Tag: AndrewAP

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Enrollment and final exam for money and banking. Andrew, 1907-1908

Sen. Nelson W. Aldrich next to a horse labeled "Central Bank" which he is offering to Uncle Sam who inspects the horse's teeth labeled "Wall St. Interests"

The historical roots of the field “Money and Banking” were firmly established at Harvard by its economics department founder Charles Franklin Dunbar during the last dozen or so years of the 19th century. Dunbar was followed in matters monetary by Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague and then Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr.

Fun Fact: Senator Nelson W. Aldrich (see Q. 6 in the Economics 8b exam below) who became the major political figure behind the establishment of the U.S. Federal Reserve System was the grandfather of Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller of New York. The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2015.

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Previous course materials for
Money and Banking 

1900-01(Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1905-06 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)
1906-07 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)

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Course Enrollment
Money. General Survey
(1st term)

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 72: 6 Graduates, 8 Seniors, 39 Juniors, 14 Sophomores, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Money. General Survey.
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

  1. To what extent is money a measure, like measures of time, weight, and capacity.
  2. Define and give examples of:
    1. limping standard;
    2. parallel standard;
    3. double standard;
    4. Gresham’s law.
  3. Under what circumstances, if any, would the levying of a seignorage cause prices to rise? to fall? to remain unchanged?
  4. How will large additions to the money supply tend to effect the rate of interest? the rate of profits? the price of land? of bonds? of stocks?
  5. Describe the conditions which brought about the successful redemption of the greenbacks. Upon what grounds was resumption opposed? Were any of these grounds reasonable?
  6. Is it fair to say that England “blundered into monometallism unwittingly”? Explain why or why not.
  7. Is it fair to say that the world stampeded to gold in the seventies “because the increased output of silver in America had produced an excess of its supply as compared with gold”? Explain why or why not.
  8. In your opinion is any confirmation of the “quantity theory” to be found in the experience of :
    1. Holland between 1873 and 1875?
    2. India between 1893 and 1899?
    3. Austria between 1876 and 1890?
      Can these experiences be explained in any other way?
  9. Enumerate the different kinds of money now current in the United States, and state briefly the origin and history of each.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

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Course Enrollment
Banking and Foreign Exchange
(2nd term)

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 108: 7 Graduates, 16 Seniors, 41 Juniors, 36 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 6 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 67.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Banking and Foreign Exchange
Year-end Examination, 1907-8

  1. Describe and account for the relative proportions of national banks, state banks, and trust companies (a) in some of the New England States, (b) in some of the middle Western States.
  2. Describe the functions of the more important sorts of banks in England, France, and Germany, and explain the tendencies of their recent development.
  3. Describe the relation of the government to the banks as regards (a) bank management, (b) government finance in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
  4. Of what significance in the history of English banking were
    1. the Bullion Report?
    2. Peel’s Act?
    3. Bagehot’s “Lombard Street”?
  5. Explain the system of note issue in the Canadian banks and its supposed advantages. State any differences between conditions in Canada and the United States which would render its equal success here uncertain.
  6. Explain the main features of the Fowler, Aldrich and Vreeland bills of the last Congress, and give your opinion of their respective merits.
  7. Explain the following statements:—
    1. “The principal European exchanges are regulated chiefly by the relative value of money.”
    2. “The effect on the exchanges of a given difference in the discount rates is not always the same.”
    3. “The French cheque-rate frequently rises above the specie point.”

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), p. 33.

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and semester examinations for principles of economics. Taussig, Bullock and Andrew. 1907-1908

Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, A. Piatt Andrew

In addition to the 1907-08 exam questions for Principles of Economics taught at Harvard by Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, and A. Piatt Andrew, this post provides links to the previously transcribed 36 years worth of exams.

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Exams for principles (a.k.a. outlines)
of economics at Harvard
1870/71-1906/07

1871-75.
1876-77.
1877-78.
1878-79.
1879-80.
1880-81.
1881-82.
1882-83.
1883-84.
1884-85.
1885-86.
1886-87.
1887-88.
1888-89.
1889-90.
1890-91.
1891-92.
1892-93.
1893-94.
1894-95.
1895-96.
1896-97.
1897-98.
1898-99.
1899-00.
1900-01.
1901-02.
1902-03.
1903-04.
1904-05.
1905-06.
1906-07.

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Course Enrollment
1907-08

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professors [Charles Jesse] Bullock and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Dr. [Charles Phillips] Huse, and Messrs. [?] Hall, [Probably: Walter Max Shohl, A.B. 1906] Shohl and [Abbott Payson] Usher [A.B. 1904]. — Principles of Economics.

Total 482: 1 Graduate, 8 Seniors, 76 Juniors, 290 Sophomores, 66 Freshmen, 41 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1907-1908, p. 66.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1907-08

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Does saving lead to investment? Does investment lead to the increase of capital? Does the increase of capital lead to the decline of interest? If so, explain in each case why and how; if not, why not?
  2. Suppose that by the use of more prolific seeds the yield of agriculture were very greatly increased; what immediate consequences would you expect as to
    1. The price of agricultural produce;
    2. Economic rent on agricultural land;
    3. The earnings of farmers?

Wherein might the ultimate consequence be different?

  1. Is there any inconsistency between the propositions that
    1. Value is governed by demand and supply;
    2. Value is governed by marginal utility;
    3. The price of a monopolized commodity may be different for different purchasers?
  2. How far does the price of a copyrighted book depend on its cost? How far does its cost depend on its price?
  3. Explain what is meant by “non-competing groups,” and how the situation indicated by that phrase is connected with questions concerning trade-unions and the closed shop.
  4. What effect has the unattractiveness of an employment on the wages of those engaged in it? How do you explain the current scale of wages for unskilled labor? For “sweated” laborers? For domestic servants?
  5. Is it beneficial to laborers as a class that there should be (1) great mobility and free competition between business men and investors; (2) great mobility and free competition between the laborers themselves?

One of the following questions may be omitted.

