Abstract
Rhetorical history is a concept that describes the strategic uses of the past in organizations. To date, this literature has not defined the identities, roles and positions of the producers of such rhetorical histories. Our paper challenges the absence of the “rhetorical historian” through a historical-archival study that introduces the earliest known heritage management firm in the US, HM Baker & Associates (HMBA). The firm was run by two women whose pioneering work in establishing the field has been largely forgotten, despite widespread recognition at the time. HMBA employed variations of common rhetorical history practices and generally worked with mid-size firms as they were unable to be hired by larger corporate clients. Our study identifies the exclusion of female rhetorical historians from the professional markers of success, which led to their firm working predominantly with less well-endowed companies, developing relatively cheap, popular and “crappy” uses of the past. These are rendered invisible in the rhetorical history literature as it elides gender and status of the producers of rhetorical histories in favour of focusing on generalisable processes. We argue that gender is an absent presence in this literature which consistently selects male uses of the past as being of higher value and thus ignores the limited involvement of women as historical producers due to the “crappiness” of their rhetorical histories that we attribute to gender-based exclusion.