SNEC SIA Visits Baker Library

Tim Mahoney fields questions from SNEC SIA members during our visit to Baker Library, November 17, 2007

Enlightening visit to one of world's great business archives

On November 17, 2007, members of SNEC SIA were given access to one of the most comprehensive archives of business-related documents in the world, Baker Library’s Historical Collections on the campus of Harvard Business School. Our hosts, Katherine Fox and Tim Mahoney, produced collection examples for us to review and gave us a tour of the facilities, including the collection’s stacks and conservation areas.

With items ranging from 15th century incunabula (early books) to contemporary records from companies such as Polaroid, Baker’s collections provide an extraordinary window into the emergence and growth of industrial capitalism. Among the items pulled for us to see:

A hand-written ledger from R.J. Dunn (predecessor to Dunn & Bradstreet) containing the first known reference to a young entrepreneur named “Rockefeller.” The author was favorably impressed with the man’s character, but questioned his business acumen.
A colonial farmer’s account book, from Freetown, Massachusetts, recording barter and labor arrangements.
Photographs documenting the devastating March 1926 floods in Manchester, New Hampshire.
A bid from the Steel & Wire Company to provide materials for an ambitious “East River Suspension Bridge” – what would become more widely known as the “Brooklyn Bridge.”
Papers from the “Ice King,” Frederick Tudor.
Photos from the Industrial Life Photo Collection, including images from Turner Construction documenting Boston’s changing cityscape.

The subsequent tour took us into the environmentally-controlled recesses of the collection itself, where temperature and humidity are carefully regulated to ensure preservation. Our hosts explained the intake and conversation process, and eagerly answered questions regarding acquisitions and access.