Biography - The Gilbreths

There is considerable information to be found about Lillian Moller Gilbreth and Frank Butler Gilbreth. They are recognized as pioneers in the field of 'motion study' and they labored together for years to find the "one best way to do work." The purpose of this brief bibliography is to direct you to some of the books by and about the Gilbreths that are found in the Western Libraries. In addition, we provide some citations to sample articles about them as well as a list of doctoral dissertations.
There is an excellent site on the web devoted to them and on that site you will find an extensive bibliography and many other items. See "The Gilbreth Network" at gilbrethnetwork.tripod.com. For a sketch of the "Mother of Modern Management" see the San Diego Super Computer Center's profile in its "Women of Science" collection.

Books by Lillian Gilbreth

Books co-authored by the Gilbreths

Fatigue Study: The Elimination of Humanity's Greatest Unnecessary Waste; A First Step in Motion Study.
BUS stack T58.G45 1917
Applied Motion Study: A Collection of Papers on the Efficient Method to Industrial Preparedness.
BUS stack T60.M65G542 1919
Writings of the Gilbreths - edited y William R. Spreigel
BUS stack HD31.S79 1953
Motion Study for the Handicapped.
DBW stack UB360.G55 1973

Books by Frank Gilbreth

Motion Study: A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workmen
BUS stack T60.M65G55 1911
Primer of Scientific Management.
BUS stack T58.G55 1924
Cheaper by the Dozen.
DBW stack T40.G5G5 1948
Field System.
BUS stack TA210.G5 1973
Innside Nantucket.
DBW stack F72.N2G4

Selected Articles about the Gilbreths

Articles about the Gilbreths can be found easily by using a variety of databases. Here are some samples from one of them. For additional assistance consult with Library staff.

America: History And Life

[These sample citations are from the database:
America: History and Life (Canadian and U.S. History) which covers the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistoric times to the present. It provides citations and abstracts to articles, books, and dissertations. From 1989-forward it also includes citations to reviews of films, videos, and non-print media. ]

Lindstrom, Richard."THEY ALL BELIEVE THEY ARE UNDISCOVERED MARY PICKFORDS": WORKERS, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT. Technology and Culture 2000 41(4): 725-751.
Abstract: "During the 1910's pioneer management consultants Frank and Lillian Gilbreth invented a process using light,
movement, long-exposure still photography, and moving pictures to record the movements of workers. The Gilbreths were two of the earliest and most prominent practitioners of scientific management, and the technological aura of the chronocyclegraph and stereochronocyclegraph pictures helped them establish their authority. Their skill came from placing the photographs and films within the larger narrative about the meaning of work. Workers participated in the process, and this participation gave them an individual identity." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Graham, Laurel D."DOMESTICATING EFFICIENCY: LILLIAN GILBRETH'S SCIENTIFIC
MANAGEMENT OF HOMEMAKERS", 1924-1930. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 1999 24(3):
633-675. Abstract: "Engineer and psychologist Lillian Gilbreth's creation of her career as an efficiency expert
reveals the difficulties women in the early 20th century faced negotiating the conflicting demands of gender roles and business. Left with 11 children to support after the untimely death of her husband Frank in 1924, Gilbreth decided to carry on her husband's work in motion study and efficiency consulting. Prejudice against female engineers was high, so Gilbreth turned to the psychology of "home-making," applying her engineering expertise to design more efficient kitchens and methods of doing housework. Though in reality Gilbreth had little interest in housework, she made it her career because it provided a socially acceptable arena for her skills in which she could support her family." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Lancaster, Jane. "FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH BRING ORDER TO PROVIDENCE: THE INTRODUCTION OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AT THE NEW ENGLAND BUTT COMPANY, 1912-13." Rhode Island History 1997 55(2): 68-84. Abstract: "Discusses the impact of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth on the field of scientific management, focusing on their work at the New England Butt Company, a Providence, Rhode Island, manufacturer of butt hinges and braiding machines. Although both Gilbreths were disciples of scientific management founder Frederick W. Taylor, they deviated from his techniques. Frank Gilbreth developed innovations such as a micromotion system, which measured motion rather than time used, while his wife Lillian incorporated industrial psychology into workplace improvements. This psychological approach was predicated on a view of workers, whom the Gilbreths believed benefited from an improved work environment, that was more optimistic than Taylor's. The Gilbreths' management practices increased worker productivity and satisfaction at New England Butt, but also provoked a split in the scientific management field between the Gilbreths and their supporters and Taylor and his followers". copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Graham, Laurel D. "CRITICAL BIOGRAPHY WITHOUT SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS: AN ENCOUNTER WITH DR. LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH." Sociological Quarterly 1994 35(4): 621-643. Abstract: "The author retraces her research experience in creating a sociological narrative about Lillian Gilbreth (1878-1972), famous industrial engineer, scientific management consultant, and mother of 11 children. As she reflected on how best to characterize Gilbreth's management of women, the author began to question modernist images of self, interests, and power, and to see that her notion of how to write critical, historical biography rested heavily on a binary, modernist conceptual foundation. Her research experience rocked this foundation, convincing her that selves are multiple and interests are malleable, and that the concept of power should be broadened to include disciplinary power that circulates through people rather than belonging to them. The paper affirms the merits of new ways of writing about people that acknowledge their multiple selves without sacrificing the political strength of modernist language." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Liebhold, Peter. "SEEKING "THE ONE BEST WAY": FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH'S TIME-MOTION PHOTOGRAPHS 1910-1924." Labor's Heritage 1995 7(2): 18-33, 56-61. Abstract: "Efficiency experts Frank B.
Gilbreth and Lillian Moller Gilbreth introduced a human element to the pragmatic field of scientific management. Using movie
cameras and cyclegraphs, they recorded individual workers performing their jobs, then reduced each task to "therbligs," the 17 basic motions making up all work. Wasted movements could thus be identified and eliminated, leading to decreased worker fatigue. The Gilbreths' efforts to ameliorate worker conditions while increasing production gave rise to personnel management and the development of industrial relations departments. The Smithsonian Institution's work history collections contain 2,500 "time-motion" photographs taken by the Gilbreths during 1910-24." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Sullivan, Sherry E. "MANAGEMENT'S UNSUNG THEORIST: AN EXAMINATION OF THE WORKS OF LILLIAN M. GILBRETH." Biography 1995 18(1): 31-41. Abstract: "Lillian Moller Gilbreth (1878-1972), a researcher,
management consultant, university professor, and working mother, advanced management theory by introducing a humanistic
approach to the field of scientific management. She emphasized training, motivating, and improving the quality of life of the
average worker long before these ideas came into vogue. As a consultant and university professor, she worked for the
advancement of women, the handicapped, and older workers." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc

