Bass Business History Collection at Bizzell

The Bass Business History Collection at the University of Oklahoma’s Bizzell Memorial Library began in 1955 with the purpose of collecting and preserving materials relating to the history of business and industry. The collection contains books, microforms, videos, and journals on a number of topics, including the histories of business leaders and firms and the economic, social, and political forces that influence the role of business in society.

In addition to a number of general reference items, the Collection houses close to 2000 rare books, as well as manuscripts, including the archives of J. and W. Seligman Company. The Bass Collection also holds the publications from the Retail Intelligence System (formerly known as Management Horizons). Our most recent acquisition is the Robert Kahn Collection on Retailing History.

The Bass Collection is housed separately in the Bizzell Memorial Library with its own security and environmental control systems. The materials in the collection do not circulate and are not available for Interlibrary Loan. All visitors are welcome and staff will provide research assistance to the extent that our resources allow.

-taken from the Bizzell Memorial Library website

In 2018, OU librarian Jeffrey Wilhite published an ebook about the Bass Business History Collection:

Established in 1955, the Harry W. Bass Business History Collection is one of the premiere business history collections in the United States. Begun with the purpose of collecting and preserving materials relating to the history of business and industry, today the collection contains 25,000 books, with approximately 2,000 published before 1850. “Ours Is a Business Civilization”: The University of Oklahoma Bass Business History Collection, with Annotated Bibliography of Fifty Treasures presents a thorough history of the collection, from inception to present, and highlights a wide variety of invaluable Bass Collection resources from the vault.