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