New Exhibition at Baker Library

Baker Library recently opened a new exhibition, Georges F. Doriot: Educating Leaders, Building Companies. The exhibition will run through August 3, 2015 in the North Lobby, Baker Library | Bloomberg Center, Harvard Business School.

The exhibition and related website examines the career of Georges F. Doriot, an educator and a founder of the modern venture capital industry. During his 40-year tenure at Harvard Business School, the charismatic professor taught business and leadership in his celebrated Manufacturing course to nearly 7,000 students. He realized his dream of establishing the first Master of Business Administration program in Europe by helping establish the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD). Doriot learned the art of bringing science and industry together in World War II, where he was responsible for the creation of new products for the welfare of US soldiers. For decades, as president of American Research & Development Corporation (ARD), an early venture capital firm founded in 1946, Doriot fostered the development of startup companies that focused on emerging technologies from computers to pacemakers.

George F. Doriot in classroom, 1963.

The exhibition features selections from the Georges F. Doriot Collection—on permanent loan to Baker Library from the French Cultural Center, Boston—that reveal the ideas and ideals of a man who played a pioneering role in the emergence of the postwar entrepreneurial economy.

Visit http://www.library.hbs.edu/hc/doriot  to view the on-line exhibition and to find materials for further research.

Please contact Baker Library Historical Collections at histcollref@hbs.edu if you would like to request a copy of the exhibition catalog.

For more information about Baker Library Historical Collections visit www.library.hbs.edu/hc/.

Puritanism at the Boston Athenaeum

Rachel Trocchio arrived at the Athenæum yesterday and though jet-lagged, she energetically started studying books by William Perkins that are part of the Kings Chapel Collection. Enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley, Rachel will be at the Athenæum through next week to conduct research for her dissertation, "The Puritan Sublime." She studies late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century theological works through the lens of American Puritanism and plans to return after the holidays. We look forward to hearing about what she learns.

Fellows at the Connecticut Historical Society

This summer, CHS hosted two New England Regional Fellowship scholars with two very different topics. Brendan Gillis, who is completing his Ph.D. at Indiana University, spent two weeks in the Research Center concentrating on our various collections of Justice of the Peace papers and court records from 1760-1800.  He was asking two questions: (1) Did American magistrates begin “molding” English law and tradition to fit their needs in the colonies and when? And (2) How did those practices change because of, and did they have any influence on,  the Revolution? Interestingly, Brendan is finding that although many magistrates served “His Royal Majesty”, they often interpreted the laws to fit the current situation without regard for tradition.

Christine Groeger, from Harvard University, was studying  the rise of credentials between 1870 and 1940. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, people often apprenticed or learned a trade on the job.  Sometime in the 19^th century, it was important to have a degree or a certificate or license to prove one had the requisite skills for a job. Through her research Christine plans on documenting the development of the need for credentials, looking at time, occupation, and gender as determining factors.