Syllabi and Examinations

This paper is concerned with the practical side of establishing a continuous and broad historical record of what has been taught to whom by whom as well as when and where. The archival experience of the author has been that course syllabi and exams appear to be the historical artifacts from courses that most often survive to the point of archival storage. An important question is just how well does the limited information in a syllabus and/ or exam reflect actual course content compared to, say, a near-stenographic set of student course notes. A casual comparison for a graduate economic theory course taught at MIT by Paul Samuelson in 1943 is discussed.