While there is an understandably greater interest in the lives of the academic celebrities of yore, Economics in the Rear-view Mirror will continue from time to time to add biographical information for the less prominent economists in the history of the academic pursuit of fame and distinction. In an important sense all but a handful of our sisters and brothers will have their names and contributions remembered two generations after their deaths anyway. The lives and careers of Ph.D. economists are varied, and our series of “Meet an Economics Ph.D. Alumnus/a” is intended to provide a sample to illustrate that variation.
In this post you will meet John Giffin Thompson, a Wisconsin Ph.D. (1907).
Note: Not to be confused with John Gilbert Thompson (1895-1940) who was a normal school (i.e. two year college to train teachers) principal who went on to work as an economist in industry.
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Remembered by a friend
Rauchenstein, Emil. “John Giffin Thompson 1873-1959.” Journal of Farm Economics 41, no. 4 (1959): 871–871.
JSTOR: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1234868
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John Giffin Thompson
1873. Born on a farm July 17 near Cambridge in Guernsey County, Ohio.
1900. A.B. College of Wooster (Ohio).
1902-04. Scholarship and a fellowship for graduate work in economics and history at the University of Chicago. A.M. in 1904.
1905-07. Assistant in Political Economy at the University of Wisconsin. Officers and Graduates of the University of Wisconsin, 1849-1907, p. 49.
1907. Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin.
Thesis. The Rise and Decline of the Wheat-Growing Industry in Wisconsin (1907). Published in the Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 292. Economics and Political Science Series, Vol. 5, No. 3, (May 1909), pp. 295-544.
In the preface he thanks Professor Henry C. Taylor (Political Economy) and Professor Frederick J. Turner (American History) “for reading the manuscript and for scholarly and pertinent criticism of the same.”
1907-1917. Instructor. University of Illinois. Vergil V. Phelps (ed.), University of Illinois Register, Listing the 35,000 persons who have ever been connected with the Urbana-Champaign Departments including officers of instruction and administration and 1397 deceased (1916). P. 662.
1908. Aug 5. Married Dora Lena Robb (b. 1875, d. 1960). According to her obituary in The Times Recorder, Zanesville, Ohio of Aug. 3, 1960, she lived last 40 years in Washington D.C. Active member of the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church there. John and Dora had no children.
1912. Thompson, John G. [Review of Principles of Rural Economics, by T. N. Carver], Journal of Political Economy, vol. 20, no. 3, 1912, pp. 289–94.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1820280
1913. Thompson, John G. [Review of English Farming, Past and Present, by R. E. Prothero]. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 21, no. 5, 1913, pp. 469–74.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1820027 .
1914. Thompson, John G. [Review of The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic, and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880, by S. J. Buck]. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 22, no. 5, 1914, pp. 495–98.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1819167
1915. Thompson, John G. [Review of The Ownership, Tenure and Taxation of Land, by T. Whittaker]. Journal of Political Economy, vol. 23, no. 2, 1915, pp. 191–94.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1819132
1916. Thompson, John G. “The Nature of Demand for Agricultural Products and Some Important Consequences.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 24, no. 2, 1916, pp. 158–82.
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1822553
1918-21. Taught Sunday-school class to about 25 young adults (obit), many U. of Illinois staff.
From Rauchenstein’s obit for Thompson (1959).
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1234868
1918. Draft Registration card (Sept. 12th 1918) reports present occupation “Economic research”, employer “none”.
1920. U.S. Census. John G. Thompson age 46 “Investigator, Economic Research”, wife Dora R. Thompson, age 44.
1921. Thompson, John G. “Mobility of the Factors of Production as Affecting Variation in Their Proportional Relation to Each Other in Farm Organization.” Journal of Political Economy, vol. 29, no. 2, 1921, pp. 108–37. [Author identification: “John G. Thompson, Van Nuys, Cal.”]
JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1822700
1921. “Private Research. 503 W. High, Urbana, Ill.” The University of Wisconsin. Alumni Directory, 1849-1919. P. 338.
1921. Moved with wife to Washington to continue his research at the Library of Congress according to Rauchenstein (1959).
1922. “The Cityward Movement” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. IV No. 2 (April, 1922), pp. 65-79. [Author identification “John G. Thompson, Washington, D.C.”, Professor Carver identified in the discussion of the paper on page 79.]
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1229697
1925. “Urbanization and Rural Depopulation in France,” Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan., 1925, pp. 145-151. [Comment on paper by Asher Hobson, “Some Economic and Social Phases of French Agriculture,” JFE (July 1924), 233-244.]
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/1230080
1927. Urbanization. Its Effects on Government and Society. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company. [Note: middle name is misspelled on the title page “Giffen” instead of “Giffin”.] https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015014331105
https://archive.org/details/urbanizationitse00thom
1930. U.S. Census. Living in Washington DC. “Research. Social Science”.
1940. U.S. Census. Living with John’s sister Bessie in Washington DC. at 1319 E. Capitol. John “Private Research, Library”.
1950. U.S. Census. Living just with wife Dora R. at 1319 E. Capitol.
1959. Died. Obituary in Evening Star, Washington, D.C. January 3, 1959, p. 26.
Thompson, John G. of 1319 East Capitol St., on January 1, 1959, husband of Dora Roob Thompson, brother of Ralph E. Thompson of Cambridge, Ohio, and uncle of Mrs. Hiram T. Dale, Mrs. William P. Simmonds, Robert E., Dr. James M. and the Rev. David M. Thompson. Services at Chambers’ Funeral Home 517 11th St., s.e. on Saturday, January 3, at 7 p.m. Services and interment Cambridge, Ohio on Monday, January 5, at 1:30 p.m.
Image Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries Website. “View, UW-Madison, 1907” by Harley DeWitt Nichols.