Biography/History

In the course of his long career, Richard T. Ely made numerous contributions to American life. He is widely recognized as a key figure in the development of the reform ideology which characterized the Progressive era. In the 1880s and 1890s he was a leader in the movement to redefine the role of government in solving the nation's economic and social problems. As a researcher his pioneering work in the fields of labor, socialism, public utilities, taxation, and monopolies and trusts outlined areas where reform was needed and paved the way for many Progressive era measures. As a founding member of the Christian Social Union in the United States and through his research and writing he was also a leader of the movement to involve churches in reform.

In academic circles Ely's contributions were no less significant. He was one of a group of scholars who studied at German universities in the 1870s and 1880s and returned to greatly influence the nature of college and university education in this country. He was an academic innovator who had an important role in the modern development of economics and the social sciences. More specifically he literally established the areas of labor economics and labor history, agricultural economics, conservation, real estate, and land economics as fields of academic interest.

Beginning with his celebrated 1894 trial for economic heresy, he was a champion of the cause of academic freedom. Finally, as a teacher and prolific author in both popular and scholarly mediums, Ely was able to exercise considerable influence on his contemporaries. Newton D. Baker, John R. Commons, John H. Finley, Edward A. Ross, Albert Shaw, Ida Tarbell, and Woodrow Wilson are among the long list of his distinguished students. Other leading Progressives, including Robert M. La Follette and Theodore Roosevelt, also freely acknowledged Ely's influence on them.

April 13, 1854	Born at Ripley, New York to Ezra Sterling and Harriet Gardner Ely.
1876	Graduated from Columbia University.
1876-1879	Studied in Germany at universities of Halle and Heidelberg. Received Ph.D. from Heidelberg in 1879.
1881	Joined faculty at Johns Hopkins University.
1883	French and German Socialism in Modern Times published.
June 25, 1884	Married Anna Morris Anderson.
1885-1892	Helped found the American Economic Association and served as its first secretary.
1885-1886	Member of the Baltimore Tax Commission.
1886	The Labor Movement in America published.
1886-1888	Member of the Maryland Tax Commission.
1887-1894	Taught summers at the Chautauqua Assembly.
1888	Taxation in American States and Cities published.
1889	An Introduction to Political Economy published. Revised several times over the next fifty years as Outlines of Economics; this became the largest selling economics textbook in the United States.
1889	Social Aspects of Christianity published.
1891-1894	Helped found the Christian Social Union in the United States and served as its secretary.
1892	Became director of the School of Economics, Politics, and History at the University of Wisconsin.
July 1894	Charged with teaching radical economic doctrines by Oliver E. Wells, the Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction and an ex-officio member of the University's Board of Regents. At hearings held August 20-23, Ely was exonerated by a Regents committee.
1900	Monopolies and Trusts published.
1900-1901	President of American Economic Association.
1903-1905	Undertook study of irrigation and water rights for the United States Department of Agriculture.
1904	Chartered the American Bureau of Industrial Research to prepare a history of American industrial society. Ely raised over 30,000 dollars to finance the effort and brought John R. Commons to Wisconsin to oversee it.
1906-1907	Helped found the American Association for Labor Legislation and served as its president.
1914	Property and Contract in Their Relations to the Distribution of Wealth published.
December 1917	Formed the American Association for Agricultural Legislation, and served as the organization's secretary until it disbanded about 1922.
1918	Served as president of the Madison branch of the Wisconsin Loyalty Legion.
1918	Undertook land use study of northern Wisconsin.
1918-1920	Served as executive committee chairman of the League to Enforce Peace - Wisconsin Branch.
October 1920	Formed Institute for Research in Land Economics (IRLE). The name was later changed to the Institute for Research in Land Economics and Public Utilities.
March 13, 1923	Anna Anderson Ely died.
July 1925	Left University of Wisconsin and, along with IRLE, moved to Northwestern University.
1931	Retired from directorship of the IRLE.
1931	Married Margaret Hale Hahn.
1932	Moved to New York City and formed Institute for Economic Research.
1937	Ely Economic Foundation organized.
1937	Appointed an honorary associate in economics at Columbia University.
1938	Ground Under Our Feet: An Autobiography published.
1939	Moved to Old Lyme, Connecticut, the ancestral home of the Ely family.
October 4, 1943	Died at Old Lyme, Connecticut.