Judith Blow Williams

Judith Blow Williams
Born	(1890-08-01)August 1, 1890 New York City, U.S.
Died	October 16, 1956(1956-10-16) (aged 66) Merritt Parkway, Connecticut, U.S.
Occupation	Historian
Academic background
Alma mater	Vassar College Columbia University
Thesis	An Introduction to the Literature and Sources for the English Industrial Revolution (1916)
Academic work
Discipline	History
Sub-discipline	Economic history of the United Kingdom
Institutions	Wellesley College

Judith Blow Williams (August 1, 1890 – October 16, 1956) was an American historian who specialized in the economic history of the United Kingdom, publishing the books A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850 (1926) and British Commercial Policy and Trade Expansion, 1750–1850 (1972). She spent four decades as a professor at Wellesley College.

Biography

Judith Blow Williams was born on August 1, 1890 in New York City.[1] Her father Thomas Williams was a publishing executive who was manager of Charles L. Webster and Company.[2]

After receiving her AB at Vassar College in 1912, she moved to Columbia University, where she got her AM in 1913 and eventually her PhD in 1916.[1] Her dissertation was An Introduction to the Literature and Sources for the English Industrial Revolution.[3] She joined the faculty of Wellesley College in 1916 as an instructor in history, and she was promoted to assistant professor in 1920.[1] After spending a year as an American Association of University Women European Fellow (1921–1922), she was promoted to associate professor in 1926 and professor in 1935.[1][4] In June 1956, she retired from Wellesley College after four decades of service.[5]

As an academic, she specialized in the economic history of the United Kingdom. In 1926, she published the bibliography A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850.[6] In 1927 and 1929, she was appointed a Guggenheim Fellow, in both cases to work on research on the industrial revolution in England.[1][7] She wrote scholarly reviews of books on the economic history of the United Kingdom.[8][9][10] In 1935, she published a history of economic relations between the United Kingdom and Argentina in The Hispanic American Historical Review.[11]

On October 16, 1956, four months after her retirement, while driving on the Merritt Parkway, Williams was fatally injured in a head-on collision with former Rhode Island Port Authority member Richard A. Moran.[4]

At the time of her death, Williams was a resident of North White Plains, New York.[4]

Williams was the owner of the master copy of E. W. Kemble's drawing of the titular main character of the Mark Twain novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, where it appeared on the first editions' frontispiece, having been personally gifted it by Twain himself as a young child.[12][2] It later went into the possession of her brother Lessing Whitford Williams, who then donated it to the Mark Twain House.[12]

Publications

• A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850 (1926)[6]
• British Commercial Policy and Trade Expansion, 1750–1850 (1972)[13][14][15]

References

1. "Judith Blow Williams". John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
2. Fellows, Lawrence (January 19, 1976). "Sketch of Huck Finn Returning to Twain's Home". New York Times. p. 31. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
3. "List of Doctoral Dissertations in History now in Progress at the Chief American Universities, December, 1914". The American Historical Review. 20 (2): 488. 1915. ISSN 0002-8762. JSTOR 1835500.
4. "Two Killed, One Hurt In Two-Car Trumbull Crash". Hartford Courant. October 17, 1956. p. 10. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
5. "5 at Wellesley Retire; Service Totals 153 Years". The Boston Globe. June 3, 1956. p. 36. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
6. Reviews of A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850:
   • "We have Received". The Montreal Star. September 18, 1926. p. 7. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
   • Gras, N. S. B. (1927). "Review of A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850". The Economic History Review. 1 (1): 165–166. doi:10.2307/2590680. hdl:2027/mdp.39015031723862. ISSN 0013-0117 – via JSTOR.
   • Lingelbach, William E. (1927). "Review of A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850". The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 131: 188–189. ISSN 0002-7162. JSTOR 1015762.
   • "Review of A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850; The Records of Civilization: Sources and Studies". The Catholic Historical Review. 13 (3): 534–535. 1927. ISSN 0008-8080. JSTOR 25012462.
   • Viner, Jacob (1928). "Review of A Guide to the Printed Materials for English Social and Economic History, 1750–1850". Journal of Political Economy. 36 (1): 177–178. ISSN 0022-3808. JSTOR 1820816.
7. "Guggenheim Fellowships for Two Wellesley Professors". The Boston Globe. April 10, 1929. p. 2. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
8. Williams, Judith Blow (1941). "Review of A Hundred Years of Economic Development in Great Britain". The Journal of Economic History. 1 (1): 108–109. ISSN 0022-0507. JSTOR 2113411.
9. Williams, Judith Blow (1945). "Review of The Great Transformation". The Journal of Economic History. 5 (1): 124–124. ISSN 0022-0507. JSTOR 2113200.
10. Williams, Judith B. (1952). "Review of The Early English Trade Unions: Documents from the Home Office Papers in the Public Record Office". The Journal of Economic History. 12 (1): 88–89. ISSN 0022-0507. JSTOR 2112924.
11. Williams, Judith Blow (1935). "The Establishment of British Commerce with Argentina". The Hispanic American Historical Review. 15 (1): 43–64. doi:10.2307/2506227. ISSN 0018-2168. JSTOR 2506227.
12. "Memorial Gets Drawing of Huck Finn". Hartford Courant. January 18, 1976. p. 1. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
13. Parry, J. H. (1973). "British Commercial Policy and Trade Expansion, 1750–1850. By Judith Blow Williams. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1972. Pp. x + 514. £7". Business History Review. 47 (4): 542–544. doi:10.2307/3113389. ISSN 2044-768X.
14. Steiner, Zara (1974). "Review of British Commercial Policy and Trade Expansion, 1750-1850". The Journal of Modern History. 46 (2): 346–347. ISSN 0022-2801. JSTOR 1877531.
15. Fletcher, Max E. (1976). "British Commercial Policy and Trade Expansion, 1750–1850. By Judith Blow Williams. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. Pp. x, 514. $24.00". The Journal of Economic History. 36 (2): 526–527. doi:10.1017/S0022050700082310. ISSN 0022-0507.