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        As a matter of fact, however, the
dissertation is already
available for public review.  University
Microfilms (UMI) has published
Dr. Hamilton's dissertation, without, so far as we
are aware, eliciting
any objection from Bryn Mawr School.  Thus Dr.
Hamilton's research is now in the public domain,
available for purchase (www.umi.com), and a
potential source for quotation or citation by
almost anyone.  It seems
ironic and unfair to us that only Dr. Hamilton,
the dissertation's author,
would prove the exception.

        Reasonable people may differ about Dr.
Hamilton's interpretations
and conclusions, as we do about all subjects of
historical
scholarship.  This is our trade, and this is what
we do.  Part of our
mission is to bring new sources to light and
debate historians' findings
in the marketplace of scholarly ideas.  When the
subjects of scholarly
inquiry engage in the apparently arbitrary
suppression of responsible
scholarly work, it fatally undermines our pursuit
of that mission.  This
case thus possesses larger significance for all of
us who are engaged in
the enterprise of historical scholarship.

        As an educational institution, and one
with a rich and proud
history, you have an obligation to your
students--past, present and
future--to support scholarship and intellectual
inquiry.  Should you
disagree with Dr. Hamilton's interpretations or
conclusions, you have the
right to refute them or to invite other historians
to examine your
archives.  As historians of, and readers of the
histories of, the
country's leading educational institutions, we
know that all have
complicated histories, which are open to a
multiplicity of
interpretations.  This is not to be feared or
avoided.  By leaving the
matter as it now stands, you risk making this
unfortunate
episode the legacy of Bryn Mawr School: a footnote
in the history of
the suppression of academic freedom and historical
debate.

        We earnestly hope that you will reconsider
your earlier decision
and allow The Bryn Mawr School to be remembered
for its tradition of free
and open inquiry in the pursuit of knowledge.  In
the interest of
scholarship and fairness, we urge you to authorize
publication of Dr.
Hamilton's work without further delay.

Sincerely,

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