  1. Suppose coöperative production were universally adopted, how would business profits be affected? Suppose profit-sharing were universally adopted, how would they be affected? Suppose all laborers organized in trade-unions, how would they be affected?
  2. What is the significance for labor questions of
    1. “Making work”;
    2. Luxurious expenditure by the rich;
    3. Jurisdiction disputes?
  3. Explain precisely what social movement you associate with the following:—
    1. Rochdale Pioneers;
    2. Leclaire;
    3. Knights of Labor;
    4. American Federation of Labor.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 8, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1907-08.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1907-08

  1. Wherein is there resemblance, wherein difference, between the causes that determine the value of

a ton of coal;
an ounce of gold;
a dollar of inconvertible paper?

  1. Wherein, if at all, are the following subject to the law of monopoly value:—

urban sites;
the output of a protective industry;
railway transportation?

  1. It is said that “charging what the traffic will bear” may rest on two different causes. Do you find either or both of the causes in (a) railway rates; (b) the prices of illuminating oil; (c) the prices of cotton-seed oil?
  2. Explain the following terms:—

index number;
bimetallism;
limping standard;
Independent Treasury system;
Gresham’s Law.

  1. In the year 1906 the exports of merchandise from the United States exceeded the imports by about 500 million dollars. In the same year the imports of gold were about 50 million dollars.

(a) Can such a disparity continue for a long period of years? If so, why? If not, why not?

(b) So long as it continues, do you regard the situation as favorable for the people of the United States?

  1. Explain the measures taken in periods of great financial stress in (a) England, (b) Germany, (c) the United States; and mention in each case to what extent these measures were contemplated by existing legislation.
  2. What determines the selling-price of (a) an urban site advantageous for business; (b) the shares of a street railway corporation; (c) the shares of a “trust” whose capitalization much exceeds its tangible property? In which of these cases, if in any, can it be said that there is “over-capitalization”?
  3. Suppose the public-service industries (“monopolies of organization”) to be placed under government management. Do you think wages would be lower or higher in these industries? Would the general level of wages in the community be higher or lower?
    On the same supposition, do you think prices of the commodities or services supplied by those industries would be higher or lower? Would the general level of prices be higher or lower?
  4. Does the encouragement of domestic industries through tariff duties cause a saving by doing away with the expense of transporting goods from foreign countries? Are such duties likely to bring a charge on the foreign producer or on the domestic consumer?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1908-09; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1908), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Faculty portraits of Frank W. Taussig, Charles J. Bullock, A. Piatt Andrew. The Harvard Class Album, 1906. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Exams for Money and Banking. Andrew, 1906-1907

A two course sequence covering money, banking and foreign exchange became an established specialty field at the beginning of the twentieth century. Assistant Professor A. Piatt Andrew covered that field at Harvard.

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Previous course materials for
Money and Banking 

1900-01 (Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1905-06 (Andrew’s money and banking exams)

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Course Enrollment 1906-07
Money, first semester

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 50: 4 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 2 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

  1. Why was the Latin Monetary Union instituted? Why does it continue to exist? What conclusions of general significance can be drawn from its history?
  2. When may the levying of a seignorage be expected to result in rising prices? Falling prices? Stationary prices?
  3. “It is possible to introduce either a system of bi-metallism which will make prices fall, or one which will make them rise.” Explain these two systems, and show why they would affect prices in such ways.
  4. How is the increasing gold supply likely to affect —
    1. the interests of the working classes?
    2. the prosperity of business?
    3. the income of persons living upon a salary?
    4. the price of real estate?
    5. the price of bonds?
      Explain the reasons in each case.
  5. Explain the character, merits, and defects of —
    (a) the mathematical mean, (b) the geometrical mean, (c) the median, (d) the mode, (e) weighted averages, as methods of measuring changes in the value of money.
  1. “If an ounce of gold, which would be coined into the equivalent of £3 17s 10½ d, is sold for £4 or £5 in paper, the value of the currency has sunk just that much below what the value of a metallic currency would be.” — Mill, II, p. 92. What is your opinion of this statement?
  2. What does Darwin mean by the labor standard? By the commodity standard? Explain the merits claimed for each, and show the exemplification of the two standards in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896. Has either been exemplified in the history of gold or silver since 1896?
  3. Enumerate the different kinds of money now current in the United States, and explain the circumstances and conditions of their issue.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07. A copy is also found in Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 30-31.

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Course Enrollment, 1906-07
Banking, second semester

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and Foreign Exchange.

Total 82: 3 Graduates, 10 Seniors, 32 Juniors, 30 Sophomores, 2 Freshmen, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 71.

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ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1906-7

Omit one question
  1. Name and characterize briefly the various classes of banks existing in (a) the United States, (b) England, (c) Scotland, (d) France, and (e) Germany.
    Name when possible a few leading examples of each class.
  2. What is meant in England by the official Bank rate, the actual Bank rate, the deposit rate, the market rates?
    Suppose that the official rate is raised from 4% to 5%, to what extent will the other rates probably be affected? and why?
    Would the answer have been different thirty years ago?
  3. In what manner and to what extent does the government derive especial advantage in the way of revenue and of services from the banks in the United States? in England? in Germany?
  4. It has been said that “any amount of credit may be created … so long as the claims held by the bank are based upon actual and salable property.”
    Mention any person or persons to whom one might attribute this opinion. Would you accept it?
  5. Express and illustrate the various circumstances under which American quotations of exchange upon France may (1) exceed, and (2) fall short of the nominal gold points.
  6. In your opinion did Andrew Jackson’s policy work permanent benefit or permanent harm to the banking interests of the country? State reasons.
  7. Explain briefly the innovations made by Secretary Shaw in the relations of the Treasury with the banks, and state your opinion of the general policy involved therein.
  8. What contributions to the development of banking in England were made by the authors of (a) “The Bullion Report,” (b) “Lombard Street”?
    In what ways and how far are the principles there presented applicable to the United States?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07 (HUC 7000.25), pp. 31-32.

