Harvard Business School

In April 1912, with Dean Gay's strong encouragement, the "Advisory Committee in Printing"—the group of distinguished local printers who supported the School's sequence of printing courses—discussed a proposal to "erect and equip suitable buildings for a Harvard University Press in which the work involved in printing and publishing books shall be carried out, courses in printing conducted for students in the Business School, and an Institute of Graphic Arts maintained."

Harvard had long had a printing office, but despite the existence of successful university presses at places like Johns Hopkins, Yale, and Princeton, Harvard had cautiously refrained from setting up its own press.  Under pressure from the Business School's Advisory Committee, President Lowell in 1912 authorized a fundraising drive to endow a "Harvard University Press."

Dean Gay had two motives for supporting the effort.  First, he believed strongly that Harvard needed a publishing arm to disseminate the research of its growing faculty, and he became one of its most important champions.  Second, a university press would require physical space and a printing plant.  Such a plant could provide the missing laboratory for Business School students interested in printing and publishing.  

Although the University authorized the creation of the Harvard University Press in 1912, the fundraising drive stalled, and the Press (along with the Business School's printing courses) moved into Randolph Hall.  Falling enrollments in the printing courses in the years leading up to World War I eventually killed off the printing courses.  On the other hand, the Harvard University Press met a happier fate, and has distinguished itself in ensuing decades as a leading scholarly press.