America’s Largest Hotels through Time
The world couldn’t function without the lodging industry. Wayside inns for the traveler have been with us for centuries. The American West was built on stagecoach stops and hotels near the train depot. Today, most Americans have experienced hotels and motels,...
Seeing Change Through History’s Lens
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards” – Steve Jobs The American Business History Center wishes happy holidays to all of our readers. As another year comes to a close, it’s a great time to think back over time,...
The Greatest Businessman in American History: Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. Many management scholars consider Alfred P. Sloan, Jr. as the greatest business leader in American history. If we exclude company founders, Sloan has few...
Six Very Short Stories about Business History
Today we republish an excerpt from the book I wrote twenty-one years ago, including some short but sweet diverse business history stories. The original has been slightly edited and we have added a few more pictures. (The complete book, expanded but only available as...
Forgotten Business Giant: Charles M. Schwab
We are all familiar with the visionary entrepreneur Charles R. Schwab who pioneered the discount stock brokerage industry in the 1970s. But almost no one remembers the unrelated Charles M. Schwab, one of the most important business leaders in American history....
From Hero to Hated: America’s Most Tragic Entrepreneur
This article was first published on the Archbridge Institute website. Few business leaders or entrepreneurs in American history have done more to enable progress and prosperity than Samuel Insull, a name little known today. Yet eighty years ago, he was one of the most...
Walt Disney: Entrepreneur without Peer
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. Preface: A Most Controversial Man In this story, we address the life and work of Walter Elias Disney, one of the most famous men in the world. Telling this story brings...
Workingman’s Friend, Industry Disruptor: The Walter Chrysler Story
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. The year 1921 was one of the worst years in the history of the American automobile business. Many companies folded in a brief but severe post-war recession as prices dropped...
Forgotten Empire Builders: Cleveland’s Van Sweringen Brothers
This week we present another very brief “bullet point biography.” A classic story of shattered dreams. At the American Business History Center, we focus our energies on those companies (and their founders and leaders) which became household names or large...
Required Reading for Those Who Want to Understand How We Got Where We Are
Although little-known outside academia and students of management, the late Alfred Chandler, Jr., was the greatest business historian we have yet seen. His Pulitzer-Prize-winning 1977 book The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business is the...
Baseball, Broadcasting, & Compact Cars: Forgotten Mr. Crosley
Over the last two years or so, we in conjunction with the Archbridge Institute have produced a series of “long-form” biographies of great entrepreneurs. Each of these runs five to seven thousand words and takes twenty to thirty minutes to read. In this...
The Ultimate Rags to Riches Story: Mary Pickford
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. On February 11, 1898, John Charles Smith of Toronto hit his head and died of a cerebral hemorrhage. The Irishman left behind his wife, Charlotte; five-year-old...
The Unsung Story of the Greatest Industrial Designer
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Originals Series. Outside of the field of product and transportation design, too few people know who Raymond Loewy was. The best-known industrial designer, founder of the industrial...
Gail Borden: Texas Pioneer, Quirky Visionary
This article first appeared in the Archbridge Institute’s American Original Series. Born in upstate New York in 1801, Gail Borden was raised there and in Kentucky and Indiana. As a young man, he moved to Mississippi and then Texas in search of...
Henry J. Kaiser: California Dreamer, Workers’ Friend
This article first appeared on June 24, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Despite being often forgotten today, Henry J. Kaiser was one of the most unusual and diverse entrepreneurs in American history. Quitting school at...
Arthur G. Gaston: Entrepreneur Against All Odds
Originally published on ArchbridgeInstitute.org on October 29, 2018 This article first appeared on October 29, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. The grandson of slaves, Arthur George Gaston was born in 1892 in Demopolis, Alabama, to Rosie...
George Westinghouse: Servant Leader, Inventor, Captain of Industry
This article first appeared on February 27, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. His father owned a machine shop, but young George Westinghouse had no interest in doing what he was told. Obsessed with his own inventions and ideas, George...
Adolph Ochs—The Unsung Entrepreneur Who Transformed Journalism
This article first appeared on January 2, 2019 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Along with five younger siblings, Adolph Ochs was raised in poverty in Knoxville, Tennessee, by his scholarly but financially unsuccessful father and...
Kirk Kerkorian: The Risk Taker Who Rose from Poverty to Change Las Vegas and Armenia
This article first appeared on December 14, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. One of the myths about great entrepreneurs is that they love risk and are big gamblers. In fact, they usually do everything they can to reduce risk and are...Business History Books
Books No Results Found The page you requested could not be found. Try refining your search, or use the navigation above to locate the post. The following includes excerpts from Gary Hoover’s book, The Lifetime Learner’s Guide to Reading and Learning. Business...About Us
About Us Progress report as of March 12, 2021: In 2020, our first full calendar year of operation, our weekly newsletters have been read over 90,000 times. The number of pages viewed on this website rose from 1,500 per month at the beginning of 2020 to 9,000 a month...
General Robert Wood: The Forgotten Man Who Changed Sears and the World
This article first appeared on August 22, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Before there was Amazon, there was Sears, Roebuck, using the mail-order catalog where the Internet is used today. Before Walmart...
Brand Man: The HJ Heinz Story
This article first appeared on July 5, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. It’s December 1875. Thirty-one-year-old Henry John “HJ” Heinz is bedridden the entire month with deep depression. On some days, he...
Olive Ann Beech: Queen of the Aircraft Industry
This article first appeared on May 15, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. There are stories that take tragedy to unearth. When the world bears witness to great ability, new awareness changes the narrative of...
Conrad Hilton: The Dreamer Who Conquered an Industry
This article first appeared on April 24, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born to wealth. His father, “Colonel” A. H. “Gus” Hilton, was the leading merchant and trader in the...
Estée Lauder: From One Woman’s Passion to Cosmetics Empire
This article first appeared on February 12, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Today, the Estée Lauder Companies have become among the most important cosmetics companies in the world—against huge odds and...
George Eastman: The Greatest Technology Entrepreneur in U.S. History?
This article first appeared on January 24, 2018 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. The technologies of today are built upon those of the past, and the superstars of our era would be nothing without the great...
J. C. Penney, the Man: A Life of Perpetual Sharing
This article first appeared on December 7, 2017 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. From inauspicious beginnings rose one of the great entrepreneurs in American history, a man with unusual dedication and exceptionally...
Madam C. J. Walker: The Ultimate Self-Made Woman
This article first appeared on October 31, 2017 in The Archbridge Institute’s ‘American Originals’ series. Her Westchester County neighborhood was the home of Vanderbilts, Morgans, and Astors. Jay Gould and John D. Rockefeller had assembled...
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