Image Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website. Henry Davis Sleeper (Andrew’s neighbor on the left) and A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (right).

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Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollments, staffing, exams for principles of economics. Taussig, Bullock, Andrew. 1906-1907

It is now time to begin posting transcriptions of course material for the Harvard academic year 1906-07. Sometimes, even for the curator of Economics in the Rear-view Mirror, this becomes a tedious task. Still, the opportunity to assemble a long time series of economics exams into searchable text for one of the leading economics departments has the virtue of being steady work. 

In the beginning… there is the undergraduate principles of economics course and that is the subject of this post. Subsequent posts more or less follow the course numbering used at the time by Harvard.

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Taussig explains the course structure

In a letter Aug 8, 1906 to E.R.A. Seligman at Columbia describing how Economics 1 was taught we learn that Frank Taussig gave the first semester lectures and his younger colleagues, Charles J. Bullock and A. Piatt Andrew split the second semester’s lectures between themselves. The textbooks used in the course were “Mill, Walker, and Seager.” Taussig also gave himself credit for introducing the course structure of having a common set of lectures and small-section work for discussion and exercises.

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Course Enrollment
1906-07

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professors [Charles Jesse] Bullock and [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs [Selden Osgood] Martin, [Frank Richardson] Mason, G. R. [George Randall] Lewis, [Charles Phillips] Huse, and [Arthur Norman] Holcombe. — Principles of Economics.

Total 392: 1 Graduate, 15 Seniors, 43 Juniors, 252 Sophomores, 50 Freshmen, 31 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1906-1907, p. 70.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1906-07

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.

  1. Explain briefly what is meant by, — free goods; public goods; utility; marginal utility; productive labor.
  2. Explain the relation between, — the rate of interest; the selling price of land; the capitalization of monopolies; vested rights.
  3. What is meant by urban site rent? Does such rent differ from the rent of agricultural land? If so, in what essentials? If not, why not?
  4. Are business profits a return different in kind from wages, according to Mill? Seager? the instructor in the course?
  5. Is a high birth-rate to be regarded with anxiety? a low birth-rate? a high death-rate? a low death-rate? State (in round numbers per 1000 of population) what you would regard as high and low rates.
  6. Would you expect the price of a commodity to fall if its cost of production were lowered? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
    Would you expect the cost of producing a commodity to be lowered if its price fell? If so, under what conditions? If not, why not?
  7. Wherein had immigration into the United States during the decade just passed differed from immigration in earlier times; and what effect has recent immigration had (a) on the general rate of wages, (b) on wages in particular occupations?
  8. Explain the connection between, — collective bargaining; the closed shop; the open union.
  9. Suppose socialism, in the form proposed by Fourier, were adopted: how would wages, rent, interest, business profits, be affected? What if socialism, as outlined by modern writers, were adopted?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1906-07.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

I.
Answer three questions.

  1. Does the value of a commodity depend on its utility? Does the price of a commodity depend on its value?
  2. Explain briefly what is meant by (a) the sweating system, (b) producers’ coöperation, (c) collective bargaining.
  3. Suppose a great increase in the supply of (a) gold, (b) silver, (c) wheat: would the values of these three articles be affected in the same way and in the same degree?
  4. What is the nature of the income received by (a) an owner of lodging house who lets rooms to students; (b) an owner of shares a “trust”; (c) an author receiving royalty on a copy-righted book; (d) a mine owner receiving a royalty (so much per ton) on minerals extracted from his mine.

II.
Answer three questions.

  1. Describe the various forms of credit which serve as means of exchange. Does their existence afford any disproof of the “quantity theory”? Explain why or why not.
  2. If there were no legal restrictions, would anything tend to prevent an over-expansion (a) of deposits, (b) of notes?
    If the present legal restrictions on note issue were abolished, what substitutes would you suggest?
  3. The imports of the United States from Brazil permanently exceed our exports to that country. What movements of specie between these countries are involved? The total exports of merchandise from the United States permanently exceed its imports. What movements of specie to or from this country are involved?
  4. Given mint par with England 4.86 2/3, France 5.18, Germany 0.952. What conditions with regard to American trade are indicated by the following quotations of exchange in New York, 4.84, 5.20, 0.945? How ought these rates to stand if the American dollar were to fall to half its present gold value?

III.
Answer three questions.

  1. According: to the principles laid down by Adam Smith and Mill, what changes should be made in the system of taxation employed by our national government?
  2. Compare the history of the income tax in the United States with the history of the tax in two European countries.
  3. What are the principal arguments for and against the proposal to levy progressive income taxes in order to prevent “undue” concentration of wealth? What are the arguments for and against using progressive inheritance taxes for the same purpose?
  4. Should a national debt be extinguished? Should municipal debts be extinguished? (In each case state fully the reasons for your answer.)

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers, 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound vol. Examination Papers 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1907), pp. 24-25.

Image Source: Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album, 1906. Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

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Business Cycles Exam Questions Harvard Problem Sets

Harvard. Report guidelines and exam for commercial crises and trade cycles. Andrew, 1905-1906

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (1911)

While the exam questions for A. Piatt Andrew’s course on commercial crises and trade cycles for 1905-06 have been transcribed and posted earlier, this post adds his “Suggestions with regard to first report and accompanying chart.” This artifact provides a taste of an actual course assignment.  

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Previously posted

All of Andrew’s exams from his commercial crises and trade cycles course at Harvard for the academic years 1902-03 through 1907-08.

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Commercial Crises
and Cycles of Trade
Economics 12b
1905-06 

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Course Enrollment
Commercial Crises
and Cycles of Trade
1905-06

[Economics] 12b 1hf. Ass’t. Professor Andrew. Commercial Crises and Cycles of Trade.

