A HISTORY OF THE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DISSERTATION IN THE UNITED STATES 1861-1930

This study is a documentation of the historical development of the Ph.D. dissertation in the United States. The study explains the history of the Ph.D. dissertation as an emergent of graduate education in America. Since the awarding of the first Ph.D. degrees at Yale University in 1861, the production of doctorates in the United States has increased significantly. In 1967 there was a doctorate awarded for each 10,000 population. There were 20,295 doctorates awarded that year which was one doctorate for each 10,000 population in the United States. It has been projected that 37,000 doctorates would be awarded in the United States in 1980. The growth rate of Ph.D degrees is approximately 7 percent per annum.;The Ph.D. dissertation is considered to be a scholarly exercise in research and may be the most important component of the doctoral program. It is the vehicle with which to transmit results of an independent and original research project.;There is a paucity of literature describing the history of the Ph.D. dissertation which has necessitated the expansion of the literature review to include the history of graduate work and the Ph.D. degree.;A theoretical model, consisting of a matrix of contributing factors which have exercised an external molding process upon the Ph.D. dissertation, is developed in the historical study. The explanation of the dissertation is dependent upon a consideration of origins which have structured higher education. The German influence upon higher education in America is one of the most significant phenomenas in intellectual history.;Graduate work based upon the German university model, emphasizing advanced and original research, did not appear in American higher education in organized form until the founding of Johns Hopkins University in 1876. Sporadic attempts at graduate work were made at numerous universities before that date. Before 1880, thirteen institutions had granted 211 Ph.D. degrees in the United States.;The study details the account of the first Ph.D. degrees awarded, and the oldest Ph.D. dissertation extant, at the nine oldest universities and colleges in the United States, the three oldest purely graduate schools, and the Big Ten institutions.;The emphasis given in dissertation writing to disciplines and subject matter remains virtually unchanged since 1861. The writing style has been developmental and the tendency in dissertations is from quantity to quality, perhaps suggesting shorter documents. Dissertations contribute to the existing body of knowledge and it appears that dissertations as a resource of knowledge are widely used in the diffusion of knowledge.