Financial History 156 Winter 2026 | Page 4

The magazine of the Museum of American Finance

in association with the Smithsonian Institution

Issue 156 • Winter 2026( ISSN 1520-4723)

Kristin Aguilera Editor

10 American Adolescence

Growth without guardrails in the Gilded Age.

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Howard A. Baker, Esq. Howard Baker Associates Lawrence A. Cunningham University of Delaware Peter C. Earle American Institute for Economic Research Brian Grinder Eastern Washington University Mark Higgins Index Fund Advisors( IFA) Institutional Gregory DL Morris Freelance Journalist Susie Pak St. John’ s University Arthur W. Samansky The Samansky Group Myles Thompson Columbia Business School Publishing Janice Traflet Bucknell University Robert E. Wright University of Austin Jason Zweig The Wall Street Journal

16 Cracked Foundations

Redlining in the suburbs, 1950s – 1960s.

20 The Banker Who Made America

Thomas Willing and the Panic of 1792.

24 The Rise and Fall of the Conglomerates

The 1950s and 1960s were the heyday of the conglomerate era, but the category is now nearly extinct.

ART DIRECTION Alan Barnett Design

MUSEUM STAFF David J. Cowen, President / CEO Kristin Aguilera, Deputy Director Robert Dinkelmann, IT / Technology Maura Ferguson, Director of Exhibits Gregory DL Morris, Research Associate

Linda Rapacki, Managing Director of Visitor Services and Operations

Mindy Ross, Director, External Relations

Copyright © 2026 by the Museum of American Finance, publisher. All rights reserved.

Financial History is the official membership magazine of the Museum of American Finance.

28 Before the Fed

J. P. Morgan, America’ s lender of last resort.

32 The Buildings Banks Build

An architectural history of New York City’ s most notable bank buildings.

2 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2026 | www. MoAF. org