An emeritus professor at Harvard Business School who is a leading expert on the development of the modern corporation, Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. ’40, has donated his collected works to the Historical Collections department of the school’s Baker Library.

The collection, which spans Chandler’s career from 1941 to 2004, features almost all of his lecture notes and professional correspondences. The papers could be significant for researchers tracing the evolution of the many giant corporations whose histories Chandler has chronicled, including chemical company DuPont and automaker General Motors.

Chandler, the Straus professor of business history emeritus, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1978 for “The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business,” published the previous year.

“I have a special collection of books which will remain as a unit,” said Chandler, who once served as president of the Economic History Association. “They will be all in one place.”

Chandler’s colleagues lauded his contributions, highlighting the potential importance of the collection.

“Chandler has recast the way historians understand managerial capitalism,” said Bernard Bailyn, the Adams University professor emeritus at Harvard. “Chandler is an inspiration to those in the field of business history,” Bailyn said.

David S. Lander, who is the Coolidge professor of history and professor of economics emeritus at Harvard, said that Chandler “transformed and, to a great extent, defined the processes of economic development with his emphasis on the role of managerial business units.”

“He has really gone far to explain the success of Western European nations and the United States, which are the nations that have taken the lead in this respect,” Lander said.

Chandler’s influence is not, however, limited to works bearing his own name.  The business historian worked closely with former General Motors chairman Alfred Sloan on his influential autobiography “My Years With General Motors.”

He also served as assistant editor for four volumes of “The Letters of Theodore Roosevelt” and editor for five volumes of “The Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower.”

As Chandler, who works primarily from his home, continues to write articles, his past work will serve as a perpetual influence on business students, Landes said.

Landes called Chandler “one of the great, wise men of economic study.” He added,  “I have high hopes for the students who will be browsing his collection.”