Total 55: 9 Graduates, 20 Seniors, 20 Juniors, 5 Sophomores, 1 Other.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-190 6, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 12b
SUGGESTIONS WITH REGARD TO FIRST REPORT AND ACCOMPANYING CHART

I. Concerning the Chart

  1. Neatness is desirable; accuracy essential.
  2. Before beginning the chart note the highest and the lowest figures, and devise a scale so that both may be included on the paper, but upon the largest possible plan.
  3. When several sets of figures are to be included upon the same chart, if possible, draw the various lines upon the same scale. If, by so doing, however, variations in one of the lines will be too small to be easily discerned, increase the scale for this line.
  4. Note the decimal division of the profile paper. Do not start with other than a decimal number as a basis. If you have a period covering 20 or 30 years a good plan is to let one of the large squares represent two years.
  5. When two or more decades are included mark the decennial years clearly with a heavier line than the other years.
  6. Bring the figures in every case as nearly to date as possible.
  7. Note on bottom of chart in small letters the source of your statistics, volume and page.
  8. Note also on chart whether the statistics are for the fiscal, calendar, or crop year, — or the year ending at what date.
  9. Place title and your own name somewhere on the chart.

II. Concerning the Report

  1. Give your figures in tabular form, naming all of the sources.
  2. Discuss the sources of your statistics, their authority, and their comprehensiveness.
  3. Trace the trade cycles as shown on your chart, showing the relation between the line movements and periods of prosperity or depression.
  4. Explain the reasons for the larger movements, paying particular attention to the maximal and minimal years. Show to what extent they may be caused by, or may be the cause of industrial fluctuations.
  5. When several countries are concerned note the resemblances and differences in their respective movements, explaining any important dissimilarities.
  6. Name all references employed in the preparation of the report. The references given by the instructor are only preliminary suggestions, and not meant to be sufficient for the completion of the report.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Syllabi, course outlines and reading lists in Economics, 1895-2003, Box 1, Folder “Economics, 1905-1906”.

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ECONOMICS 12b
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question
  1. Compare as regards recent cycles of trade,—
    1. the number and liabilities of failed firms.
    2. banking and commercial failures.
    3. railway and commercial failures.
  2. To what extent have changes in the clearings of the New York banks registered changes in general business?
  3. Explain Juglar’s theory as to the movements of bank loans and reserves, and state how far it is confirmed by American experience.
  4. Explain what was done by the Bank of England to relieve apprehension in 1825, 1847, 1857, 1866, 1890.
  5. Explain and discuss Rodbertus’ theory of crises.
  6. Upon what occasions within the past thirty-five years and by what means, have the American Secretaries of the Treasury helped to relieve a stringency in the financial centres?
  7. In what ways is business affected by the condition of the crops? Within what limitations? In the case of which crops is the connection closest?
  8. What part does “credit” play in the explanation of crises,—
    1. according to Laughlin,
    2. according to Chevalier,
    3. in your own opinion?
  9. In what ways and to what extent are trade conditions apt to be affected,—
    1. by the increasing gold supply,
    2. by the trust movement,
    3. by increasing armies and navies,
    4. by the present agricultural situation?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06. Also a copy in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 37.

Image Source: 1911 portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. by Anders Born at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Exams for Money and Banking. Andrew, 1905-1906

Abram Piatt Andrew

 

The financial Panic of 1907 was still a few years down the historical road when A. Piatt Andrew picked up the banking semester of the two semester sequence of money and banking at Harvard from O. M. W. Sprague who had left for Japan. This expanded scope in matters monetary no doubt came in handy when Andrew joined the staff of the National Monetary Commission established by Congress in 1908.

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Previous course materials
Money and Banking 

1900-01 (Meyer and Sprague)
1901-02 (Andrew, Sprague, Meyer)
1902-03 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)
1903-04 (Andrew and Sprague)
1904-05 (Andrew’s money exam, Sprague’s banking exam)

__________________________

Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 8a 1hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 50: 5 Graduates, 7 Seniors, 22 Juniors, 10 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 5 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

  1. Explain and give illustrations of
    1. the double standard;
    2. the parallel standard;
    3. the limping standard;
    4. the single standard;
    5. quasi-redemption;
    6. forced circulation.
  2. State briefly the circumstances which led to the issue and withdrawal of the American trade dollar.
  3. Trace briefly the chronology of the adoption of the gold standard throughout the world. To what extent is the fall in price of silver due to this movement? To what extent has the value of gold been affected by it?
  4. How would the adoption of international bimetallism to-day at the ratio of 32 to 1 affect (a) the circulating medium, (b) the standard of value of different countries? Consider both the immediate and the eventual results.
  5. What arguments advanced in favor of bimetallism ten years ago are inapplicable to-day?
  6. Is there any peculiar significance for the “quantity theory”
    1. of British India between 1893 and 1898;
    2. of Austria between 1878 and 1892;
    3. of Russia between 1878 and 1896;
    4. of Holland between 1873 and 1875.
      When possible give variant opinions.
  7. Would an ideal monetary standard always measure the same quantity of goods?
    1. According to Walker?
    2. According to Darwin?
    3. According to your own opinion?
      Answer both from the points of view of production and distribution.
  8. “Inasmuch as gold (before 1848) was more valuable on the world’s market than at the French mint, relatively to silver, it was impossible that gold should circulate in France.” Is this a necessary conclusion?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06. Also a copy in Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), p. 33.

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Course Enrollment
1905-06

Economics 8b 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Banking and the History of the leading Banking Systems.

