I’m stumped. Any of you other googlers (any source would be helpful, actually) think you can find out how many Ph.D.s in Anthropology had been awarded by 1950?
Bell and Howard (formerly UMI) owns ProQuest Digital Dissertations, a database that encompasses all U.S. dissertations, and some foreign ones, from 1861 onward. (It’s subscription only, otherwise I would link to it here.) A search for PhD’s with subject=anthropology prior to 1950 yields 557 citations. That number probably doesn’t include dissertations defended in the last year or so, as it usually takes about that long for submissions to be made and catalogued.
Any particular details I can check for you? Searches can also be done by school and advisor in addition to the usual bibliographic details.