A. B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University

The College of Commerce and Business Administration at Tulane University was established in 1914 at the urging of the New Orleans Association of Commerce, an influential organization of local business leaders dedicated to improving the civic, industrial and commercial welfare of the city. Convinced that the future growth and prosperity of New Orleans depended upon the establishment of an academically rigorous college of business, 200 members of the association contracted with Tulane to underwrite the cost of establishing a new business school at the university. Morton A. Aldrich, professor of economics and a champion of the effort, was chosen as the college's first dean.

Two years later, Tulane University became one of 16 founding members of AACSB, the nation's leading accrediting body for collegiate schools of business. Other founding members included Columbia University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, New York University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, University of Nebraska, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas, University of Wisconsin-Madison and Yale University.

In 1940, the College of Commerce introduced a Master of Business Administration degree program, and in 1942, the college moved from Gibson Hall, where classes had been held since its founding, to its own dedicated building, Norman Mayer Memorial Hall.

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