A 70-Year Journey in the Fortune 500 Time Machine

The 1955 list, our first-ever ranking of U.S. companies by revenue, reveals a lot about how American business once saw itself. It also shows how dramatically the economy and the list have changed.

- MATT HEIMER

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 "The Beauties of the Common Tool"; it includes a full-page picture of a 56-cent crescent wrench. In 1955, Big Business built stuff.