This collections chiefly consists of research files from Bloomfield's job as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 1941-1958, professional and academic correspondence received or written from 1931-1995, research notes on various topics in international finance, notes for his university classes on the history of economic thought, and research files on the pre-1914 gold standard. The papers document Bloomfield's career as economist and professor of economics, with special emphasis on his work as economic consultant for the United States federal government, particularly for the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, and for the governments of post-World War II South Korea and Indochina. His chief areas of research activity focused on international banking, evaluating foreign aid programs, the pre-1914 gold standard, and economic development in the UK and British Commonwealth countries (including the British West Indies), and economy and banking in Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, the Congo, and Zaire. Substantial materials on the history of economic thought can be found in Bloomfield's teaching files.
The Correspondence series, contains letters received or written by Bloomfield over the period 1931-1995. Arranged in folders chronologically, this substantive collection of letters lends insight into Bloomfield's professional and academic life.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York series contains material pertaining to Bloomfield's first career, spanning 17 years, as an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of NY. For that position, he wrote a number of research memoranda and in-house articles on a wide range of international finance topics. Before World War II, he wrote mostly on economic developments in the UK and British Commonwealth countries, but after the war his research memoranda involved a broader range of topics.
The Pre-1914 Gold Standard series contains research notes for an intended book on the functioning of the international gold standard, 1880-1914. Bloomfield embarked on a year-long research trip to Europe in 1957 on a Rockefeller grant, visiting twelve European central banks, including the Bank of England where he spent over six months. In the end, he did not complete the book, but did write three substantial monographs from his notes: Monetary Policy under the International Gold Standard, 1880-1914 (Federal Reserve Bank of NY, 1959); Short-term Capital Movements under the Pre-1914 Gold Standard (Princeton University Press, 1963); and Patterns of Fluctuation in International Investment before 1914 (Princeton University Press, 1968). Although these books are not in the collection, this series contains one file folder for many countries or geographical areas, including: Switzerland, US, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Egypt, France, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Finland, Denmark, Russia, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, and Hungary.
The History of Economic Thought series is an extensive collection of files on diverse topics in the history of economic thought. After 1974, Bloomfield's research became increasingly devoted to the history of economic thought, and he taught both graduate and undergraduate level classes on the subject at the University of Pennsylvania.
The Research series contains research notes associated with various overseas assignments and trips. Over the period 1949-1984, Bloomfield made numerous trips to developing countries as a consultant, in some cases helping to establish the Central Bank (e.g., South Korea), or in other cases evaluating foreign aid programs to those areas (e.g., Indochina). In addition to notes made in preparation for, and during, these assignments, this series also contains notes for several articles (published and unpublished), speeches, and conferences.
The bulk of the Other Papers series consists of papers from Bloomfield's undergraduate days at McGill University, including one paper written in 1937 for Frank Knight's ECO 305 class at the University of Chicago, titled "Thorstein Veblen and his Analysis of Business Enterprise."