Price, Brian. "FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH AND THE MANUFACTURE AND MARKETING OF MOTION STUDY, 1908-1924." Business and Economic History 1989 18: 88-98. Abstract: "Examines the business and
scientific careers of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, who built a very successful management consulting firm based on the study of
human motion. These motion studies, first developed when Frank Gilbreth worked as a building contractor, were undertaken in an effort to optimize production work. The Gilbreths soon found that there was more opportunity in this type of consulting than in construction. During a time when scientific management was the business rage, they were able to present themselves as humane scientists who used their findings to increase harmony between workers and supervisors, labor and management. While they were not as successful as they had hoped (the techniques were sound in theory but difficult to implement), they were still able to attract many customers through excellent marketing."copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc

Alchon, Guy. "LILLIAN GILBRETH AND THE SCIENCE OF MANAGEMENT, 1900-1920." Essays in Economic and
Business History 1989 7: 25-39. Abstract: "Lillian Gilbreth was an important figure in the scientific management movement, but her ideas and work remain largely unexplored by scholars. This results, at least partly, from the inability of prevailing interpretive frameworks to comprehend fully women like Gilbreth. Such second generation social feminists increasingly embraced the ideas of scientific management and social science as tools for the planned reconstruction of economy and home. These "social feminist planners" and their work, however, do not easily fit within today's dominant historiographies, and this article begins an examination of this problem and the new historiographic opportunities it offers." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Bullough, Vern L. "MERCHANDISING THE SANITARY NAPKIN: LILLIAN GILBRETH'S 1927 SURVEY." Signs 1985 10(3): 615-627. Abstract: "Between 1854 and 1914, there were 20 different patents issued for sanitary napkins, and in 1920, Kimberly Clark began making Kotex, using highly absorbent surplus material from World War I. In 1927, Johnson and Johnson asked Lillian Gilbreth, a PhD in industrial psychology, to conduct a survey on sanitary napkins. Three thousand copies were distributed. From the 1,050 returned, Gilbreth noted that comfort, adequate protection, inconspicuousness, disposability, and availability were the most marketable features of sanitary napkins. She also made recommendations to change the size and shape and to play down disposability because of clogged plumbing."copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Eckles, Robert B."THE ORGANIZATION AND PUBLICATION OF THE FRANK B. GILBRETH PAPERS." American Archivist 1966 29(1): 83-85. Abstract: "Describes the contents and problems solved in microfilm publication of select papers of Frank B. Gilbreth (1868-1924) in the library of Purdue University Industrial Engineering Library. Gilbreth was a pioneer in the field of industrial engineering, especially in motion and time studies. Film includes his important publications, materials for courses, notebooks, business correspondence, press releases, and some letters to his wife and children. Excluded was material that did not show the development of his ideas and the conduct of his experiments. The microfilming was done commercially."
copyright ABC-CLIO,Inc.

