This is in reply to Martin Tangora's rhetorical
query as to why one should go to the archives regarding
Harvard dissertation approval policy when
rather than just trying to ask Samuelson first
regarding who was on his dissertation committee. What
sources one should turn to in this instance depend
in part on the issue at stake. As I recall, Roy Weintraub's
initial query was not just about who was on Daniel Ellsberg's
and Paul Samuelson's dissertation committees; it also
concerned the general policy of the Harvard Economics
Department during the interwar and immediate post WWII
period regarding dissertation committees. On this latter issue
it seems
to me that consulting University announcements/catalogues
and department minutes etc. as well as with historians
of Harvard could well add information of value beyond what
Samuelson or Daniel Ellsberg (and I did find the
Ellsberg's reply very interesting) could provide. My impression
is that in general, American universities did undergo
changes in dissertation policies over the course of the 20th century.
For example, it is my impression that in the first part
of the 20th century, it was a common requirement that
the dissertation actually be published in some form, sometimes
by a commercial publisher, sometimes in an academic journal
before it would be officially regarded as completed. This is
not the issue at stake here. But again, the original query
seemed to as much about department and university policy
at Harvard as about particular dissertations.

David Mitch