— Ch. 1 · A Girl From The City —
Anna Schwartz.
~3 min read · Ch. 1 of 7
Anna Jacobson Schwartz entered the world on the 11th of November 1915 in New York City. Her parents were Pauline and Hillel Jacobson. She moved through her early education with remarkable speed. Graduation from Barnard College came at age eighteen when she earned Phi Beta Kappa honors. Columbia University followed quickly for a master's degree in economics by nineteen years old. Professional work began just one year after that academic milestone. Her first marriage to Isaac Schwartz occurred in 1936. He was a financial officer who also graduated from Columbia. They raised four children together over a long union spanning more than sixty years.
The Bureau Years Begin
Schwartz joined the National Bureau of Economic Research staff in 1941. This organization operated out of an office in New York City where she remained for the rest of her life. Early assignments included brief stints at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Columbia University Social Science Research Council between 1936 and 1941. The bureau focused heavily on studying business cycles during those initial decades. A significant public role emerged in 1981 as staff director of the U.S. Gold Commission. Even physical setbacks like a broken hip and stroke in 2009 did not stop her research output. Distinguished fellow status arrived from the American Economic Association in 1993. Fellowship recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences followed in 2007.British Economy Study