The Biographical Dictionary of America/Adams, Henry Carter

ADAMS, Henry Carter, educator, was born in Davenport, Iowa, Dec. 31, 1851, son of Ephraim and Elizabeth S.A. (Douglas) Adams, and grandson of Ephraim Adams, of New Ipswich, N.H. He was graduated at Iowa college in 1874. He was superintendent of schools at Nassau, Iowa, 1874-'75; fellow of political economy, Johns Hopkins university, 1876-'89; student at Heidelberg, Berlin, and at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris, 1878-'79; student at Andover theological seminary, 1878; lecturer at Cornell, 1880-'83, and associate professor of political science there, 1883-'87; lecturer on political science at the University of Michigan, 1880-'87, and professor of political economy and finance there from 1887. He received the degree Ph.D., from Johns Hopkins in 1878; and the honorary degree LL.D. from Iowa college in 1898; was appointed statistician of the Interstate commerce commission in 1887; and had charge of the department of transportation of the eleventh U.S. census, 1890. He was elected a member of the International statistical institute; was president of the American economic association, 1895-'97; vice-president of the American statistical association; secretary of the Michigan political science association; and served as associate editor of the International Journal of Ethics. He published "History of Taxation in the United States 1789 to 1816" (1884); "Public Debts" (1887); "The State in Relation to Industrial Action" (1887); "Lectures on Political Economy" (1881); "Statistics of Railways in the United States" (6 vols., 1888-1898); "Economics and Jurisprudence" (1897); "The Science of Finance" (1888).