Several recent donations of historical materials to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants collections in the J.D. Williams Library at the University of Mississippi have expanded opportunities for accounting research.
These include a large collection of printed materials comprising basically everything published by the Financial Accounting Standards Board from its founding in 1973 through the 1990s, and a small collection of rare accountancy books from Bentley University, accompanied by a two-volume guide to every accounting book published in North American from 1790 through 1934.
The FASB material was collected by J.T. Ball, who first worked for the AICPA, then became head of the FASB when it was founded in 1973, a position he held for 25 years. The rare books from BU in Waltham, Mass., were part of the personal collection developed by Harry Clark Bentley, who founded the business college in 1917 and served as its president until 1953.
“Together, these collections only enhance the University of Mississippi as the ‘go-to place’ for accounting research,” said Dale Flesher, professor and Arthur Andersen Alumni Lecturer in the Patterson School of Accountancy, who was instrumental in moving the AICPA library to Ole Miss in 2001.
Flesher noted that the donation from J.T. Ball provided some materials that are not available in any other library, and some items from the Bentley donation exist at no more than a handful of libraries worldwide.
A third donation consists of two framed lithograph prints of caricatures in prose and verse that satirize two significant international speculative crises in the history of financial capitalism. They represent the South Sea Bubble in England in 1720 and the Mississippi Bubble of John Law in France, also in 1720. The prints are in Dutch because the leaders of both countries were involved in these scandals and would not permit public criticism.
“These prints make some very nasty satirical statements that relate to the rise of corporations and, in fact, initiated the first public audit of a corporation,” said Royce Kurtz, reference librarian and associate professor.
They were donated by Richard Vangermeersch, professor emeritus of accounting at the University of Rhode Island. A prolific writer and researcher, Vangermeersch served as president of the Academy of Accounting Historians. Having worked with Tonya and Dale Flesher in founding the Tax History Research Center at Ole Miss and in other professional efforts, he made the donation in their honor.
“I think the historic prints will add another dimension to the AICPA library at the University of Mississippi, and I am happy to donate them in honor of my friends Tonya and Dale,” he said.
Researchers and others wanting to take advantage of the AICPA collections should visit the AICPA Library Service website, Kurtz said.
“The accounting collections are housed in many locations in the library because rare books, photographs and pamphlets all require unique preservation and handling procedures, but the finding aids for these materials are all brought together on the website,” he said. “It’s the place to start for accounting history research.”