Harold Francis Williamson Sr. (March 21, 1901 – October 25, 1989) was an American business historian, and Professor of American and European economic history at Northwestern University, most known for his 1963 work on the history of the American petroleum industry.[1][2]
Born in Piper, Kansas to Samuel Williamson and Ella Watson, Williamson obtained his AB in economics 1924 from the University of Southern California, where in 1926 he also obtained his MA in economics. In 1930 he obtained a second MA from Harvard University, where in 1936 he obtained his PhD with the thesis, entitled "Edward Atkinson, The Biography of an American Liberal, 1827-1905" on Edward Atkinson.
Williamson had started his academic career teaching economic history at the University of Southern California. After moving to Boston he taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and at Harvard University. In 1948 he was appointed Professor of American and European economic history at Northwestern University, where he worked until his retirement in 1969. In his lectures he "placed the developments of American and European economic history in technological, sociological, geographic, and political context, enlivened with many examples of technological developments."[3]