Louis C. Hunter

{{short description|American economist}}

Louis C. Hunter (1898 – 1984) was a professor of economic history at American University. His most famous work, Steamboats on the Western Rivers, an Economic and Technological History, was published in 1949.Hunter, Louis C. (1949). Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history. Cambridge: Harvard University Press

Hunter grew up in a steamboat culture as he spent his first eighteen years living on the banks of the Ohio River, at Wellsburg, West Virginia, and the Mississippi River, at Moline, Illinois.White, John H. (1993). "Introduction to the Dover edition", Steamboats on the western rivers, an economic and technological history. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications. A biography of Louis C. Hunter by John H. White, Senior Historian Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution. After studying engineering and economic history at Harvard University, he received a doctorate in 1928. For the next twenty years, Hunter was engaged in research for Steamboats on the Western Rivers. In 1952, his scholarship was acknowledged when he was awarded the Dunning Prize by the American Historical Association.

In 1937, Hunter joined the faculty of American University where he was a professor of history until his retirement in 1966.{{cite news|last=Waggoner|first=Walter|title=LOUIS C. HUNTER IS DEAD; A SPECIALIST ON U.S. INDUSTRY|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1984/03/24/obituaries/louis-c-hunter-is-dead-a-specialist-on-us-industry.html|accessdate=2 July 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=24 March 1984}} In 1979, the first volume of his trilogy, A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1780-1930, was published. In 1983, Dr. Hunter was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal by the Society of History of Technology.

Hunter was married and the father of two daughters. Louis C. Hunter died on March 22, 1984.