Museum of American Financial History

school group tours

The Museum offers education programs Monday - Friday, 10 am - 3 pm, and can accommodate up to 30 people per group. Groups work with trained museum educators who use inquiry-based discussion to help build critical thinking skills.

Education programs take approximately 90 minutes and are ideal for students of all ages, from elementary school through MBA. The Museum charges a $100 group fee for all guided tours and requires 1 chaperone for each 10 students.

To make an appointment, please e-mail: educator@financialhistory.org.

Chris Catanese, Director of Education and Financial Literacy, teaches students
in the Museum gallery.

lesson from the collection

This example demonstrates the importance of using both primary and secondary sources during research, and utilizes objects from the Museum's collection.

John D. Rockefeller is one of the best known businessmen of all time. He built the Standard Oil Company into the world's largest corporation, became the world's richest man, and its first billionaire. In 1911, the government ruled that Rockefeller had a monopoly on the oil industry, and Standard Oil was broken into 37 smaller companies. Some of the companies, such as Exxon, Mobil, Amoco and Chevron, still exist today. Interestingly, in 1999 Exxon and Mobil merged to form ExxonMobil.

The Museum's former location at 26 Broadway was the Standard Oil building in downtown New York City. The Museum is home to many documents and artifacts pertaining to John D. Rockefeller. The Museum's archives include primary and secondary source materials. Primary sources include letters, financial documents, and papers written or signed by Rockefeller himself, as well as books and articles written by those who knew him. Primary sources also include original artifacts and photographs. Many of these materials were displayed in the Museum's "Rockefeller Rediscovered" exhibit in 1999.

Secondary sources are books and articles that interpret or analyze primary materials. They are usually at least one step removed from the original source. An example of this would be an article or book written about Rockefeller after his death.

Items from the collection: (click on images to enlarge)

Standard Oil Company stock certificate signed by J.D.Rockefeller

Above: Biography of J.D. Rockefeller written by Holliday

Right: Picture of J.D. Rockefeller at 45 years of age

May 21, 1928 issue of Time Magazine with a cover article on J.D. Rockefeller
Biography of J.D. Rockefeller published in 1998

Book written by Ida Tarbell in 1904, based on her own interviews with J.D. Rockefeller
Book written by J.D. Rockefeller

Discussion Questions:

Which of the above resources is an original Rockefeller document?
Which are primary sources?
Which is a secondary source?
Which of these sources will most accurately tell you what Rockefeller was thinking and feeling? Why?
Which resources are the farthest removed from Rockefeller?
Why is it important to use primary resources when doing research?
What are the benefits of secondary sources?
Which source would provide a detached, contemporary look at Rockefeller?
Which resource would provide the historical perspective of the passing of time from the events being described?
Which source provides a journalist's account?

tips for teachers

Here is a list of books that makes up a good bibliography of the history of Wall Street. Look for these titles in your school or community library. The Museum also has copies of these books in our own library. For more information about economic and financial education, check out our links page.

Brown, John Dennis. 101 Years on Wall Street: An Investor's Almanac. Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1991.

Dice, Charles Amos. The Stock Market. McGraw Hill: New York. 1926.

Geist, Charles R. 100 Years of Wall Street. McGraw-Hill: New York, NY. 2000.

Gordon, John Steele. The Great Game. Scribner: New York, NY. 1999.

Klingaman, William K. 1929: The Year of the Great Crash. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.: New York, NY. 1989.

Little, Jeffrey B. & Lucien Rhodes. Understanding Wall Street. Liberty Publishing Co.: Cockeysville, MD. 1980.

McClain, David. Apocalypse on Wall Street. Dow-Jones Irwin: Homewood, IL. 1988.

Michie, R.C. The London & New York Stock Exchanges, 1850-181 4. Allen & Unwin: Boston. 1987.

Shea, George. 40 Years on Wall Street. Dow Jones & Co., Inc.: Princeton, NJ. 1968.

Sobel, Robert. NYSE: A History of the New York Stock Exchange, 1935-1975. Weybright & Talley: New York. 1975.