Extensive records of the firm of Crosby and Dibblee, general merchants in California after the gold rush of 1849, have been donated to the Baker library of the Harvard Business School. According to F. C. Ayers, Executive Secretary of the Business Historical Society, who arranged the donation, the books will be the first record of business conditions during the Gold Rush that the library has been able to acquire.

The books, which are being given by Harrison Dibblee '96, and Benjamin Dibblee '99, were originally the business records of their father, Albert Dibblee, and number about 150 in all. They consist of ledgers, cash books, correspondence, and bill books, and represent a complete record of the transactions of the company.

The company records are more important than most of the others during the period, partly because of the long space of time which they cover (from 1850 to 1890) and partly because of the wide field of business which the company represented. There are records of prices of everything from groceries and whiskey to nails and machinery, whose fluctuations mark the period of prosperity during the gold rush, and the corresponding depression at its end.

The books will occupy nine cases in the library, and will represent as complete a contemporary record of one section of the country as the library now owns. Work of cataloguing has already started, and they will be ready for the stacks in a few days.