Harvard Business School Baker Library Exhibit Examines Historical Financial Crises
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BOSTON — A new exhibit, "Bubbles, Panics, and Crashes: A Century of Financial Crises, 1830s-1930s," has opened in the Baker Library I Bloomberg Center on the Harvard Business School campus in Boston. Organized by Baker Library Historical Collections, part of the School's Knowledge and Library Services, the exhibit runs through May 3, 2010. Opening one year after the subprime mortgage crisis, the exhibit documents four major crises that occurred in an earlier, particularly volatile century of economic history. The four crises were so far-reaching that they affected virtually everyone involved in the U. S. market economy. Yet each was so complex that their causes and consequences remain subjects of debate generations later. The financial crises covered in the exhibit include:
The collections' vast array of holdings--including original documents and personal papers--reveal the voices, actions, and experiences of individuals who played a role in precipitating each crisis, those who suffered its ill effects, and those who seized an opportunity to profit from it. 
(Note: Boston's Oriental Bank fell victim tospeculative fever). American bank-note, (private form of currency) 1837-1843. Currency Collection, Baker Library Historical Collections. Photo: Baker Library Historical Collections "This exhibit debuts at a propitious time," said Caitlin Anderson, a Visiting Fellow at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University, who serves as guest curator of the exhibit. "We have had time to gain perspective on the subprime mortgage meltdown, but we're still feeling its impact on many aspects of our lives. Although these prior crises differ in fundamental ways from the current recession, they make it clear that these kinds of events are very much a part of American history." Exhibit Catalog 
(Note: The trigger for the Panic of 1873 "Economists have studied features common to all financial crises. A period of economic growth and rising prices precedes a period of intense speculation enabled by an expansion in the supply of money or credit or both. Then an exogenous shock, or perhaps just a pause in the increase of asset prices, occasions a loss of confidence and a rush to liquidity. Growing numbers of banks, firms, and individuals cannot meet their obligations, and a crisis ensues. The financial crises documented here passed through each of these phases in turn. "…The months since the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008 have seen many earnest entreaties to learn the lessons of history. But given that crises have never developed in precisely the same way twice that may prove a difficult task. "…Historical material can also yield quantitative data that illuminate underlying conditions of which contemporaries may have been unaware. It can challenge traditional interpretations of past crises and may help in understanding our present choices." For more information on the exhibit, "Bubbles, Panics, and Crashes: A Century of Financial Crises, 1830s-1930s" visit www.library.hbs.edu/hc/crises About Baker Library Historical Collections |
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