Total 105: 7 Graduates, 12 Seniors, 56 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 1 Freshman, 7 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

ECONOMICS 8b
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

  1. Explain the system of “cash credits” and the importance of the £1 note in Scotland.
  2. Discuss the following:—
    1. Bank statement based on falling averages.
    2. Five per cent fund with treasurer.
    3. Bonds for circulation.
    4. Bonds for deposits.
  3. Sketch briefly the various stages in the American government’s policy of caring for its funds.
  4. How do state banks compare with national banks in the United States to-day (a) in number, (b) in size, (c) in the kinds of business done? What differences in these regards appear in different parts of the country?
  5. On what grounds is an extension of branch-banking advocated in the United States? What are the objections raised? To what extent does it already exist?
  6. Explain the ways and trace the seasons in which the New York bank reserves are apt to decline. Discuss the means which have recently been employed by the government to strengthen them.
  7. Sight exchange is quoted at 4.8550; 60-day bills at 4.8240; commercial bills at 4.8212. Explain these differences and show how each quotation will be affected, if the Bank of England raises its rate by 1%.
  8. The following are abstracted statements of the New York Associated Banks:
(1)
Aug. 5, ’93		 (2)
Feb. 3, ’94		 (3)
May 20, ’99		 (4)
May 23, ’03
Loans 409 420 763 923
Deposits 373 552 902 914
Capital 129 133 134 224
Circulation 6 13 16 44
Reserve 79 250 260 238

Compare 1 with 2, and 3 with 4, explaining in each case the changes in the relations (a) between loans and deposits, (b) between deposits and reserve.

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07; Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906),  p. 34.

Image Source: Picture of Abram Piatt Andrew from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article on his appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51. Retouched and colorized by Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Principles of Economics Exam. Taussig et al., 1905-1906

Over the next couple of weeks Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will be posting the printed economics course exams from Harvard for the academic year 1905-06.  Economics in the Rear-View Mirror has already transcribed and posted nearly every economics exam at Harvard University up to this year. You will find links to them in the Catalogue of Artifacts, then use page search for, e.g.,”Exam” to be awed if not shocked by the sheer quantity of material available to you.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank William] Taussig and Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, assisted by Messrs. [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Chester Whitney] Wright, [Seldon Osgood] Martin, [William Hyde] Price, [Frank Richardson] Mason, and [Stuart] Daggett. — Principles of Economics.

Total 470: 1 Graduate, 9 Seniors, 87 Juniors, 266 Sophomores, 63 Freshmen, 44 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1905-1906, p. 72.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1905-06

Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions.
Answer nine questions, five from Group I, four from Group II.

Group I

  1. Which of the following would you class as capital:—
    1. stocks of goods in retailers’ hands;
    2. a theatre:
    3. the skill, acquired through training and education, of highly efficient workmen;
    4. agricultural land permanently improved by drainage, embankments and the like.
  2. Explain concisely,
    1. the law of diminishing returns;
    2. intensive and extensive margin of cultivation;
    3. marginal utility.
  3. Suppose all agricultural land to be equally fertile and equally distant from the market; suppose all to be under cultivation: would there be rent? If so, why and where? if not, why not?
  4. Explain in what way the value of monopolized commodities is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  5. Explain in what way the value of commodities produced at joint cost is influenced on the one hand by cost of production, on the other hand by marginal utility.
  6. State two different ways in which expense of education and training affects variations of wages in different occupations.

Group II

  1. “The extra gains which any producer or dealer obtains through superior talents for business, or superior business arrangements, are very much of a similar kind [to rent]. . . . All advantages, in fact, which one competitor has over another, whether natural or acquired, whether personal or the result of social arrangements, bring the commodity, so far, into the Third Class, and assimilate the possessor of the advantage to a receiver of rent.” —Mill.
    Explain what is the “third class” of commodities here referred to by Mill; wherein “personal” advantages differ from those which are “the result of social arrangements”; and how far the general doctrine set forth in this extract is found also in Walker and in Seager.
  2. State concisely the residual theory of distribution, as set forth by Walker.
  3. Suppose the number of laborers to increase greatly, the other factors in production (capital, land) remaining unchanged: what changes in wages would ensue, and in what manner would they be brought about, according to Mill? Walker? Seager?
  4. Explain concisely,
    1. the capitalization of rent;
    2. the capitalization of monopoly profits;
    3. the statement that the rate of interest determines the value of land and securities;
    4. innocent investors and acquired rights.
  5. A corporation organized to do a mercantile business buys an expensive city site, erects a building thereon, carries on the operations of buying and selling, and in due time distributes dividends among its stockholders. What is the nature of the return received by the stockholders?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1905-06.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1905-06

Omit one question from each group.

I.

  1. Define capital, and mention two articles of wealth which are always capital, two which never are, and two which sometimes are and sometimes are not.
  2. Under what conditions would there be no economic rent?
  3. Explain briefly the salient influences which will determine the value (1) at any given moment, (2) in the long run, of the following:
    1. an uncopyrighted book,
    2. a copyrighted book,
    3. an ounce of gold.
  4. What are the limits to the price-fixing and profit-earning powers of monopolies? Are there any other conditions which will tend to check the indefinite growth of combinations?

II.

  1. Is it true of all commodities that changes in supply affect their value proportionally? Is it true of the commodity money? If in your opinion there is any difference, explain it.
  2. Can a commodity change its value without changing its price? Can it change its price without changing its value? Suppose the commodity were gold bullion, would your answer vary?
  3. Suppose an increase in the volume of our currency, due to a new issue of silver, what would be the effect upon international trade? Would this effect be lasting? Would your answer depend at all upon the condition of our currency at the time the increase occurred?
  4. If the merchandise imports from England to the United States equalled the exports from the United States to England (a) what would be the state of exchange on London? (b) Would there be any greater advantage to either of the countries engaged in trade?

III.

  1. Would a tariff “for revenue only” differ from a protective tariff, the product of which is entirely devoted to revenue? Has either any advantage over the other?
  2. “A man is of all sorts of luggage the most difficult to be transported.” What is the bearing of this fact upon the theory of international trade?
  3. (a) How are loans affected when the reserve limit (as established either by law or custom) is reached in England, Germany, and in the United States?
    (b) Show whether a system of “combined reserves” is needed in France, England, or Germany.
  4. Arrange the following items in their proper order as they would appear in the statement of a national bank. What criticisms would a bank examiner make? Would these criticisms vary if the bank were situated in New York, Boston, or the town of Lexington?
Loans,

360 thousands of dollars
Capital,

50      “                “       “
Reserve,

50      “                “       “
Real estate,

28      “                “       “
Deposits,

300    “                “       “
Undivided profits,

3        “                “       “
Notes,

115    “                “       “
Other assets,

20      “                “       “
Bonds and stocks,

40      “                “       “
Surplus,

30      “                “       “

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 8, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1906-07;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1906), pp. 26-27.

