From the HBS Archives:

1. The first class graduated in 1910 with the newly created degree “Master in Business Administration,” which was the first Harvard degree not conferred in Latin.

2. In 1959, the HBS Faculty voted that graduates of the all-female “Harvard-Radcliffe Program in Business Administration” should be permitted to apply for admission to HBS as second-year MBA candidates. Six qualifying women were accepted and three elected to join the class of 1960. The first eight women accepted directly into HBS graduated from the MBA program in 1965.

3. New York banker George F. Baker financed the construction of the Soldiers Field campus, once proposed as a relocation site for MIT. Baker initially pledged $5 million to the project, on the condition that he alone would oversee the building of the entire campus. Construction began in 1925 and the campus was dedicated two years later.

4. Originally, six dormitories and two instructors’ houses were named after Secretaries of the Treasury. In order of service they were: Robert Morris (1781-84), Alexander Hamilton (1789-95), Albert Gallatin (1801-1814), Salmon P. Chase (1861-64), Hugh McCulloch (1864-69, 1884-85), John Sherman (1877-81), Carter Glass (1918-20), and Andrew W. Mellon (1921-32). The eight men were selected in part for the difficult periods through which they served the country. In later years, the school continued this tradition by naming four additional buildings after Treasury Secretaries.

5. Baker Library, the centerpiece of the Harvard Business School campus, is scheduled for renovation beginning in mid-2003. The construction plans call for a modernization and expansion of the current structure, including the addition of a large underground vault. The famous facade will not be altered, however, and future classes can look forward to commemorating their graduations with a traditional photograph on the front steps of the library.

To learn more about the early history of HBS, see Jeffrey L. Cruickshanks’ A Delicate Experiment: The Harvard Business School, 1908-1945, Harvard Business School Press, 1987.