Susan Henshaw Jones,
Ronay Menschel Director,
Museum of the City of New York
Capital of Capital: Money, Banking, and Power in New York City, 1784–2012 is the first comprehensive book on more than 200 years of banking in Gotham. Given that this history is essential to understanding the rise of the city itself, it is a book that is long overdue. New York’s banks have shaped all aspects of the city’s identity. New York’s financiers further helped catapult the city to national preeminence by the mid-19th century and to global ascendancy in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Since the founding of Alexander Hamilton’s and Aaron Burr’s rival banks after the American Revolution, the story of New York’s financial institutions has also been one of controversy over whether banks symbolize undue consolidation of power or enable growth and opportunity. Covering such important debates and themes, Capital of Capital is crucial reading for understanding the past, present and future of this city of finance.
This book has its origins in the Museum of the City of New York’s 2012 exhibition Capital of Capital: New York’s Banks and the Creation of a Global Economy, which was organized on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the founding of Citi. Then-CEO Vikram Pandit and Edward Skyler, Executive Vice President for Global Public Affairs, appreciated the profound link between their institution, which began as the City Bank of New York in 1812, and New York City. That gave us a wonderful opportunity to examine a topic never before explored in a museum or in print, and Brian Murphy, Assistant Professor of History at Baruch College, served as guest curator. Both the exhibition and the book were made possible by generous grants from Citi, and we are enormously grateful to Vikram Pandit, Edward Skyler, and Citi’s superb liaison team for both projects: Richard Greene, Joan Haffenreffer, Richard R. Gomes, Suzanne Lemakis, and Laura Park.
Many people contributed to the success of this publication. Historian Steven H. Jaffe did a masterful job of authoring the book in collaboration with the City Museum’s Assistant Curator Jessica Lautin, who also was assistant curator for the exhibition. At the City Museum, Deputy Director and Chief Curator Sarah M. Henry guided the authors’ efforts, which were ably aided by researcher-writers Bernard J. Lillis and Daniel London and Curatorial Associate Susan Gail Johnson. The book was strengthened by the careful readings and suggestions of historians Thomas Kessner, Stephen Mihm, Julia C. Ott, and Richard Sylla. We also thank David Cowen, President/CEO of the Museum of American Finance for his collaboration on the exhibition and assistance with the book. Urshula Barbour and Paul Carlos along with Eva Bochem-Shur at Pure+Applied did their usual fine work designing the book, as well as the exhibition.
We are grateful to the individual collectors and archivists at banks, libraries, corporations, historical societies, and other institutions who enabled us to uncover and assemble for the first time objects that would tell such an important story. In particular, Mark Tomasko, American Express, BNY Mellon, the Italian American Museum, and NYSE Euronext provided us with treasures from their collections. Together with items from the Museum of the City of New York, this rich array of images and artifacts help us to understand the intertwined histories of banking and New York City’s growth to become the capital of capital.
James H. Cafferty, Wall Street, Half Past 2 O’Clock, Oct. 13, 1857 (detail), 1858. Oil on canvas (50 × 39½ in).
Museum of the City of New York,
Gift of the Honorable Irwin Untermyer, 40.54
