Papers of James Ford

James Ford (1884-1944), social ethicist, taught at Harvard University from 1909 until his death in 1944. He received his BA from Harvard in 1905 and his MA the following year. Ford took graduate courses at the College Libre des Sciences Sociales in France from 1906 to 1907 and at the University of Berlin in 1907, then received his PhD from Harvard in 1909. That year, Ford joined the Harvard University faculty as an instructor in social ethics; he was promoted to assistant professor in 1913 and to associate professor in 1921. Ford was involved with several government organizations; he was manager of the Homes Registration and Information Division of the United States Housing Corporation from 1918 to 1919; associate director of the President's Conference on Home Building and Home Ownership from 1930 to 1933; and served as a member of the Executive Committee on Hygiene of Housing of the American Public Health Association. He also was executive director of the educational organization Better Homes in America while former President Herbert Hoover served as the organization's president.

Ford studied housing equality and slums within the United States, including housing conditions for African Americans, and he wrote several important works on the subject, including Slums and Housing With Special Reference to New York City History, Conditions, Policy, which he wrote in collaboration with George N. Thompson and Katherine Morrow in 1936. The work discussed their findings of a study relating to general housing problems and slum clearance. He married his frequent co-collaborator Katherine Morrow in 1936. Ford died in 1944.