The New York Stock Exchange

Trading Floor of The New York Stock Exchange,
New York, New York,
Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer,
October 11, 1955.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

On January 4, 1865, The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City. The Corinthian-style structure would serve the Exchange until 1903 when more spacious quarters opened at 18 Broad Street. That trading floor is still used today.

The federal government launched the United States investment market in 1790 when it issued bonds to refinance the Revolutionary War debt. Bank stocks and government bonds constituted most early trading. The canals and railroads that spurred the transportation revolution of the 1820s and 1830s created a concomitant boom in the stock market as private corporations and state governments raised capital through stocks and bonds. The first railroad stock was traded in 1830, and throughout the nineteenth century, railroad stocks dominated the Exchange.

Stock Exchange, Buttonwood Diorama,
Museum of the City of New York, New York City,
Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc., photographer,
June 29, 1945.
Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955

Organization of securities trading began in 1792 when New York merchants and brokers, meeting under a buttonwood tree on Wall Street, agreed to buy and sell on a common commission basis. In 1817, brokers formalized the arrangement by creating the New York Stock & Exchange Board with rented rooms on Wall Street and a constitution specifying appropriate business conduct. Since 1868, membership on the NYSE has been held as a valuable property. New members must purchase existing seats—now limited to a total of 1,366.

Trade in stocks has always taken place outside the Exchange. Well into the twentieth century, securities not listed on the NYSE were traded on the streets around Broad and Wall. Known as "The Curb," the American Stock Exchange traces its roots to those traders officially organized as the New York Curb Agency in 1908. The Curb moved indoors in 1921.

Throughout the nineteenth century, credit and capital struggled to keep pace with rapid expansion. Between 1800 and 1900, five major financial panics hit the United States. Among the worst of these was the Panic of 1873 which inaugurated over five years of economic contraction and left three million unemployed.

• Search the American Memory Photos & Prints collections on the term New York Stock Exchange to locate additional photographs of the Wall Street neighborhood.
• See other Today in History features on events and figures of the economic history of the United States such as the day the stock market fell to its lowest point during the Great Depression, the industrialist Andrew Carnegie, the establishment of the Federal Reserve, and the relationship between the Panic of 1837 to the invention of the sewing machine.
• Read "A Time of Universal Prosperity, and What Came of It," an essay about the effects of the Panic of 1837 on the citizens of the fledgling state of Michigan. This essay is part of Memorials of a Half-Century by Bela Hubbard. The complete text is available online in the collection Pioneering the Upper Midwest: 1820-1910.

The Curb Market, Midsummer, 1902.
Taking the Long View, 1851-1991

Burma

Burial Ceremony of a Priest Near Mandalay,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, 1895.
Around the World in the 1890s, 1894-1896

On January 4, 1948, the British colony of Burma, now Myanmar, became an independent nation after more than sixty years of colonial rule. England had established control of the country in 1885, designating Burma a of province of India. Ten years later, American railroad publicist Joseph Gladding Pangborn led a group of Americans on a tour through the country.

Pangborn organized the World's Transportation Commission in 1894 to gather information about transportation systems for the Field Columbian Museum in Chicago. The Commission which included photographer William Henry Jackson visited Burma in the course of a two-year journey through North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.

Myanmar is located on the eastern coasts of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in Southeast Asia. Thailand (formerly Siam), Laos, China, and India border Myanmar. Much of the terrain is mountainous and heavily forested. Myanmar's rich natural resources include silver, copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, and tin. Tropical rain forests support a wide variety of animal life, including tigers and elephants.

Elephant About to Lift Large Beam, Rangoon,
William Henry Jackson, photographer, March 1895.
Around the World in the 1890s, 1894-1896

William Henry Jackson's photographs of Burma capture everyday life in this predominantly Buddhist country. Jackson photographed everything from men walking on a street and a woman selling refreshments at a railway station, to the emblems of segregation. He also documented the region's impressive architecture. One photo shows the photographer riding in a railroad trolley car.

To further explore The World's Transportation Commission Photograph Collection:

• Browse the Subject Index to examine nearly nine hundred photographs from two dozen countries, or retrace the commission's trip by viewing the photographs from each country in the order listed in the Trip Itinerary.
• Read Today in History features on Sri Lanka, the Suez Canal, and Yosemite to learn more about the World Transportation Commission and photographer William Henry Jackson.
• The Library of Congress Country Studies provide online information about more than eighty-five countries around the world. Search on the names of countries such as China, India, or Thailand to learn more about these nations.

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