Episode 4 of 4

First Ph.D. Awards

When: July 1861
Where: New Haven, Connecticut
Part of: Yale establishes the Department of Philosophy and the Arts, the first graduate school in the United States

The school awarded the first three Ph.D.'s in North America at Commencement in July 1861.

At Commencement in July 1861, the school awarded the first three Ph.D.'s in North America to Eugene Schuyler (philosophy and psychology), Arthur Williams Wright (physics), and James Morris Whiton (classics).

Sources

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Wikipedia, revision of 2026-06-01

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