Alexander E. Cance Papers, 1911-1958
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Special Collections and University Archives, W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts Amherst
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Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
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Alexander E. Cance Papers
Creation of Alexander E. Cance Papers
Time of Creation of Alexander E. Cance Papers
Cance, Alexander E.
Biographical History for: Alexander E. Cance Papers
Biographical Note Alexander E. Cance, Professor and Head of the Agricultural Economics Department at the University of Massachusetts, was born in 1874 in Wisconsin. In 1891 he graduated from the academy of Gale College, Galesville, Wisconsin, and taught physics, mathematics, and science through the next year (1892). From there he went to Macalester College of St. Paul, Minnesota, where he received his B.A. in 1896. For the next three years (1896-1899) he taught Mathematics, Greek, Latin, and English Literature at Avalon College, Missouri. In 1900 he taught Mathematics at Diploma Teachers College, Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Cance then spent three years teaching on the high school level, first at Ganesville, Wisconsin (1901), then as Principal of the Industrial and Farm School, Asheville, North Carolina (1902-1904). Cance then returned to Wisconsin, where he earned the M.A. in Psychology and Education (1906) and his Ph.D. in Economics (1908) from the University of Wisconsin. In the fall of 1909 Cance came to the Massachusetts Agricultural College and initiated his work in Agricultural Cooperation. By 1910 he had organized the first course in "Cooperation in Agriculture" to be offered in the United States. In 1912 he was made the Head of the Department of Agricultural Economics, a post he retained until 1935. Dr. Cance also served in a variety of roles outside the University. In 1913 he was appointed to President Woodrow Wilson's Committee of Seven to Study Cooperation and Credit in Europe. While serving on this committee he visited cooperative leaders in fourteen countries and assisted in the editing of the four volumes published by the U.S. Senate in 1914. In 1916 the Bureau of the Census selected Cance to make a field study and report on Agriculture in Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Directly after the end of World War I, Cance served with the Army Education Corps as Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Beaune, France (1919). Here he taught courses in Agricultural Economics to American servicemen stationed in France. Upon his return to the United States in 1920 he was selected as a delegate to the Hoover Conference on the Economic Crisis, where he served as a member of the Committee for the Agricultural Report. In 1922 he was made Supervisor of Market Research for the United States Department of Agriculture in the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. This was to be Cance's last extended absence from the Massachusetts Agricultural College; he dedicated the rest of his career to expanding the college. Dr. Cance retired in June 1942 from Massachusetts State College (formerly the Massachusetts Agricultural College). He was honored with a D.Sc. by his Alma Mater, Macalester College, in June 1948. The Institute of Cooperation honored him at its 1948 session in Amherst for his lifetime service to the cooperative movement.
Acquired prior to 1972.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The papers document Alexander Cance's distinguished career as professor and Head of the Agricultural Economics Department at the Massachusetts Agricultural College. They include biographical material, a small amount of correspondence (largely professional), addresses, typescripts of articles, an annotated typescript of his book Agricultural Marketing (1916), publications, book reviews, lectures, press notices, research material, lectures and articles by others on agricultural cooperation and economics, and newsclippings. Well-documented and representing the bulk of the collection are Cance's writings. They include a substantial number of addresses (1925-1934; n.d.), articles both in typescript (1912-1926; n.d.) and published (1911-1925), lectures (n.d.), book reviews (1912-1932), and the Carnegie Study of Factors in Agricultural Economics (1914). Other materials include: a Senate Report of the American Commission Investigating Cooperative Agriculture in Europe, entitled "Agricultural Cooperation and Rural Credit in Europe" (1914); a small amount of correspondence concerning Cance's role in the agricultural cooperative movement; and some miscellaneous research material. Largely absent from this collection, with the exception of a few of his lectures, are materials related to his role as a teacher. In addition, these papers include no documentation of Cance's activities as a delegate to the Hoover Conference on Economic Crisis (1920), or his position as Supervisor of Market Research with the United States Department of Agriculture (1922).
The collection is open for research.
Processed by Guy A. McLain Jr, Kenneth Fones-Wolf, 1983 and 1985.
Agricultural economics--Massachusetts.
lcsh
Agriculture--Massachusetts.
lcnaf
University of Massachusetts Amherst. Department of Agricultural Economics.
University of Massachusetts Amherst--Faculty.
series
Series 1. Writings
Biographical materials n.d.
Memoirs of an Irresponsible Executive n.d.
Correspondence 1945-1948
Addresses 1911-1934
Articles 1911-1928
Articles-Typescripts 1910-1919
Articles-Typescripts 1920-1933
Book reviews 1912-1932
Book typescripts 1916, n.d.
Carnegie Study report 1914
Course Lectures n.d.
Course Outlines 1917-1931
Press notices n.d.
Writings-Typescripts n.d.
Series 2. Research Files
Creation of Series 2. Research Files
Time of Creation of Series 2. Research Files
Agricultural Economics-Research 1925
Agricultural Production 1909-1934
Agricultural Production Costs 1916
Agricultural Subsidies 1917
Agricultural Survey- Belchertown 1912
Agricultural-Massachusetts 1913-1925
American Inst. of Cooperation 1932
Banks and Agriculture 1916
Bibliographies 1914-1949
Capper-Volstead Act 1922
Connecticut Valley Tobacco Growers Assoc. 1917-1929
Consumers' Societies 1915
Cooperation-Massachusetts 1918-1928
Cooperative Associations-Massachusetts 1914-1934
Cooperative Legislation 1913-1934
Cooperative Legislation-Massachusetts 1913-1937
Country Life 1927
County Farm Bureau 1914-1919
Credit Unions 1914-1918
Dairy Planning 1925-1929
Disarmament 1926-1933
Egg Selling Exchange 1914
Farm Accounting 1914-1919
Farm Labor 1912-1916
Farm Labor Cooperatives 1912-1914
Farmers' Commercial Assoc. n.d.
Farmers' Cooperative Exchanges 1914-1922
Food Marketing Research 1916-1928
Food Supply 1917
Fruit Growers' Cooperatives 1915-1917
Immigrants 1911-1916
Labor Problems 1918
Land Banks 1915-1917
Land Depreciation 1913-1914
Land Tenure 1911-1922
Land Utilization 1916-1917
Livestock Planning 1920-1925
Manufacturing Investment 1918
Massachusetts Dairymen's Assoc. 1932
Massachusetts Fruit Growers' Assoc. 1920-1923
New England Agricultural Survey n.d.
New England Dairies 1926-1932
New England Institute of Cooperation 1928
New England Milk Producers' Assoc. 1916-1922
Polish Corporation Store 1911
Principles of Cooperation 1915-1923
Rural Credit 1915-1917
Rural Credit Conditions 1916
Rural Credit Legislation 1916
Rural Problems 1920
Rural Social Life 1917-1925
Sovereigns of Industry 1911
State Aid to Agriculture 1915-1920
Statistics-Massachusetts 1910-1925
Student Papers n.d.
Surveys 1915-1920
Tobacco Marketing 1927
Vegetable Marketing Cooperatives 1916-1917
Vermont Cooperative Creameries 1920
World Agriculture Society 1919
YMCA War Work 1918