Broad Street, Great Financial Panic in 1873

Part of the text that accompanies this illustration in the Harper's Weekly, October 11, 1873 (Saturday): The intense excitement that marked the advent of the panic in Wall Street has at length subsided, and the feeling generally prevailing is that the bankers and brokers have passed the worst of it. The doors of the Stock Exchange have remained closed, and aside from the operations of an "independent board" there have been but few transactions in stocks during the week. An effort was made by the governing committee of the Exchange to reopen business on Monday, September 29, but the recommendation failed of approval, as it was not deemed practicable. Another suggestion of the committee, that members should settle their contracts and margins between themselves as rapidly as possible without recourse to the Clearing-house, it is believed was generally adopted, and by this expedient much of the business of the brokers is said to have been adjusted... The suspension of Henry Clews & Co. was announced on Tuesday, and that of Howes & Macy on Wednesday...

This is Broad Street south from Wall St. during the Great Financial Panic of 1873. Wood engraving from a photograph by Rockwood, published in the Harper's Weekly, October 11, 1873. The first New York Stock Exchange building, opened in 1865, is on the right.

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Color version of the illustration above published in the Old New York Yesterday & Today (Henry Collins Brown, 1922). Original title: Looking Down Broad Street, 1873. Additional text: «An interesting view, during "Black Friday, " 1873. The building on the right is the old Wilks Building [in fact the Wilks Building was erected on this site later in 1889-1890], first home of the Western Union Company after its organization by Hiram Sibley and its removal from Rochester in 1860. For many years it was known as "Kiernan's Corner," and had a large clock, in shape of the world, on Wall Street side. The old Morgan building is shown on the corner opposite.»