convinced that such a policy was feasible and that it would have proved far less burdensome and much more equitable than the borrowing policy with its attendant inflation. Between July and December, 1918, I was in Washington engaged in work on reconstruction problems for the Council of National Defense. [pp. 411-12]
War Record
O. M. W. SPRAGUE
U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Member of the War Finance Committee and the Foreign Exchange Committee, U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Reconstruction research worker, Council of National Defense, July-Dec., 1918. [p. 550]
Publications
O. M. W. SPRAGUE
The English woolen industry in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Doct. diss., 1897.
Ed. Chapter on theory and history of banking. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. 2d ed., enlarged. New York, Putnam’s, 1901, 1907, etc., pp. viii, 252, 3d ed. under title The theory and history of banking, 1917, pp. viii, 297.
Ed. Economic essays. By Charles Franklin Dunbar. New York, Macmillan, 1904, pp. xvii, 372.
History of crises under the national banking system. Washington, Gov’t Print. Off., 1910, 1911, pp. v, 484.
Banking reform in the United States. Reprints from Quart. Journ. Econ., 1910, pp. 176. Harv. Univ., 1911.
Loans and investments. (With others.) Amer. Inst. of Banking, N. Y., 1916, pp. 304.
Recent articles:
Proposals for strengthening the national banking system. Quart. Journ. Econ., xxiv (1910), pp. 44. [I. (February); II. (August); III. (November)]
The Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Quart. Journ. Econ., Feb., 1914.
The Federal Reserve system in operation. Ibid., Aug., 1916.
Loans and taxes in war finance. Amer. Econ. Ass’n Publ., Mar., 1917. [Discussion]
The crisis of 1914 in the United States. Amer. Econ. Rev., v (1915), pp. 35.
Financing “the armed nation.” Military Historian and Economist, Jan., 1916.
The relation between loan and taxes in war finance. Annals Amer. Acad. Pol. and Soc. Sciences, Jan., 1918.
Labor and capital on reconstruction. Amer. Econ. Rev., Dec., 1918.
Source: Twentieth-fifth Anniversary of the Harvard College Class of 1894. Secretary’s Report, No. VII (1919), pp. 411-12.
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OLIVER M. SPRAGUE
Edmund Cogswell Converse Professor of Banking and Finance
Degrees: A.B., A.M., Ph.D. at Harvard.
History in brief: Unofficial activities for banking reform, preceding passage of the Federal Reserve Act. Unofficial activities designed to secure imposition of adequate, i.e., heavy, taxation during the Great War. Council of National Defense and War Trade Board, July to December, 1918. Assistant Professor, 1908–1913. Professor since 1913.
Source: Harvard Business School Year-Book, 1924-1925, p. 13.
Image Source: O.M.W. Sprague in the Harvard Class Album, 1915, colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.