_________________
Today’s post provides biographical information about a fresh Harvard economics Ph.D. contained in a memo (ca. 1930) filed along with correspondence between that alumnus, William Thomas Ham, and Harvard economics department chair (1927-1939) Professor Harold H. Burbank.
From genealogical data bases I have assembled a few additional items: William Thomas Ham was born 8 Jan 1893 in Chasewater, Cornwall, England; his family arrived in New York Sept. 22, 1899 on the St. Louis from Southhampton, England.
Ham originally came to Harvard in 1920 to do work in entymology but due to an eye problem was unable to work with microscopes so he switched to graduate work in industrial relations in the department of economics (social ethics). He received a Ph.D. in economics in 1926 with the dissertation “Employment relations in the construction industry of Boston.” In the Harvard Classbook of 1937 under his faculty picture is printed “Former Assistant Professor of Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics”.
According to the 1940 U.S. Census, he and his family lived at 3618 Wisconsin Ave. , Washington, D.C. His occupation was listed at that time as economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. From the Social Security death records we learn that he died in November 1973 and Washington, D.C. was reported to be his last residence.
_________________
MEMO.
William T. Ham.
Period prior to coming to Cambridge
| 1893, Jan. 8, | date of birth |
| 1905-09 | Tuolumne County High School, California. |
| 1909-13 | College of the Pacific, San Jose, California. |
| 1913 | A.B. |
| 1913-15 | Graduate student (part-time) Stanford University, and teacher, College of the Pacific, San Jose, California |
| 1915-16 | Instructor (part time) Stanford University. [penciled in: “Eng.”] |
| 1916 | A. M., Stanford |
| 1916-17 | Instructor, State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington, and assistant to the State Entomologist. |
| 1917-20 | Scientific Assistant and Field Agent in Oregon and Washington, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology. Worked under the direction of the State Entomologist. |
Period of Residence in Cambridge, 1920-.
| 1920. | Came to Harvard from the state of Washington, where I had been stationed, under the Civil Service, as Scientific Assistant and Field Agent of the Bureau of Entomology, United States Department of Agriculture. Entered the Bussey Institution for work in genetics and entomology, but was forced to discontinue in the spring of 1921 owing to the recurrence of an old eye trouble, arising in connection with microscopic work. |
| 1921, Autumn. | Began work in Economics and Social Ethics, at first under the direction of Prof. Robert Foerster. This change was due to a felling that, if I was debarred from a microscope, the next best thing I could do would be to get to the bottom of certain problems in industrial relations which had attracted my attention during my years of sojourn in the northwest. |
| 1921-22. | Assistant in Social Ethics under Prof. James Ford. |
| 1922-26. | Instructor in Social Ethics. (1925-26, Tutor.) |
| 1924, April. | Passed General Examination in Economics (Social Ethics.) |
| 1924-25. | Taught Social Ethics 1b (Labor, Industrialism, Social Reform.) |
| 1925-26. | Taught Social Ethics 1b and also S. E. 4 (Problems of Population and Immigration) and S. E. 6 (Problems of Unemployment and Social Insurance.) |
| 1924 | Summer School: Taught two courses (Social Ethics 1 a and 1 b.) |
| 1926 | Summer School: Taught two courses (Social Ethics 1 b and 4.) |
| 1926 | Ph.D. in Economics (Social Ethics.) |
| 1926-27 | Instructor and Tutor in the Division of history, Government and Economics. |
| 1927-29 | Fellow of the Social Science Research Council, studying the labor situation in England and Germany. |
| 1929-30 | Instructor and Tutor in the Division of History, Government and Economics. Courses: Economics A; Economics 6 b. (Appointed in 1928, but given leave of absence for the year 1928-29.) |
Source: Harvard University Archives. Department of Economics, Correspondence & Papers, 1902-1950 (UAV349.10). Box 5, Folder “H”.
Image Source: William Thomas Ham “Former Assistant Professor of Economics and Tutor in the Division of History, Government, and Economics”, in Harvard Classbook 1937.