The Directors of Industrial Research (D.I.R.) is a forum for the exchange of ideas and information on topics of mutual interest for directors of America's foremost industrial research laboratories, formed in 1923. The records of the Directors of Industrial Research are an important collection, primarily because of their documentation of the development of industrial research. These records provide ample opportunity for the study of a powerful elite of corporate researchers, and a close-up view of certain aspects of the relationship between science and big business in the twentieth century.