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© 2003 Smith College. All rights reserved.
The Gilbreth family goes for a ride, circa 1920
Lillian Moller Gilbreth is perhaps most widely known as the mother of the Cheaper by the Dozen family but her talent and groundbreaking influence in the field of industrial engineering is her most remarkable achievement. Lillian Moller was born in 1878 to William Moller, a partner in a large retail hardware business, and Annie Delger. As a youth, she became interested in poetry and pursued her passion as an undergraduate. In 1900, Lillian Moller graduated from the University of California with a degree in British literature. She then attended Columbia University for graduate study in English literature. Two years later she was awarded a Master's degree. In 1903, she met Frank Bunker Gilbreth, a cousin of her chaperone. Frank Gilbreth had risen from an apprentice bricklayer to become a well-known contractor through his labor-saving techniques and ingenuity. The couple married in 1904 and soon thereafter embarked upon a joint career in industrial engineering. After publishing two books, Motion Study (1911) and Primer of Scientific Management (1912), the couple moved from Boston to Providence, Rhode Island where they founded Gilbreth, Incorporated, a consulting engineering firm. Lillian M. Gilbreth received her Ph.D. in industrial psychology from Brown University in 1915. Lillian and Frank Gilbreth were popular lecturers and spoke at many conventions and universities on the subject of motion saving techniques and worker efficiency with respect to both physical ability and psychological variables. Lillian Gilbreth stressed the "human element in management" and believed that the individual worker was more responsive to recognition of good performance than to threats of punishment. This type of positive discipline was integral to the Gilbreth method of management, which they practiced both professionally and also in their domestic life. Between 1905 and 1922, Lillian Gilbreth gave birth to twelve children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood. In 1924, Frank Gilbreth died suddenly of a heart attack. Lillian attempted to continue their consulting business. She experienced so much discrimination in her attempt to go solo in an overwhelmingly male profession, that she began concentrating on issues of homemaking. Gilbreth published two books on the subject, The Home-Maker and Her Job (1927) and Management in the Home (1954). Gilbreth and her husband were also concerned with the needs of disabled individuals. While he was still alive, they published several articles on disabled soldiers and Gilbreth continued this thread by designing equipment and motion saving methods to make household tasks easier for disabled people. She also published two books on this subject, Normal Lives for the Disabled (1933) which she co-authored with Edna Yost, her friend and later biographer, and Straight Talk for Disabled Veterans (1945). Despite the obstacles faced by a woman in the field of engineering, Gilbreth's career flourished. She was appointed professor of management at Purdue University in 1935 and also was a member of the faculty at Newark College of Engineering from 1941-43. She also volunteered for many groups and organizations, including the Girl Scouts of America. Throughout her career, Gilbreth won many awards and was a popular speaker. She died in 1972 at the age of 83.
For more information, see Jane Lancaster's dissertation, Wasn't She the Mother in Cheaper by Dozen: A Life of Lillian Moller Gilbreth, 1878-1972 (1998); Laurel Graham's book, Managing on Her Own (1998); and the American National Biography and Notable American Women.
The Lillian Moller Gilbreth Papers consist of 6.5 linear feet of material dating from the late 1860s through 1999. The collection contains both personal and professional papers. Ernestine Gilbreth Carey, her third daughter, has been instrumental in both the documentation and publicity of her mother's career. Carey is the author of two books that describe her unusual upbringing, Cheaper by the Dozen (1948), which she co-authored with her brother Frank Gilbreth, Jr., and Belles on Their Toes (1950). Carey gathered most of the material in this collection in preparation for a biography of her mother. Many of the documents contain notes that reflect Carey's process as a writer and researcher.
The Lillian Moller Gilbreth Papers at the Sophia Smith Collection are closely associated with the Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Papers also housed here. A more extensive archive of Lillian Gilbreth is located in the Department of Special Collections and Archives at Purdue University Library.
This collection is organized into six series:
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection.