Image Source: Portrait of Professor Frank W. Taussig in the Harvard Class Album 1906.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Money and Banking

Harvard. Course enrollment, description, and final exam for currency legislation, experience, and theory. Andrew, 1904-1905

Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (1911)

 

The field of monetary economics used to be called “Money and Banking” where money in earlier times was understood to mean currency used for payment as opposed to the checkable deposits held in commercial banks. Abram Piatt Andrew was to money as Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague was to banking in theHarvard economics department at the start of the 20th century. I don’t know why the courses 8a for money and 8b for banking were offered in the reverse order (8b in the fall term, 8a in the spring term). If I ever find out why that was the sequence in 1904-05, I’ll update this post.

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Related, previous posts

Abram Piatt Andrew’s home and private life was the subject of an earlier post.

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Course Enrollment
1904-1905

Economics 8a 2hf. Asst. Professor Andrew. — Money. A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times.

Total 68: 5 Graduates, 5 Seniors, 28 Juniors, 22 Sophomores, 4 Freshmen, 4 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 75.

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Course Description
1904-05

[Economics] 8a 2hf. Money. — A general survey of currency legislation, experience, and theory in recent times. Half-course (second half-year). Mon., Wed., Fri., at 9. Asst. Professor Andrew.

In this course the aim will be to show how the existing monetary systems of the principal countries have come to be, and to analyze the more important currency problems. The course will begin with a brief history of the precious metals, which will be connected, in so far as possible, with the history of prices and the development of monetary theory. The history of coinage legislation in England and Europe and the United States will be traced, and will lead to an extended consideration of the various aspects of the bimetallic controversy. At convenient points, the experiences of various countries with paper money will be reviewed, and the influence of such issues upon wages, prices, and trade examined. Attention will also be given to the non-monetary means of payment and the questions of monetary theory arising from their use. Among other subjects treated will be the several methods of measuring exchange value, various aspects of the labor and commodity standards, the explanation of price movements, the relations between prices and the rate of interest, and the reasons for the divergence in the value of money in different countries.

Systematic reading will be expected and will be tested by monthly examinations.

Course 8a is open to those who have taken Course 1.

Source: Harvard University. Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Division of History and Political Science Comprising the Departments of History and Government and Economics, 1904-05 (May 16, 1904), p. 42.

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ECONOMICS 8a
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question.

  1. “The cost of production of money being given, the quantity will depend upon the rapidity of circulation.” How far is this true? and why?
  2. Suppose the single gold standard universally adopted. How then would the universal authorization of free silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1 affect (a) the circulating medium, (b) the standard of value?
    Consider both the immediate and the eventual results.
  3. What conclusions of general significance are to be drawn from the history of the Latin monetary union?
  4. State briefly the circumstances which led to the issue and the withdrawal of the American trade dollar.
  5. What influences in brief caused the cessation of free silver coinage in
    (a) England?
    (b) the United States?
    (c) Germany?
  6. Suppose the market ratio between gold and silver were to decline to 22 to 1, what would be the effect upon the currency of
    (a) Great Britain.
    (b) British India.
    (c) The United States.
    (d) The Philippines.
  7. Do falling prices “necessarily enhance the burden of all debts and fixed charges”?
    Illustrate by the experience of the United States during the period from 1873 to 1896, pointing out possible differences between agricultural and mercantile debts.
  8. Explain the respective merits of the labor standard, and the commodity standard, and show their exemplification in the history of the precious metals between 1873 and 1896.
  9. What conditions favorable to bimetallism existed ten years ago which do not exist today?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), p. 28.

Image Source: 1911 portrait of Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. by Anders Born at Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Wikimedia Commons.

Categories
Exam Questions Harvard Principles

Harvard. Enrollment and exams for Outlines of Economics. Taussig et al., 1904-1905

Frank W. Taussig & A. Piatt Andrew

From the final exams for the two semester introductory economics course run by Frank Taussig and A. Piatt Andrew in 1904-05 we see (among other things) that John Stuart Mill provided the backbone of theory and that there was room for a compare and contrast question regarding a liberal market economy vs a socialist economy.

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Course Enrollment

Economics 1. Professor [Frank W.] Taussig, Asst. Professor [Abram Piatt] Andrew, and Messrs. [Vanderveer] Custis, [James Alfred] Field, [Silas Wilder] Howland, [Selden Osgood] Martin, and [Chester Whitney] Wright. — Outlines of Economics.

Total 438: 10 Seniors, 84 Juniors, 232 Sophomores, 54 Freshmen, 58 Others.

Source: Harvard University. Report of the President of Harvard College, 1904-1905, p. 74.

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ECONOMICS 1
Mid-year Examination, 1904-05

One question in each group may be omitted.
Arrange your answers strictly in the order of the questions
Give your reasons in all cases.

I

  1. Which among the following would you consider (1) “productive laborers,” (2) otherwise useful to society: actors, manufacturers of gambling implements, stock-brokers, landlords receiving and spending the rents of land.
  2. It has been laid down that,—
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by its nature, — it consists of machinery, materials, and other apparatus for production;
    Capital is distinguished from non-capital by the intention of the owner in dealing with his wealth;
    Capital, though the result of saving, is yet continually consumed.
    Can you reconcile these propositions? If not, which do you consider sound?
  3. “The laws and conditions of the production of wealth partake of the character of physical truths.” Is this true of the law stating the conditions under which the accumulation of capital takes place? of that stating the conditions under which production upon land takes place?
  4. Define briefly: value in use, value in exchange, utility, marginal utility, margin of cultivation, consumer’s rent.
  5. Can a person having a monopoly of a given commodity control its price at will? If so, how? If not, why not?
  6. “An individual speculator cannot gain by a rise in price of his own creating . . . when there is neither at the time nor afterwards any cause for a rise of prices except his own proceedings.”
    On what reasoning does this statement of Mill’s rest? Does the practice of dealings for future delivery (“futures”) affect the reasoning.

