Before there was a department of political economy or economics at Harvard there was a Division of History and Political Science that continued on to become the Division of History, Government and Economics. Earlier student records for graduate students of economics as well as for the other departments were kept at this divisional and not departmental level. Altogether a total of 45 Ph.D. degrees were awarded at Harvard going up through 1901, not quite a third to men who were or became economists or economic historians.
The following list includes the activity of the Ph.D. alumni, presumably as of 1900-01.
____________________
DIVISION OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL SCIENCE
RECIPIENTS OF THE DEGREE OF PH.D., 1873-1901.
(* deceased)
| Field. | Date. | ||
| 1. | Charles Leavitt Beals Whitney* | History. | 1873. |
| 2. | Stuart Wood | Pol. Sci. | 1875. |
| 3. | James Laurence Laughlin (Prof. Chicago) |
History. | 1876. |
| 4. | Henry Cabot Lodge (Former Instr. Harv., now Senator) |
History. | 1876. |
| 5. | Ernest Young* (Late Prof. Harvard) |
History. | 1876. |
| 6. | Freeman Snow* (Late Instr. Harvard) |
History. | 1877. |
| 7. | Franklin Bartlett | History. | 1878. |
| 8. | Melville Madison Bigelow (Prof. Boston Univ.) |
History. | 1878. |
| 9. | Edward Channing (Prof. Harvard) |
History. | 1880. |
| 10. | Denman Waldo Ross (Lecturer, Harvard) |
History. | 1880. |
| 11. | Samuel Eppes Turner* (once Instr. Philips Exeter) |
History. | 1880. |
| 12. | Frank William Taussig (Prof. Harvard) |
Pol. Sci. | 1883. |
| 13. | Andrew Fiske (Lawyer) |
History. | 1886. |
| 14. | Charles William Colby (Prof. McGill) |
History. | 1890. |
| 15. | Edson Leone Whitney (Prof. Bezonia) |
History. | 1890. |
| 16. | Herman Vanderburg Ames (Prof. Pennsylvania) |
History. | 1891. |
| 17. | Fred Emory Haynes (Charity Work) |
History. | 1891. |
| 18. | Evarts Boutell Greene (Prof. Illinois) |
History. | 1893. |
| 19. | Charles Luke Wells (Recent Prof. Minnesota) |
History. | 1893. |
| 20. | Willian Edward Burghardt DuBois (Prof. Atlanta) |
Pol. Sci. | 1895. |
| 21. | Kendric Charles Babcock (Prof. California) |
History. | 1896. |
| 22. | Howard Hamblett Cook (Statistician) |
Pol. Sci. | 1896. |
| 23. | Theodore Clarke Smith (Prof. Ohio State Univer.) |
Pol. Sci. | 1896. |
| 24. | Guy Stevens Callender (Prof. Bowdoin) |
Pol. Sci. | 1897. |
| 25. | Clyde Augustus Duniway (Prof. Leland Stanford Univ.) |
Pol. Sci. | 1897. |
| 26. | Gaillard Thomas Lapsley (Instr. Univ. Cali.) |
History. | 1897. |
| 27. | Charles Whitney Mixter (Instr. Harvard) |
Pol. Sci. | 1897. |
| 28. | Oliver Mitchell Wentworth Sprague (Instr. Harvard) |
Pol. Sci. | 1897. |
| 29. | George Ole Virtue (Prof. Wisconsin Normal) |
Pol. Sci. | 1897. |
| 30. | Samuel Bannister Harding (Prof. Indiana) |
History. | 1898. |
| 31. | James Sullivan, Jr. (Instr. N.Y. [DeWitt Clinton] High School) |
History. | 1898. |
| 32. | Arthur Mayer Wolfson (Instr. N.Y. [DeWitt Clinton] High School) |
History. | 1898. |
| 33. | Frederick Redman Clow (Prof. Minnesota Normal) |
Pol. Sci. | 1899. |
| 34. | Arthur Lyons Cross (Instr. Michigan) |
History. | 1899. |
| 35. | Louis Clinton Hatch. | History. | 1899. |
| 36. | Norman Maclaren Trenholme (Instr. Pa. State College) |
History. | 1899. |
| 37. | Abram Piatt Andrew, Jr. (Instr. Harvard) |
Pol. Sci. | 1900. |
| 38. | Sidney Bradshaw Fay (Instr. Harvard) |
History. | 1900. |
| 39. | Carl Russell Fish (Instr. Wisconsin) |
History. | 1900. |
| 40. | William Bennett Munro (Instr. McGill) |
Pol. Sci. | 1900. |
| 41. | Subharama Swaminadhan | Pol. Sci. | 1900. |
| 42. | Don Carlos Barrett (Prof. Haverford) |
Pol. Sci. | 1901. |
| 43. | Herbert Camp Marshall | Pol. Sci. | 1901. |
| 44. | Jonas Viles | History. | 1901. |
| 45. | Arthur Herbert Wilde (Prof. Northeastern) |
History. | 1901. |
Source: Harvard University Archives. Division of History, Government & Economics. PhD. Material. Box 1, Folder “PhD degrees conferred, 1873-1901 (Folder 1 of 2).”
Image Source: Harvard Square, ca. 1901-07. History Cambridge webpage “Postcard Series I: Harvard Square”.