Museum of American Finance's Blog

Published in the “New Yorker” on 8/3/92
2012.01.094

The Museum of American Finance has humble beginnings. In 1988, founder John Herzog set up an experimental, freestanding exhibit in the historic New York City Customs House (now the Museum of the American Indian). He was inspired to teach economic and financial history after experiencing firsthand the chaos and confusion of the 1987 stock market crash. The trial museum was a success; over 6,000 visitors visited the display of historic financial documents.

It was only after 1989 that MoAF became a tax-exempt organization. In 1992, the Museum moved into its first home at 24 Broadway. The city noticed the new kid on the block and famous New Yorker cartoonist W. Miller honored MoAF with a cartoon on August 3, 1992. The picture is drawn in the signature style of Miller, who was a famous New Yorker mainstay and published his first piece in the magazine in 1961. In the cartoon, a humorless butler announces to his financier boss, “A field anthropologist from the new Museum of American Financial History, sir.”

The Museum has the original cartoon by Miller in its collection. The picture shown above is a direct scan of the cartoon’s print, signed by Miller. The Museum has grown by leaps and bounds since 1992 and financial history is proving to be just as important as ever. It’s only a matter of time until another cartoonist has a go at portraying our beloved MoAF.

Lily Goodspeed is a summer museum intern at the Museum of American Finance and a History major at Brown University. Her twitter handle is @lilygoodspeed. Julia Yeung is also a summer museum intern and attends Pace University studying Business Economics. Her twitter handle is @YeungJulia.