Browse Special Collections and Archives FAQs By Topic

Curriculum & Research Services Fast Answers

Learn more about the resources and services of Baker Library via Curriculum & Learning Services Fast Answers.

Last Updated: Feb 28, 2024     Views: 196

Q.
Founding and early history of HBS

When was HBS founded?


A.

The Harvard Corporation established the Graduate School of Business Administration on March 30, 1908. The first Dean, Harvard economist Edwin F. Gay, helped establish the core curriculum, including courses in accounting, commercial law, transportation (with an emphasis on railroad management), and industrial organization, and later electives in business policy, business history, and business ethics. Eighty students began the program in the autumn of 1908, taking their courses in classrooms on the Harvard campus in Cambridge. HBS’s new campus, across the Charles River from Cambridge, was dedicated on June 4, 1927. For more information about the development of the campus, see Buildings and Campus. You can learn more about the early years of HBS in Jeffrey Cruikshank’s book A Delicate Experiment: The Harvard Business School, 1908-1945.

School publications contain valuable information on the early history of the School. Many of these early publications can be searched online: the Deans Reports; the HBS Alumni BulletinHBS Alumni Bulletin 1925-1941, HBS Alumni Bulletin 1941-1950, and HBS Alumni Bulletin 1951-2001; and HBS Course Catalogs, 1908-1973, and early HBS Yearbooks.

In addition, a number of historical photographs are available through HOLLIS Images; search for “HBS Archives” (in quotation marks) and choose “Baker Business” from the drop-down list of repositories. Please note that some full size images are only available to the Harvard community.

Please Ask Us! or reach out to the Baker Special Collections and Archives Reference Staff directly at specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu if you have questions about the early history of the school or any additional questions about our collections or services.