This essay originally published in the Sunday, June 9, 2024 edition of the Fortune Archives newsletter.
To leaf through the July 1955 issue of Fortune is to open an Eisenhower-era time capsule—black-and-white photography; cars with tail fins; so many men in neckties. But perhaps the biggest clue that you’ve tumbled out of the 21st-century business world can be found right in the table of contents: Most of the articles are about making physical things.
There’s a feature about airplane engineering. There’s a profile of a pipeline builder. A reporter visits a town whose economy is devoted to making compressors for refrigerators. A photo essay by the legendary Walker Evans extols “Beauties of the Common Tool”; it includes a full-page picture of a 56-cent crescent wrench. In 1955, Big Business built stuff.
The issue also includes the first-ever Fortune 500 list. It is, in a word, basic. There are no photos or graphics. The tiny type is straight out of a Ma Bell phone book. Still, there’s swagger in the endeavor. “Box Score of Business Bigness,” reads the headline of an unbylined accompanying essay.
“Half the free world’s industrial output is produced by the U.S.,” it explains, “and almost exactly half of the U.S. output is produced by 500 corporations.” Fortune set out to rank those “industrials” by revenue. But other sectors—finance, retail, transportation—don’t make stuff, so they’re excluded.
The list’s focus resonated with America’s empire-building postwar mindset. Independent, insightful, impeccably researched, the list quickly caught on, and CEOs discovered that there was cachet in running a “Fortune 500 company.”
By 1995, manufacturing no longer ruled. Big Business still produced wealth and created social goods—but often in ways undreamed of in 1955. That year, Fortune allowed insurance brokers, sneaker stores, and software tweakers to crash the biggest-companies list. Today, as the Fortune 500 celebrates its 70th edition, health care, technology, and retail are its fastest-growing sectors.
That July 1955 issue offers other reminders of what’s changed in 70 years. There are no non-white faces in those black-and-white photos. And the title of a recurring column, “Businessmen in the News,” tells you all you need to know about the gender breakdown. That kind of pale, male monochrome is almost unthinkable in the corporate world of 2024. Women are CEOs of 52 Fortune 500 companies; Black executives lead eight. (It’s not enough, but it’s a start.)
Still, some things haven’t changed. Many Makers of Big Stuff remain. Forty-nine of the original Fortune 500 appear in this year’s edition. And our list is still independent, insightful, and impeccably researched. Like that 56-cent wrench, think of it as a beautiful tool.
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