Broad St. Curb Brokers Photo

A scarce photograph by noted New York City commercial photographer Irving Underhill (1872-1960) showing curb brokers trading stocks in the outdoor market on Broad St. in Manhattan's financial district.

During the late-1800s and early-1900s, curbstone brokers conducted trading on the actual street-curbs of financial districts-the most famous curb market being the one pictured here on Broad St. These brokers ran informal, semi-illegitimate stock market enterprises from 1900 to 1921-shouting and gesturing from office windows to the street below, as can be seen in this image. The brokers tended to trade stocks that were especially speculative in nature, as well as stocks in small companies producing iron, textiles, chemicals, etc. In 1921 the outdoor market moved into a new home-the American Stock Exchange at 86 Trinity Place, Manhattan. By restricting risky securities to the curb, the NYSE managed to preserve its reputation while still making a market for these more speculative stocks. Some of the best stocks-such as Coca Cola, General Motors, Shell, Standard Oil, Goldwyn Pictures and Phillip Morris-started on the curb and soon moved inside to the NYSE.

REFERENCES: Daly, Ann. The New York Curb Market... Which Has No Organization Whatever (2018) at gothamcenter.org.

CONDITION: Occasional fading but good tonality overall, light wear to edges.