Baker Library at Business School Outranks Most Such Collections In Nation With 153,000 Books

With 153,000 business volumes and an unnumbered collection of pamphlets and corporation records, the Baker Library outranks every similar collection in the country except business collections in the Congressional and New York Public Libraries.

A unique feature of the library is its advertisement collection, in which students who are preparing themselves for berths in advertisement agencies may study the growth of this field from the days when one Benjamin Franklin was urging an unwary public to try the "new, swift coaches to Philadelphia" down to our modern style of ads with the American public daily engrossed in the adventures of the young couple whose romance was blighted until a kind friend mentioned Lifebuoy.

Another prominent study collection of the library is its historical department, containing the records and reports of American industry as far back as 1750. This includes pictures or drawings of early machinery, engravings of industrial leaders, pictures of plants and commercial establishments, and the like.

The Aldrich Library of Finance, containing chiefly the material assembled by the late Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island, is intended as a reading room in banking, finance, and the tariff. In it will be found the classics in these fields, together with the best writings of the recent past relating to these subjects. Homesick students may be comforted at learning that "It is hoped that this room may be used as a pleasant retreat by those who desire to read quietly and comfortably in the fields of banking, financial, and tariff history".

The library building also contains the headquarters of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society, which has interested itself in the preservation of all data dealing with the development of the railways in the United States.

The Business Historical Society likewise has its office within Baker Library, with a Smithsonian complex for preserving all items relating to business history.