THE TICKER
CONNECTING WITH COLLECTIONS
MoAF Acquires the Finance Collection of the R. G. Klein Stock Market Museum and Library
By Gregory DL Morris, Research Associate
Several of the objects on display at the Museum of American Finance’ s new permanent galleries at the Boston Seaport are from the R. G. Klein Stock Market Museum and Library. In many ways, the new facility in Boston is a fulfillment of the vision of Rodney Klein, and he is recognized on the new Museum’ s“ Founder’ s Wall” alongside MoAF founder John E. Herzog. Herzog attended the grand opening in Boston on July 1, as did two of the trustees from the R. G. Klein Museum, Jill and Geoffrey Eicher.
Klein was raised in Massillon, Ohio, and educated at Western Reserve University, Dartmouth College, Columbia University and the University of California. He was a student of Benjamin Graham— the father of value investing— and in his varied career Klein was a finance instructor at UCLA, an economist for Hughes Aircraft and a financial writer whose work appeared in Barron’ s. He also wrote the scripts for more than 400 episodes of“ The World of Money,” a syndicated radio program, and separately created several successful real estate companies.
Klein devoted much of his life to collecting stock market artifacts, financial documents and books. That ultimately inspired the creation of the R. G. Klein Stock Market Museum and Library in Massillon. Over his lifetime, he amassed an abundance of artifacts pertaining to the markets, including ticker tape machines, stock certificates, advertising materials, games, art and more than 20,000 books.
In 2006, Klein purchased Massillon’ s 1913 white limestone former post office building to display his collection. But his deteriorating health and eventual passing in 2009 prevented him from seeing his dream come to fruition. After his death at 73, his high school friend Harold Weatherbee completed the construction, formed the Board of Trustees and maintained the museum for 17 years, all informed by Klein’ s written guidance.
In 2025, the trustees approved the donation of all financial artifacts and a significant portion of its endowment to assist in the creation of MoAF Boston. Objects from the Klein Collection are particularly featured in“ The Future of Finance” exhibit. One of the oldest artifacts is a Western Union Edison Universal Stock Ticker from the 1870s. Invented in 1867 by Edward Calahan, the stock ticker used telegraph and later telephone systems to print abbreviated names of stocks and current trading prices on a strip of paper tape. The system vastly expanded the range of the market by enabling investors to obtain current stock price information without being close to an exchange.
Also on display from the R. G. Klein Collection is a later-model ticker. The Western Union 5A Black Box Quotation Ticker from 1929 was a state-of-the-art model at the time, but the volume of trading on stock exchanges exceeded the capacity of the ticker system on busy days. On October 29, 1929, the worst day of the Great Crash of 1929, the ticker was more than two hours behind. That worsened panic selling because traders had no idea of actual prices.
Other objects on view from the R. G. Klein Collection include a Quotron desk unit from the early 1960s, which was the first device to provide stock prices electronically, rather than by ticker tape; a NASDAQ Quote Machine from the 1970s; an early version of the Pocket Quote Pro from the 1980s; and several stock exchange artifacts, including an annunciator number from the New York Stock Exchange( NYSE)“ Big Board” and an NYSE supervisor hat from the early 20th century.
The Museum of American Finance is proud to honor the legacy of Rodney G. Klein by displaying these objects in its new exhibits. In the coming year, many of the artifacts in this collection will be available on the Museum’ s website at www. moaf. org / collections.
Rodney G. Klein, founder of the R. G. Klein Stock Market Museum and Library.
8 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring / Summer 2026 | www. MoAF. org