FURBER, Holden. Boston 13.3.1903 — Bedford, MA 19.1.1993. U.S. Historian of Colonial India. Professor in Philadelphia. Son of William Henry Furber (1870–1931) and Mabel Harriet Holden (1869–1903). Educated in Boston area (Brookline High School), graduated 1924 from Harvard. Further studies at Queen’s College, Oxford (B.A. 1925, M.A. 1930). Ph.D. 1929 Harvard. Nine years Lecturer at Harvard. In 1934 visited South-East Asia and Ceylon, 1936-37 India, collecting source material. From 1940 Assistant Professor at University of Texas in Austin, but soon in war service, then 1945-48 Associate Professor of History there. From 1948 at University of Pennsylvania, in 1952-73 Professor of South Asia Studies there. In retirement living in Concord, MA. Married historian Elizabeth Chapin (1904–1972) and after her death Lucy Baldwin Richardson (née Marsh, 1912–2005).

Publications: Henry Dundas, First Viscount Melville, 1742-1811. 331 p. O.U.P. 1931; The Correspondence of Sir John Shore, Governor General, with Henry Dundas, President of the Board of Control, 1793–1798. 9+206 p. Cambridge MA 1933.

– John Company at Work: A Study of European Expansion in India in the Late Eighteenth Century. 11+407 p. Cambridge, MA 1948; The Bombay Presidency in the Mid-18th Century. 76 p. L. 1965.

– Rival Empires of Trade in the Orient 1600–1800. 19+408 p. Minneapolis 1976; articles.

– Private Fortunes and Company Profits in the India Trade in the 18th Century. Ed. by Ro. Rocher. 336 p. 1997 (articles).

Sources: N.G. Cassels, Journal of Asian Studies 53, 1993, 812f.; *M.N. Pearson, South Asia 16, 1993, 1f.; family details in findagrave.com; Wikipedia.