Professor Henrietta Melia Larson worked in the Economics Area from 1965 to 1966.

She worked on a programme in Business History as a Ford Foundation Consultant for six months.

She was born in Ostrander, Minnesota. She held several degrees from St. Olaf's College in Northfield, Minnesota. She graduated with a BA in 1918. Later, she became a High School Teacher for one year at Wheaton, Minnesota. She moved to South Dakota between 1921 and 1922. Here, she taught as an Instructor at the Augustana College in Sioux Falls. She also taught at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas and at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. In 1926, she received her PhD from Columbia University.

Prof. Larson joined the Harvard Business School in 1929 as a Research Associate. In 1939, she was appointed Assistant Professor and in 1942, she became Associate Professor. When she retired in 1961, Prof. Larson was a full time Professor of Business History.

Prof. Larson's research ranged from wheat marketing to investment banking. Her publications include The Wheat Market and the Farmer in Minnesota; Jay Cooke, Private Banker (1936); New Horizons: History of Standard Oil Company, 1927-1950 (1971) and Guide to Business History. Prof. Larson coauthored History of Humble Oil and Refining Company and Casebook in American Business History. In 1938, she was Editor of The Bulletin of the Business Historical Society.

She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in 1943 by St Olaf. In 1947, she was on the original Board of Directors of the Business History Foundation. Their first major project was a multivolume history of Standard Oil of New Jersey and a book on Humble Oil. She was Editor of the Harvard Studies in Business History in 1950.

Prof. Larson was a business historian and the first woman to hold a full professorship at the Harvard Business School.

Date of Birth: September 24, 1894

Date of Death: August 26, 1983