Nadworny, Milton J. "FREDERICK TAYLOR AND FRANK GILBRETH: COMPETITION IN SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT." Business History Review 1957 31(1): 23-34. Abstract: "A study of the relationship and antagonisms which developed between Frank Gilbreth and Frederick Taylor and his associates between 1907 and 1924. The Taylorites viewed Gilbreth as a competitive threat, and considered his method of micromotion study to be unimportant, or a minor appendage to stopwatch time study. Gilbreth ultimately attacked time study as unscientific and inferior to his own methods. Because of the bitter feelings between the time study and motion study leaders, accomodation between the two techniques in the field of work measurement was gradual and slow. Based on the Frederick W. Taylor Collection at Stevens Institute and the Gilbreth Library of Management at Purdue University." copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Dean, Carol Carlson. "Primer of Scientific Management by Frank B. Gilbreth: A response to publication of Taylor's Principles n The American Magazine." Journal of Management History 1997 3(1): 31-41. Abstract: "Response to the serialized publication of Frederick W. Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) in The American Magazine was in two forms: (a) letters-to-the-editor praising and seeking further information, which became the foundation for Frank B. Gilbreth's Primer of Scientific Management (1912); and (b) highly critical letters, which did not materialize in print but are preserved in the Taylor Collection of Stevens Institute of Technology. This paper describes Gilbreth's "primer" and documents the origins of this seminal book in management history. Further, it gives highlights of several letters-to-the-editor not mentioned in the primer which show that Taylor was selective about the questions addressed in order to control his image and promote his cause. The letters demonstrate that Upton Sinclair was only one of many who questioned the value of scientific management immediately following its introduction to the public in The American Magazine. These letters reflect the transitional time for labor that existed in the early 1900s which provided the environment in which scientific management was conceived". copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Nyland, Chris, and Mark Rix. "Mary van Kleeck, Lillian Gilbreth and the Women's Bureau study of gendered labor law." Journal of Management History 2000 6(7): 306-322. Abstract: "This paper examines the 1928 Women's Bureau report, The Effects of Labor Legislation on the Employment Opportunities of Women. It argues that this was a landmark study, demonstrating that scientific management had the potential to develop into a mature applied social science which could play an important role in the identification, measurement and amelioration of recurrent social problems. It further argues that the report demonstrated the usefulness of scientific management in measuring impartially the effects of gender-specific labor legislation. The paper highlights the instrumental role Mary van Kleeck and Lillian Gilbreth played in bringing feminism and scientific management together and the manner by which they utilized the Women's Bureau report to advance the social and economic interests of women".copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Graham, Laurel. "Lillian Gilbreth and the Mental Revolution at Macy's, 1925-1928." Journal of Management History 2000 6(7): 285-305. Abstract: "As a pioneer of both scientific management and industrial psychology, Lillian Gilbreth was ideally equipped to extend scientific management into the service sector in the 1920s. When her husband and partner Frank Gilbreth died in 1924 and she encountered sex discrimination among industrialists and engineers, she volunteered her consulting services at Macy's department store, a work site rife with gender-based conflict, coordination problems and inefficiency. This paper describes her work with Eugenia Lies, Macy's director of planning, to revamp both the motions and psychological atmosphere of occupations within the store between 1925 and 1928. By uniting an industrial relations approach with personnel management techniques, Gilbreth and Lies made the Gilbreth brand of scientific management useful for the field of retail management."
copyright ABC-CLIO, Inc.

Articles from JSTOR

1.What Do We Ask of Business Education?
Lillian M. Gilbreth
The Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 8, No. 9, Readjustments in Business Education. (May,
1935), pp. 549-554.

2.Units, Methods, and Devices of Measurement Under Scientific Management
Frank B. Gilbreth
The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 21, No. 7. (Jul., 1913), pp. 618-629.

Dissertations about Lillian Gilbreth

The corporate eye: Photography and the rationalization of American culture, 1884--1929
by Brown, Elspeth H., PhD
YALE UNIVERSITY, 2000, 361 pages
9973647
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Rational womanhood: Lillian M. Gilbreth and the use of psychology in scientific management, 1914-1935
by Englander, Susan Lyn, PhD
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES, 1999, 216 pages
9939019
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'Wasn't she the mother in Cheaper By the Dozen': A life of Lillian Moller Gilbreth, 1878-1972
by Lancaster, Jane Lesley, PhD
BROWN UNIVERSITY, 1998, 430 pages
9830474
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LILLIAN MOLLER GILBRETH'S EXTENSIONS OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT INTO WOMEN'S WORK, 1924-1935 (GILBRETH LILLIAN MOLLER, MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS)
by GRAHAM, LAUREL DIANE, PHD
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, 1992, 191 pages
9305539
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FORGOTTEN VOICES: WOMEN IN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
by HICKS, IRIS LYNN NEILL, PHD
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN, 1991, 271 pages
9128249
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ONE BEST WAY: FRANK AND LILLIAN GILBRETH'S TRANSFORMATION OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT, 1885-1940. (VOLUMES I AND II)
by PRICE, BRIAN CHARLES, PHD
PURDUE UNIVERSITY, 1987, 702 pages
8807660
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MANAGEMENT OF WORK: THE CONTRIBUTION OF F. W. TAYLOR AND OTHER PIONEERS TO SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
by SIDDIQI, FARHANA, PHD
THE CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY, 1980, 116 pages
8015622