An endowment as a way to house the collections, make them grow and keep them alive

When the de Gaspé Beaubien Foundation decided to endow the Historical Collections at Harvard Business School, we wanted to mark the contributions of business families worldwide.

Today, the Historical Collections now have an attractive new home at the heart of Harvard Business School campus, at the entrance to the Baker Library. We are grateful to Harvard to have named this new facility the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room. It is open to graduate students and scholars interested in this important field of study.

Harvard is making progress in expanding the collections with additional bequests. However, more work still needs to be done to attract new donations, notably from business families that have contributed so much to the economies and social fibre of countries all around the world.

Our third objective of sharing the legacy of lessons learned from the Historical Collections with global audiences is progressing but also more difficult to achieve. It will take more work and we are open for suggestions from others in this area.