II

  1. What is the difference between a wages-fund and a wages-flow? Which seems to you the better mode of describing the influences that act on the general rate of wages?
  2. “The expectations of profit, therefore, in different employments, cannot long continue very different: they tend to a common average.”
    “It is true that, to persons with the same amount of original means, there is more chance of making a large fortune in some employments than in others.”
    “Gross profit varies greatly from individual to individual, and can scarcely be in any two cases the same.”
    Can these statements of Mill’s be reconciled?
  3. Is the return from capital sunk in the soil to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return from urban real estate to be regarded as rent or interest? Is the return on corporate securities (stocks and bonds) to be regarded as rent or interest?
  4. How will a rise in the rate of interest affect the selling value of land? that of securities yielding a fixed income?
  5. “But it is impossible for anyone to study political economy, even as at present taught, or to think at all upon the production and distribution of wealth, without seeing that property in land differs essentially from property in things of human production, and that it has no warrant in abstract justice.” Henry George.
    Do you think this statement true in view of what you have learned in this course? Consider both your reading and the lectures.
  6. What would become of interest, rent, business profits, in a socialist state? what if there were an all-embracing régime of coöperative production?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University. Mid-year Examinations, 1852-1943. Box 7, Bound Volume: Examination Papers, Mid-Years 1904-05.

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ECONOMICS 1
Year-end Examination, 1904-05

Omit one question from each group.

I

  1. What is meant by the equilibrium of demand and supply? How is it secured?
  2. Suppose there were a general rise in wages: could capitalists, by charging higher prices for their goods, prevent profits from falling?
    Suppose a rise of wages in a particular trade: could the capitalists in that trade, by charging higher prices, keep their profits from falling?
  3. Under what head — wages, rent, interest, profits — would you class the remuneration of (1) an apothecary; (2) a city merchant who owns the building in which he carries on his business; (3) an author who receives copyright payments on books which he has written; (4) a stockholder in a company which owns a lucrative patent?
  4. Is land capital? Are buildings capital? Are the skill and capacity of a workman — such as a trained engineer or a great inventor — to be regarded as capital?

II

  1. What would be the effect on the price of beef if a high protective tariff were levied on the import of hides?
  2. Which of the economic advantages and disadvantages of combination, in the broad sense, result from (a) pooling, (b) merger in a single corporation, (c) monopoly?
  3. President Roosevelt in a recent message said that our tariff “duties must never be reduced below the point that will cover the difference between the labor cost here and abroad.” Discuss this statement.
  4. Suppose that a country which manufactures only enough to supply half the home market, and which has a large export trade in wheat, imposes a uniform import duty of 50% on all commodities. What will be the effect on the nominal and the real wages of agricultural laborers, absolutely, and as compared with wages in manufacturing industries?

III

  1. How do you explain the fact that there is less than 1/10 as much silver in a dime as in a silver dollar? Is there any reason why this should be so?
  2. Explain briefly:—

(a) Deposit.
(b) Suffolk Bank system.
(c) Clearing House certificate.
(d) Post-note.
(e) Discount.
(f) Reserve city.
(g) Central reserve city.
(h) Asset currency.

  1. Secretary Shaw has said “Without claiming that the national banking act is perfect or that our currency system is free from objection I think that the world joins us in the verdict that it is the best system known to man.”
    Discuss this statement, comparing the American system as regards security and elasticity with those of England and Germany.
  2. If a national bank examiner should discover the following to be the account of a bank in Boston to what would he object:
Capital 200,000 Loans 733,000
Surplus 24,000 U.S. Bonds 75,000
Undivided profits 43,000 Other assets 42,000
Notes 78,000 Deposits in U.S. Treas. 3,500
Deposits 745,000 Deposits in other banks 150,000
Clearing House certificate 14,000
Coin & legal tender notes 72,500
1,090,000 1,090,000

Would his objections differ at all if the bank were located in Cambridge?

Source: Harvard University Archives. Harvard University, Examination Papers 1873-1915. Box 7, Bound volume: Examination Papers, 1904-05;  Papers Set for Final Examinations in History, Government, Economics,…,Music in Harvard College (June, 1905), pp. 21-23.

Image Sources:  Frank W. Taussig (Original black and white image from of Frank William Taussig from a cabinet card photograph, 1895, at the Harvard University Archives HUP); Abram Piatt Andrews (Picture from ca. 1909 used in a magazine article about Andrew’s appointment to the directorship of the U. S. Mint. Hoover Institution Archives. A. Piatt Andrew Papers, Box 51). Images colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.

Categories
Economists Harvard LGBTQ Money and Banking Policy

Harvard. A. Piatt Andrew at his home “Red Roof”. Gloucester, MA. 1910

Abram Piatt Andrew taught monetary economics at Harvard before becoming a key player in the National Monetary Commission, Director  of the U.S. Mint, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, founder of the American Field Service, and a Republican member of the United States Congress from 1921-36. Much more has been posted about him here at Economics in the Rear-View Mirror.

This post deals with his home and private life.

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This photograph features A. Piatt Andrew at his home in Gloucester, Massachusetts, before World War I began. Prior to founding the American Field Service during the war, Andrew served as an assistant professor of economics at Harvard, director of the U.S. Mint, and assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury. “Red Roof,” as his home was called, was designed and built under Andrew’s direction in 1902. Red Roof contained secret rooms, one of which necessitated dismantling a sofa to access and contained a Prohibition-era wet bar and a player piano. Guests in the living room could therefore hear the music but didn’t know its source. Another secret room contained a dugout that was later filled with AFS artifacts from the war, including posters, AFS recruitment slides, shell fuses (a favorite souvenir of AFS Drivers), and trench art.

