Harvard Business School

On February 10, 1954, almost one half-century after joining the HBS faculty, William Morse Cole gave an interview to HBS archivist R. W. Lovett, and reflected on the founding era of the School. In the late 1890s through the turn of the century, Cole had taught accounting to undergraduates as part of President Eliot's explorations into adding practical subjects to the Harvard College curriculum.

"At that time," Cole recalled, "I gave the [College] course in accounting. That is the time I gave a half-course which did not count toward a degree.  Then the faculty became satisfied that business subjects might be made to fit into an academic schedule, and as a result, the Business School was established on a tentative basis.

"Now, this you may have knowledge of already, but when President Eliot talked with me about offering me an assistant professorship in accounting, he said, 'I want you to understand that this whole thing is tentative.  We have plenty of money to enable the Business School to run for five years, but we have no assurance that it will ever go any farther.  So, I don't want you to give up the job you have to come over here to the Business School to give your time to it without your knowing what the situation is.' I said I was perfectly willing to take the chance."