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey's estate owns copyright for unpublished works by Lillian Moller Gilbreth. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright to materials authored by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use" must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Lillian Moller Gilbreth Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
Ernestine Gilbreth Carey (Smith 1929) donated the material in this collection over the course of several years.
Processed by Jack Slowriver and Kathleen Banks Nutter, 2001.
Related material can be found in the Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Papers, Sophia Smith Collection. Additional papers of Lillian Gilbreth are in the Department of Special Collections and Archives, Purdue University Library.
The material in this series is divided into five subseries: General, Writings about Gilbreth, Family, Death, and Awards, commemorations, remembrances, and tributes. The material under the General heading includes notebooks, memorabilia, date books, address books, itineraries, and a curriculum vita.
The Writings about Gilbreth are rather extensive and include scholarly works, articles published in trade magazines, works representing the influence of the Gilbreth method in the field of management, and newspaper clippings. Of particular interest are the scholarly writings by Laurel D. Graham, which discuss Gilbreth's career and the extent of her influence.
The material pertaining to the Gilbreth Family includes a family log, a variety of recollections, and material that reflects the unique Gilbreth method of child-rearing. The daily schedules, typewriting instructions, and especially the "Bi-Man" and "The Ambidextrous" magazines created by the children reflect the ways in which the emphasis on efficient time and motion management characterized the Gilbreth home.
The subseries that pertains to Gilbreth's Death is comprised mainly of obituaries, numerous letters of condolence, and memorial gifts. Arranged alphabetically, the final subsereries, Awards, commemorations, remembrance, and tributes, accounts for nearly half of all the biographical material contained in this series. While Gilbreth received many honors and awards during her lifetime, the bulk of the material represents posthumous recognition. Especially noteworthy is the material pertaining to the 1984 Gilbreth commemorative stamp; Ernestine Carey, Gilbreth's daughter, spearheaded this initiative and the organizational schemes of many of the letters and virtually all of the notes pertaining to this endeavor are Carey's creation.
This series is divided into two subseries, Family and Friends and associates. While there is some correspondence between Gilbreth and her sister, Annie Moller Cross, her husband, and her other children, the bulk of the family correspondence is with her daughter, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey [closed until 2013], dating from 1925, when Carey was a student at Smith College, to 1968, at which point the ailing Gilbreth moved in with her daughter, Ernestine Carey, before taking up her final residence at the Beatitudes nursing home.
The correspondence between Gilbreth and her Friends and associates is sparse, with the exceptions of that with her most prominent protégé, Bo Casten Carlberg, and her long-time friend, Jewel C. Hardkopf.
This series is organized into two subseries, Speeches and Writings. The transcripts of her speeches span the dates of her solo career and provide excellent insight into the specifics of her management theories; they also offer a glimpse of her personality. Gilbreth's personal life is more apparent in her autobiographical writings and the memoir of her husband, The Quest for the One Best Way. This subseries also contains professional writings she authored individually and a selection of those she wrote in collaboration with her husband. Some of the latter bear only the name of Frank Gilbreth as author. These are included because, as Frank himself acknowledged, Lillian's professional input was a factor in virtually everything he published.
This series is divided into the subseries Organizations and Professional activities. Organizations includes reports, programs, and printed material from four professional organizations of which Gilbreth was a member. The material regarding Gilbreth's Professional activities relates her to household innovations and includes printed material, newspaper clippings, articles, and notes by Ernestine Carey.
The photographs in this series include portraits of Gilbreth alone as well as photographs that document her wedding, various family members, residences, and aspects of her professional life.
There are also many photographs documenting the ceremonies that honored Gilbreth after her death. Of particular interest are the numerous images of the eleven surviving Gilbreth children gathered together at the commemorative stamp ceremony.
This series contains an assortment of memorabilia, including Gilbreth's National Women's Hall of Fame medal, material from her wedding gown, a sewing bag, house keys, and a turquoise beret, among other items. Also of interest is the undated 16 mm filmstrip of Gilbreth's speech at Waseda University in Tokyo.
[CLOSED until 2013]
[CLOSED until 2013]