Andrew created elaborate entertainment for guests at Red Roof by organizing themed dinner parties, musical performances, and skits in full costume. Guests to Red Roof included interior decorator and longtime AFS supporter Henry Sleeper, the portrait painter John Singer Sargent, art collector and philanthropist Isabella Stewart Gardner, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt [May 2-4, 1903].

Source: Nicole Milano, “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof, 1910.” American Field Service Website.

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But wait, there’s more

A blog dealing exclusively (no kidding) with “A. Piatt Andrew and Red Roof“.

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Research tips:

At the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (now called “Historic New England“) one can find “A. Piatt Andrew Guest Books, 1902-1930” among other items. These guest book pages have, in addition to the signatures, close to 700 photographs.  You can page through the pictures online (1902-1912) and (1913-1930).

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum you will find online 249 items (photographs, correspondence from A. Piatt Andrew).

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Henry Davis Sleeper and
A. Piatt Andrew Jr.

Plot spoiler: They were more than friendly neighbours.

Source: A. Piatt Andrew’s The Red Roof Guestbook, 1914-1930. Available at the Historic New England Website.

 Sleeper’s frail constitution prevented him from participating in the rough-and-tumble games and amusements favored by Andrew and his young male friends, mostly Harvard undergraduates. [p. 90]

Mrs. Jack

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) was a legend in her own time. Starting with the untimely death of her husband, John Lowell Gardner, in 1898, his widow, called Mrs. Jack, embarked on an ambitious program of art acquisition which culminated in the transformation of her fabulous Venetian-style palazzo, Fenway Court, into a beloved cultural institution. She accomplished this feat largely by relying on the skills, expertise and companionship of the coterie of attractive and talented homosexual men-mostly artists, collectors, and curators-that she gathered around her…. [p. 90]

Society Painter

By 1908 Mrs. Jack’s circle included the society painter John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Born in Italy to American parents, Sargent had first come to Boston in 1887. After a solo exhibition in 1888 at the St. Botolph Club, he was commissioned in 1890 to design murals for the new Boston Public Library in Copley Square. Along with other commissions-for the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard’s Widener Library-Sargent was almost fully occupied in Boston for the next twenty-five years. While circumspect about his private life, an album of male nudes that Sargent, a bachelor, kept for his own enjoyment offers insight into his predilections. [p. 91]

Seaside shenanigans

In the years preceding World War I, Isabella Stewart Gardner, John Singer Sargent, and others in their circle were drawn into the wealthy summer enclave at Eastern Point, Gloucester, where Harvard professor (later U.S. congressman) A. Piatt Andrew Jr. (1873-1936) and his neighbor, interior designer Henry Davis Sleeper (1878-1934), had homes. The letters from Sleeper to Andrew provide evidence of the intensity of his feelings.

Social life on Eastern Point revolved around ceaseless entertaining. One of Gardner’s biographers hints at the goings-on at Andrew’s home, Red Roof: “Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt.” Portrait painter Cecilia Beaux (1863-1942) spent summers at her Gloucester home, Green Alley, where she enjoyed hosting evening gatherings of her neighbors. She never married. “Faithful in attendance were Harry Sleeper and Piatt Andrew, whose brilliancy of repartee has never been excelled” according to an observer. Concealment and ambiguity characterized the lives of many of the women and men who moved through this exclusive world of polite manners and material luxury. [p. 92]

Source: The History Project. Improper Bostonians: Lesbian and gay history from the Puritans to Playland. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. [Note: you need to register at archive.org to access (borrow) the book for an hour at a time]

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October 6, 1910. A. Piatt Andrew and Isabella Stewart Gardner at “Red Roof”. Photo by Thomas E. Marr from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Cleaned and cropped by Economics in the Rear View Mirror

From Isabella Stewart Gardner’s biography

A. Piatt Andrew lived next door to Miss Davidge under his “Red Roof” – nearer the mainland than Miss Davidge and Miss Beaux, and with one more maiden lady beyond him….

Harry Sleeper, whom Mrs. Gardner already knew fairly well, lived just beyond. … Harry was sweet, gentle, affectionate. He was devoted to his mother, who protected him from the ladies when he feared they had designs on his celibacy. Still more was he the devoted slave to Piatt….

…A. Piatt Andrew had an organ installed in the passage between the living room and a recently added study. Here, Isabella sat on the couch (with a bearskin and two leopard skins on it) to listen to his music. She was probably unaware of a hidden space above the books – too low to stand up in but equipped with mattress and covers where some of Andrew’s guests could listen in still greater comfort. She had seen the Brittany bed in the living room but that there was a small hole over it, perhaps no one had told her. The sound of organ music could be heard the better through the hole – and was it just a coincidence that a person in the hidden alcove above could look down through it? Gossip had it that often all the guests were men, their pastimes peculiar. Yet all the ladies on Eastern Point were fascinated by Piatt and one especially keen observer thought that Miss Beaux was “sweet on him”.

When the fog lifted and the sun came out, the whole atmosphere at Red Roof changed. Gloucester harbor sparkled bright and blue. Isabella’s spirits lifted, macabre impressions vanished, and Isabella went out on a stone seat to be photographed with Piatt – or “A,” as she liked to call him, referring to herself as “Y,” amused to find herself at the opposite end of the alphabet.

Isabella wore a linen suit with leg o’mutton sleeves, long coat and wide gored skirt. She had on a toque with a black dotted veil over her face. Beside her, A. Piatt sat – head turned toward her, his handsome profile toward the camera.

A. Piatt Andrew had been chosen by President Eliot to work in Senator Aldrich’s monetary commission and he planned to go to Europe during the summer of 1908 to make preliminary studies. Mrs. Gardner told him to be sure to get in touch with Matthew Stewart Prichard – late of the Boston Art Museum. This Andrew did, Prichard showing him beautiful Greek and Roman coins which gave him ideas for new designs for American currency.

Source: Louise Hall Tharp, Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Little, Brown and Company, 1965, pp. 276-278.