Library Research Guide for American Material Culture

International directory of company histories

Local businesses: exploring their history, by K. Austin Kerr, Amos J. Loveday and Mansel G. Blackford. Nashville, TN: American Association for State and Local History, 1990, 128 p.
Baker Business | Historical Collections -- Reference | HD2785 .K43 1990
Widener | Harvard Depository | HD2785 .K43 1990

Mulligan, W. H., Jr. 1988. A Historical Dictionary of American Industrial Language. NY: Greenwood Press, 332 pp.

List of terms grouped by industry (pp. 281-323); index of institutions and people (pp.331-332).

Sanborn Maps

Stott, P. 1984. A Guide to the Industrial Archeology of Boston Proper. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 66 pp.

and other sources for remains

Thomas' Register of American Manufacturers. 1st-60th ed. NY: Thomas Pub. Co. 1905-2003.
Indexed by material manufactured.
HOLLIS Record
1905/06 available online
HathiTrust (1905/06; 1909/10)

Current Thomas' Register

Search in HOLLIS "Manufactures -- United States -- Directories"

Baker Historical Collections

Appointments are not required, but they do have many materials stored off-site, so it may be best to contact them ahead of time in case they need to request materials for you. For more information about planning a visit there. Contact them at histcollref@hbs.harvard.edu or 617.495.6411.

19th-century R.G. Dun & Co. (a predecessor to Dun & Bradstreet) credit reports on local businesses, created by lawyers reporting on local companies and individuals, running to more than 2,500 volumes arranged geographically. 

Baker Library Historical Collections also has a sizeable trade catalog collection (19th-early 20th century) on machinery, textiles, locomotives, etc. All of the catalogs are in HOLLIS and can be searched for under the form/genre term “trade catalogs.”

A vast accumulation of local business records bulking in late 18th-early 20th with strengths in: labor, records of merchants (e.g., Hancock family), farmer’s account books, early financiers (often with Harvard background). Lots on the China trade.

Baker has thousands of company annual reports(1820-date), with a current collecting focus on Fortune 500 and global companies. Individual reports are not in HOLLIS, but are included in an onsite database. They are starting to acquire sustainability and other types of reports and will soon acquire Stanford and UC Berkeley’s annual report collections.

Other Sources for Annual Reports

LC Subject term is: Corporations Reports

Annual Reports at Academic Business Libraries is a database locating reports of individual companies in nine major collections including Harvard.

Annual Reports to Shareholders: Historical Collections in Libraries, by Judith M. Nixon (Libraries Research Publications. Paper 123 (2010)) offers an overview of corporate report collections

Proquest Historic Annual Reports offers full text of  800 Fortune 500 companies back to 1844.

Columbia Historical Corporate Reports Online Collection 

Historical Corporate Reports (University of Pennsylvania) (1800s-1975)

Bibliographies

Business journals of the United States, ed. by William Fisher. New York: Greenwood Press, 1991, 318 p.
HOLLIS Catalog

Corporate magazines of the United States, ed. by Sam G. Riley. New York: Greenwood Press, 1992, 281 p.
HOLLIS Catalog

Trade, industrial, and professional periodicals of the United States, ed. by Kathleen L. Endres. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994, 467 p. HOLLIS Record

WebWire | Trade Publications by Industry

Periodical Indexes

ABI Inform (1971-) indexes academic management, marketing, and general business journals

Business Source Complete (early 20th century- )

Industrial arts index (1913-57) indexes English-language applied science, technical, trade, and management literature: the literature of practice.
HOLLIS Record
HathiTrust version (Full text 1913-1922)

The UCSF Industry Documents Library is a portal on corporate practices detrimental to public health. Currently covers the tobacco, drug, food, and chemical industries.