Description
The print was developed for Moore & Schley, Bankers and Brokers, located in New York, which had opened the previous year. It was probably a promotional item intended to show its sophistication as a national and international business. It bears the following promotional information in the lower border: “Presented by Moore & Schley Bankers and Brokers. 26 Broad St. New York. Connected by private wire with Phila. Baltimore. Washington. Connected by Private wire with Chicago, Boston & Hartford.”
Moore & Schley was co-founded in 1885 by Grant Barney Schley (1845-1917) and banker John G. Moore. Schley was a self-made man with an elementary school education, from the Syracuse, New York, area. He had impressive innate mathematical ability and worked his way up through American Express, and then to First National Bank, where he became head of the bank’s foreign exchange department and married the bank director’s daughter in 1879. He served as Chairman of the Board of the Underwood Typewriter Compan, president of a number of mining companies and as a director of several other large companies. Moore & Schley was involved in the deal forming the American Tobacco Company in 1900. After the Bank Panic of 1907, Moore & Schley was left with a 25 million dollar debt, and was among the firms saved from failure by a trust company bailout orchestrated by J.P. Morgan. In 1975, the company, then a New York-based regional broker, merged with du Pasquier & Company. It was sold by du Pasquier in 1989 and went out of existence.
The publisher, Root & Tinker, produced general interest subjects that could be imprinted with company names to be used as advertising promotions. Read more about Root & Tinker.
References:
O’Brien, Anne. “History of Far Hills.” New Jersey: Bernardsville News. 23 October 1987. Far Hills Borough. http://members.tripod.com/borofarhills/id27.htm (24 July 2003).
“Panic of 1907.” Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. http://www.bos.frb.org/education/pdf/panicof1.pdf (24 July 2003).
