Further Exploration of the Contents in the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad’s Annual Reports: 1857–1893

• In Event: History and Public Interest

Abstract

This paper extends prior research by further studying the publicly available annual reports of a company that was not only one of the first American railroads, and one of the first major corporations in the country, but later became one of the largest trunk line railroad systems. The paper utilizes a single company methodology to longitudinally analyze and assess changes in this company’s annual reporting and financial disclosure practices over 37 year period.
This research methodology is generally accepted by accounting historians and was first developed by Clare (1945) in looking at U.S. Steel. Vangermeersch (1970) and more recently Carduff (2010) also studied U.S. Steel using the same methodology. Vangermeersch (1979) and Previts/Sampson (2000) have applied it to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, while others have applied the same methodology to a variety of public companies in different industries.
This study shows the continued benefit of archival research in providing a meaningful understanding as to how annual reporting and disclosure practices change over time to meet the needs of the company and the various users of the reports.

Author

• Kevin Feeney, SCSU