Penelope Hartland-Thunberg (June 17, 1918 – October 16, 2004) was an American economist and government official. She was a

United States Tariff Commission The United States International Trade Commission (USITC or I.T.C.) is an agency of the United States federal government that advises the legislative and executive branches on matters of trade. It is an independent, bipartisan entity that analyze ...

member from 1965 to 1969. She received the

Federal Woman's Award The Federal Woman's Award, also known as the Federal Women's Award, was given by the United States Civil Service Commission from 1961 until 1976. The Federal Woman's Award was established by Barbara Bates Gunderson in 1960, while she was serving on ...

in 1965.

Early life and education

Claire Penelope Hartland was born in Massachusetts, and raised in Cranston, Rhode Island, the daughter of William Hartland and Mariah (Marie) Louisa Hartland. She earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Pembroke College in 1940, where she was also president of the student government association, editor of the school newspaper, and captain of the varsity archery team.Buc, Nancy L. (September 7, 1996)
"Penelope Hartland-Thunberg, transcript"
Pembroke Center Oral History Project, Brown University. She completed doctoral studies in economics at

Radcliffe College Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. Considered founded in 1879, it was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and he ...

in 1946. Her dissertation advisor was Wassily Leontief.

Career

Hartland began her career teaching undergraduates at

Wells College Wells College is a private liberal arts college in Aurora, New York. The college has cross-enrollment with Cornell University and Ithaca College. For much of its history it was a women's college. Wells College is located in the Finger Lakes reg ...

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a private liberal arts women's college in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It is the oldest member of the historic Seven Sisters colleges, a group of elite historically women's colleges in the Northeastern United States. ...

, and

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. She moved to Washington, D.C. in 1951, to serve on the President's Council of Economic Advisers staff. She worked as a researcher and analyst at the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

from 1954 to 1966, and from 1970 to 1978. She was the first woman appointed to the United States Tariff Commission, serving from 1965 to 1969. Her appointment was announced on the same day as

Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...

was appointed Solicitor General, and she appears news photographs with Lyndon B. Johnson and Marshall, as another "first". In 1965, Hartland-Thunberg was one of the recipients of the Federal Woman's Award, and she chaired the committee that produced a 1967 report "Federal Woman's Award Study Group on Careers for Women: Progress Report to the President". In 1979, she became Director of Economic Research at the

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

Center for Economic and Strategic Studies, and the William M. School Fellow in International Business, also at Georgetown University. In 1996 she gave an interview to the Pembroke Center Oral History Project at Brown University.

Selected works

Penelope Hartland-Thunberg published monographs on international economics, including the following: * ''Balance of interregional payments of New England'' (1950) * ''Western world under economic stress: The ignored opportunities'' (1975) * ''Botswana: An African growth economy'' (1978) * ''Namibia at the crossroads : economic and political prospects'' (1978, with

Chester A. Crocker Chester Arthur Crocker (born October 29, 1941) is an American diplomat and scholar who served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from June 9, 1981, to April 21, 1989, in the Reagan administration. Crocker, architect of the U.S. p ...

) * ''The political and strategic importance of exports'' (1979) * ''South Korea and the world economy in the 1980s : the problems of the zone of transition'' (1979) * ''Trading blocs, U.S. exports, and world trade'' (1980) * ''Has the U.S. export problem been solved?'' (1981) * ''Government support for exports: A second-best alternative'' (1982, with Morris H. Crawford) * ''Banks, petrodollars, and sovereign debtors: Blood from a stone?'' (1986, with Charles K. Ebinger) * ''China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the world trading system'' (1990)

Personal life

Penelope Hartland married fellow researcher Howard E. Thunberg in 1946. They divorced in 1971. She died in 2004, aged 86 years, in Washington, D.C. Her papers are in the Christine Dunlap Farnham Archive at the John Hay Library, Brown University.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hartland-Thunberg, Penelope 1918 births 2004 deaths American economists Women economists People from Cranston, Rhode Island Pembroke College in Brown University alumni Radcliffe College alumni