Arab American Heritage Month
Explore Baker Library resources with a connection to Arab Americans and business.
Quick Research Resources
Take advantage of Crunchbase's (in-library only) "Diversity Spotlight" feature, where you can filter for U.S. start-ups founded and led by individuals of Middle Eastern/North African descent, which includes Arab Americans.
Use GuideStar Pro to locate nonprofit organizations who list people of Arab descent as a population they serve.
Browse the Encyclopedia of Associations to locate Arab American-affiliated organizations, such as professional societies and trade associations.
Research 30 years worth of publications from The Arab American News.
Review these data visuals from Statista:
Contemporary Collections
Contemporary Collections aim to support the research and curriculum of the Harvard Business School today and into the future. Collection activities focus on the career and professional development needs of our MBA students and alumni, as well as on access to business content to the Harvard University community at large.
Arab-American Almanac
The Arab-American Almanac is a reference guide dedicated to "the Arab-American youth -- [...] who take pride in their rich Arab heritage" (p. 4). The almanac is over 600 pages of Arab contributions to world civilizations, of Arab American organizations, of prominent Arab Americans in major fields, and much more. The 6th and final published version of the almanac can be viewed via ProQuest (select "browse this issue" from the top of the page).
Chapter 10 of the Arab-American Almanac focuses on a century of Arab American achievements and contributions, with one subsection being Business/Finance. Below are some of the featured individuals:
Samir G. Gibara (MBA 1964) served as the President of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. from 1995 to 2000 and served as its Chief Executive Officer from 1996 to 2003. Early corporate filings for Goodyear are part of Baker's corporate reports collection.
Farouk Shami founded Farouk Systems, Inc., a hair care company made popular by its Silk Therapy line of products. Shami's life and business experiences are detailed in his autobiography American by Choice.
A. Robert Abboud, featured in the "Who's Who" section of the Almanac, holds degrees from Harvard College, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Business School (MBA 1958). He held several board and executive level positions throughout his career. He is also the co-author of Money in the Bank: How Safe is It?
Daily News Record
Daily News Record, part of Baker’s microforms collection, was an American fashion trade journal that found early success at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. In 1910, the journal split—Daily News Record continued covering men’s fashion, while women’s fashion moved to a separate publication, now known as Women's Wear Daily (also held at Baker). Over the years, the publication was owned by The Walt Disney Company and later Condé Nast Publications before ceasing in 2008.
Born in Boston to Lebanese American parents in 1950, Joseph Abboud is a prominent world fashion designer, introducing his first menswear collection in 1987. One year prior, on August 19th, 1986, Abboud was featured as the cover subject of Daily News Record. He later made his first front-page appearance in the July 19, 1974 issue of the same publication. More details about his career and business success can be found in Threads: My Life Behind the Seams in the High-stakes World of Fashion.
Special Collections and Archives
Special Collections and Archives collects and makes available the records of business dating from the 14th century to the present and the records of the Harvard Business School since its founding in 1908.
Historic Industry & Trade Literature
The Baker Old Class collection is Baker Library’s first circulating collection. The extensive holdings include trade publications, government documents, corporate histories and publications, and business directories—which are discoverable via HOLLIS. The unique arrangement of the collection brings together books, periodicals, and pamphlets organized by industry.
James A. Clark and Michel T. Halbouty. (1952). Spindletop. Random House. [Back and front cover binding].
One of the industries covered in Baker Old Class is the oil and gas sectors. A prominent figure in this area, Michel T. Halbouty, was a pioneering oil wildcatter of Lebanese descent who discovered more than 50 oil and gas fields. Halbouty's first job in the oil business was as a boy bringing ice water to the drillers at the Spindletop oil field. He revisits the topic of Spindletop in a co-authored work of the same name.
Michel T. Halbouty (ed). (1980). Giant Oil and Gas Fields of the Decade, 1968-1978. American Association of Petroleum Geologists.
Halbouty, a trained geologist and petroleum engineer, demonstrates his expertise in the above spread, detailing the usefulness of Landsat imagery for laying out seismic lines and other surface work in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. The piece highlights Halbouty's connection to the region, for in 1957 he founded Halbouty Alaska Company and became the first independent oilman to strike gas and the first to drill a dry hole in Alaska.