Overview
The papers of Harvard Business School professor Arthur M. Johnson consist of writing and research and HBS administrative material.
Dates
- Creation: 1912-1968
Creator
- Johnson, Arthur Menzies (1921) (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Materials stored offsite; access requires advance notice. HBS Archives collections require a secondary registration form, please contact specialcollectionsref@hbs.edu for more information.
Extent
24 linear feet (22 cartons, 4 boxes)The papers of Arthur M. Johnson, professor of Business History, cover a period from the late 1950s to the late 1960s with the bulk of the records dating from the early 1960s. Professor Johnson worked under the administrations of Dean Stanley F. Teele (1955-1960) and Dean George B. Baker (1961-1970).
The collection contains research notes, photocopies, bibliographic reference cards, correspondence, letters sent and received, memoranda, financial records, telegrams, maps, audio tapes, transcripts, reports, publications, brochures, postcards, outlines, newspaper clippings, proxies, by-laws, charts, drawings, graphs, annual reports, government documents, legal records, contracts, speeches, field trip reports, contracts, charts and genealogies. These papers document Professor Johnson's research and writing during his HBS tenure as well as speeches made and consultant work. A small amount of teaching, course, and advisor material is included.
The papers in this collection document the various interests of Professor Johnson in his field of business history research with special emphasis on American pipe lines and Boston capitalists and their investment in railroads to expand the growth in the western United States. Of particular note in this collection is the vast background source material used for research including original company files from Prairie Pipe Line Company. Also of interest is material pertaining to Professor Johnson's editorial duties at Business History Review (1963-1967). This collection also includes documents relating to HBS administrative duties involving Baker Library, the Harvard-Newton Project, HBS summer programs, Advanced Management Program and HBS scholarships and fellowships.
Biographical Note:
Arthur Menzies Johnson was born July 24, 1921 in Waltham, Mass. and graduated from Phillips Exeter in 1940. He graduated from Harvard University with a BA in 1944 and a MA in 1948. While working toward his graduate degree, Johnson taught at Thayer Academy (1946-1947) and the Cambridge School (1948-1950). Twice his education was interrupted by military service. Professor Johnson earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 1954, then immediately took a position as assistant professor at the U. S. Naval Academy teaching economics and government. That same year he won the William Beveridge Prize from the American Historical Association for his thesis on American petroleum pipelines (published in 1956). In 1958, Johnson left Annapolis to relocate to Boston and to become assistant professor of business history at Harvard Business School.
While at HBS, Professor Johnson continued his research on pipelines utilizing HBS graduate students, George Harmon and John McArthur, and seasoned researcher, Catherine Ellsworth, to do field work and delve into primary source materials. That book, Petroleum Pipelines and Public Policy, was published in 1967. Other books written during Johnson's tenure at HBS include: Education for Business: The Harvard Business School 1908-1924 (1962), Government-Business Relations: A Pragmatic Approach to the American Experience (1965), Boston Capitalists and Western Railroads: A Study in the Nineteenth Century Railroad Investment Process (with Barry Supple 1967), Winthrop W. Aldrich, Banker, Lawyer, Diplomat (1968), and Case Studies in Business History and Economic Life, First Series (editor 1970). Professor Johnson attained full professorship in 1965 and served as editor of Business History Review from 1963-1967. In 1968 and 1969, Johnson took two consecutive leaves from HBS to organize economics and business courses at the University of Maine in Orono and did not return. In 1969, Johnson was the first person to obtain the title of university professor at University of Maine.
Professor Johnson was married in 1946 to the former Emily Wilford and they had two children: Robert (b. 1957) and Nancy Revell (b. 1960).
Physical Location
ARCFA
Processing Information
Processed: May 1995
By: Carole Foster
Creator
- Johnson, Arthur Menzies (1921) (Person)
- Author
- Baker Library
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- bak00145
Repository Details
Part of the Baker Library Special Collections and Archives, Harvard Business School Repository
Baker Library Special Collections and Archives holds unique resources that focus on the evolution of business and industry, as well as the records of the Harvard Business School, documenting the institution's development over the last century. These rich and varied collections support research in a diverse range of fields such as business, economic, social and cultural history as well as the history of science and technology.
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