More than 1,100 feet of records pro­vid­ing insights into 20th-century eco­nom­ics his­tory available

Prince­ton University’s See­ley G. Mudd Man­u­script Library has com­pleted a two-year project to process all of its economics-related pub­lic pol­icy col­lec­tions to mod­ern stan­dards. These col­lec­tions pro­vide a rich resource about Amer­i­can eco­nomic thought and poli­cies in the 20th cen­tury and the impact of Amer­i­can eco­nomic pol­icy and the ideas of some of the lead­ing eco­nomic thinkers on the emerg­ing world econ­omy, espe­cially in devel­op­ing nations.

Twenty-eight col­lec­tions, total­ing more than 1,100 lin­ear feet, were processed through the sup­port of the John Fos­ter and Janet Avery Dulles Fund and a grant from the National His­tor­i­cal Pub­li­ca­tions and Records Com­mis­sion. Elec­tronic find­ing aids for each col­lec­tion are avail­able on the library’s web­site for researchers.

The col­lec­tions as a whole doc­u­ment eco­nomic activ­ity that spans the globe, includ­ing every set­tled con­ti­nent. The main sub­jects doc­u­mented by the papers are pub­lic and inter­na­tional finance, eco­nomic devel­op­ment and eco­nomic pol­icy, as well as mon­e­tary pol­icy, poli­cies dur­ing World War I and II, busi­ness his­tory and demog­ra­phy. These records pro­vide insight into the eco­nomic debates that thrived dur­ing the 20th cen­tury: the estab­lish­ment or dis­avowal of the gold stan­dard; inter­na­tional mon­e­tary pol­icy and free trade; the var­i­ous approaches to what was called Third World devel­op­ment (includ­ing pop­u­la­tion con­trol); and means to alle­vi­ate depres­sion and/or infla­tion. In a time when free mar­ket ideas are ascen­dant, these col­lec­tions bear tes­ta­ment that the path was nei­ther lin­ear nor smooth.

The col­lec­tions doc­u­ment both the the­ory and prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tion of eco­nom­ics and include the papers of schol­ars, U.S. gov­ern­ment offi­cials, advis­ers to gov­ern­ments through­out the world, bankers, lawyers, busi­ness lead­ers, a pol­icy advo­cacy group, and orga­ni­za­tions devoted to eco­nomic devel­op­ment. Among the impor­tant col­lec­tions are the papers of Edwin W. Kem­merer, adviser to many coun­tries on mon­e­tary pol­icy dur­ing the 1920s; Jacob Viner, one of the most promi­nent eco­nomic schol­ars of the 20th cen­tury; Nobel Lau­re­ate W. Arthur Lewis; and Albert O. Hirschman, a lead­ing scholar in the field of eco­nomic devel­op­ment. Kem­merer, Viner and Lewis were mem­bers of the Prince­ton fac­ulty, while Hirschman was at the Insti­tute for Advanced Study.

Records of promi­nent orga­ni­za­tions were also processed as part of the project, includ­ing those of the Devel­op­ment and Resources Cor­po­ra­tion, a for-profit con­cern involved in eco­nomic devel­op­ment around the world, such as a sub­stan­tial project in Iran; Women’s World Bank­ing, a non­profit inter­na­tional finan­cial insti­tu­tion that facil­i­tates the par­tic­i­pa­tion of women entre­pre­neurs in the mod­ern econ­omy; and the Econ­o­mists’ National Com­mit­tee on Mon­e­tary Pol­icy, an advo­cacy group for mon­e­tary pol­icy, espe­cially for the gold stan­dard, in the United States.

The project began in Octo­ber 2005 with the hir­ing of project archivist Adri­ane Han­son to over­see the work on the 28 col­lec­tions. She was joined in Jan­u­ary 2006 by spe­cial col­lec­tions assis­tant Christo­pher Shan­non and a small group of stu­dent assis­tants. In two years, the team arranged and rehoused all 28 col­lec­tions, rang­ing in size from one box to 450 boxes. Han­son wrote find­ing aids and cat­a­log records for each of the col­lec­tions, which are now avail­able online to aid researchers in dis­cov­er­ing and uti­liz­ing these resources.