Chester Raymond Ham (1890-1949) was a faculty member in Business Administration at WSC for 22 years, from 1927 until his death.
Morris K. “Mike” Snyder (1874-1961) entered WSC as a student in Civil Engineering in 1898. He would be hired as Washington State College faculty in 1905 and remain there for 42 years before retiring. He became head of the department of Civil Engineering in 1930. He also served as mayor of Pullman, Washington while a faculty member, his term running from 1923 to 1926.
The collection consists of two foldered studies, apparent tied to a State College of Washington “Cost of Living Survey” committee asked to evaluate and report on such in the 1930s. Each folder is separately bound.
The first folder is titled “Comparative Living Costs in Pullman, Washington, 1932” and is credited on the cover to professor Chester Raymond Ham. The main body of the report is a ten-page listing of prices in Pullman, often including prices from 1913, 1919, and 1932. These are broken into three general categories: Food, Clothing, and Rent.
The second folder is titled “Cost of Living Survey, 1936” and is credited to M. K. Snyder in his role as chair of the Cost of Living Survey committee. It primarily focuses on comparing cost of living in Seattle vs. in Pullman, but also includes information on Spokane spending by Pullman residents, and summary cost of living comparisons for multiple cities around the state. This is a nine-page report, with three pages of additional correspondence.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply. These unpublished reports should be copyright WSC until 120 years after their creation.
[Item description]
State College of Washington Cost of Living Surveys, 1932-1937 (Cage 5176)
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
The two reports were donated separately to the WSC Libraries. The 1936 report was sent to the head of the WSC libraries in 1944, and the 1932 report was sent to the Libraries by parties unknown (possibly from the Business Administration program) sometime prior to 1959. At some point they were moved to the Owen Science and Engineering Library.
Owen Science and Engineering Library transferred the reports to WSU Libraries’ MASC in fall of 2023.
University Archivist Mark O’English processed this collection in April 2026.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.