A Timely Visit to The Museum of American Finance

Wall Street on a Saturday morning lacks the bustling atmosphere of the trading week, but as of late the ranks of finance have been thinning anyway. On this morning, many tourists were out and about, mostly milling around George Washington's statue in front of Federal Hall and taking pictures of themselves. The museum, down the way on "the street," occupies the building once home to the oldest bank in the country, the Bank of New York. The state bank was founded by Alexander Hamilton, a Founding Father from New York,

The building at 48 Wall that houses the museum dates from the 1920s, and the interior's richness of architectural detail, historical murals, and formality makes it a good venue for the historical visual presentation of money, banking, the stock market, mercantile exchanges, technology and the markets, and more. The Museum of American Finance, founded in 1988, was located in the Standard Oil Building on Broadway until its move here in January of 2008. Because the museum is relatively new at this location, the presentation of information is up-to-date and hip to multimedia presentations.

Other highlights include the artifacts of Wall Street technology - from messenger pigeon to the Bloomberg terminal, the source of our Mayor's wealth; the story of the Buttonwood Agreement, the forerunner of the New York Stock Exchange; the presence of John Thain, the last chair and CEO of Merrill Lynch, with famous tastes in redecorating, as a talking head in the video explaining how stocks are traded; and a beaver pelt in the History of Money exhibit.
The museum needs a few extra panels explaining what has occurred in finance since the autumn of 2008, but I would not be envious of the person assigned that task.
The Museum of American Finance (link to museum website)
48 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005
HOURS:
Open Tuesday - Saturday, 10 am - 4 pm
Closed national and stock market holidays.
Adults $8; Students/seniors $5; Museum members and kids 6 and under FREE
Images by Walking Off the Big Apple from Saturday, February 21, 2009.
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