[FAS] Culture and Belief 61:Gender and Science: From Marie Curie to Gamergate

From its inception, Baker Library has collected rare and unique materials that focus on the evolution of business, industry, and culture. Spanning seven centuries, the collections include manuscripts, rare books, photographs, pamphlets, broadsides, photographs, prints, advertising ephemera, and corporate reports. These rich and varied collections support research in a remarkably diverse range of fields.

Historical Collections is in the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room, on the first floor of Baker Library | Bloomberg Center on the center of the Harvard Business School campus. Directions and Maps. 

• The de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room is open Monday through Friday 9 am to 5 pm.

• You will need to complete a registration process when you arrive for your first visit, so please bring your HUID or government issued ID with a photo. There is a check list for visitors that might be helpful for you to review. 

• Although we encourage you to contact the Baker Library Historical Collections staff about your research project, the collection(s)you are interested in, and the dates that you would like to visit, appointments are NOT required. However, some material is stored offsite and does required 2-3 days for retrieval.

• Many, but not all, collections qualify for self service digital camera use, but you can also review the full range of duping services. 

• Most materials do not circulate and must be viewed in the reading room. We do not retrieve any material for reading room use after 4:30 pm. 

• Baker Library Historical Collections has a summary of how to search for the books, serials, archival and manuscript collections, photographs, and other materials in its holdings at http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/findingresources/index.html

• Baker materials are available through HOLLIS+. The HOLLIS+ Location Limiter is Baker Business. There is no limiter just for Historical Collections materials, so use Material Type (Archives/Manuscripts, Image, etc.) or Publication Date to help you.

• If you find a Baker Old Class book of interest through keyword searching, you can virtually browse Hollis Classic for more, similar works by entering the call number as a search term, and using the “other call number” search type.

• If, after using the tools listed on the Finding Resources page, you are unable to locate materials, please contact the Baker Library Historical Collections reference staff. There are several onsite resources that can help you, too.

• Baker LIbrary Historical Collections Staff are happy to help you in person in the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room. Please contact Katherine Fox and Tim Mahoney for more help. 

Women, Enterprise and Society: A Guide to Resources in the Business Manuscripts Collection at Baker Library.

This guide identifies materials in the Business Manuscripts Collection at Baker Library that document women's participation in American business and culture from the 18th through the 20th century. The guide brings to light unexpectedly rich resources for social and cultural history in a wealth of personal writings, in addition to a significant economic record of countless financial and legal documents. The contents and organization reflect specifically the materials that were discovered within Baker Library's manuscript collections, and are meant to provide an overview of the nature and extent of the women’s history resources available. It is not intended to be a comprehensive study of the larger topic of women in business. The relevant collections include hundreds of individual items such as account books, day books, letters, legal documents, and payroll registers. These materials clearly document the extent to which women were an integral part of the fabric of American economic and business life, participating in and contributing to enterprise and society. The guide includes indexes, organized by  name, subject, and date and location.

Polaroid Corporation Records

The Polaroid Corporation, best known for its iconic instant cameras and film, actively recruited and employed women as scientists and researchers from its founding in the 1930s. Female scientists played key roles in the development of Polaroid’s innovative products throughout its history. Baker Library Historical Collections holds the Polaroid Corporation Records, which include documentation of the careers of women at the company. The Polaroid Corporation Legal and Patent Records contain patents held by female Polaroid scientists. The Polaroid Corporation Administrative Records include material that documents the working life of women at the company, circa 1940s-1990s. Resources include survey results, company publications on women’s career possibilities, Employees Committee and other labor-management records, and biographic information about female scientists. 

Building the Foundation: Business Education for Women at Harvard University looks at the early history of business education for women at Harvard University from 1937 to 1970. Relevant documents show how program directors, faculty, and administrators shaped business education for women, preparing them to take their places in the business world where these pioneering graduates would go on to help open doors to formerly unattainable opportunities for generations of women who followed.

Some digital highlights include: 

Oral Histories (video and transcript) with Alumnae who went on to careers in academia, government, and a variety of businesses. 

"Opportunities for Women at the Administrative Level," Harvard Business Review, Vol. 31, No. 1, January-February 1953.

This article summarizes the findings of a study conducted for the Harvard Business School Division of Research committee reviewing the Radcliffe Management Training Program and focuses on the level of demand for women in administrative positions.

A Report on Job Opportunities for Women at the Administrative Level of Organization. [Boston: Harvard University, Graduate School of Business Administration, Division of Research], 1952.

This report is based on a 1952 study by the Harvard Business School Division of Research surveying the demand for women executives in the United States labor market and executives' attitudes about the expanding role of women in business.

"Are Women Executives People?" Harvard Business Review, vol. 43, no. 4, July-August, 1965.

Responding to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Harvard Business Review undertook a broad survey of the attitudes of 2,000 successful executives—half male, half female—toward the role of women in upper levels of management.

"Bridging the Charles: The First Women Graduates of the Harvard Business School, 1960--1965." Drew University, 2009.

This dissertation by a Harvard Business School alumna (HRPBA 1959, MBA 1965) identifies the first women graduates of HBS and examines why they selected graduate study in business administration.

Career Development Survey of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration. [Cambridge, Massachusetts: Radcliffe Institute], 1975.

 Alumnae of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration constituted a pool of 1,200 subjects which Radcliffe Institute researchers drew from in their studies of women interested in developing careers and marketable skills in the period of 1938 to 1963.

Job Study of Graduates of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration. [Cambridge, Mass.]: ca. 1956.

Posing the "troublesome" question facing young women of the time—will graduate study in business be worth the time, money, and effort?—this study examines the experiences of the 664 graduates of the Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration at the time of publication and concludes the answer to the original question is "yes."

American Women: Report of the President's Commission on the Status of Women. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1963.

Created in 1961 by an executive order from John F. Kennedy, the President's Commission on the Status of Women was formed to gather information on issues concerning women's rights. The Commission's issued its report on the status of women in 1963.