About this Collection
The subject files, 1929-1959, of investment banker, financier, public official, and newspaperman Eugene Meyer (1875-1959) relating to his tenure as fifth chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, 1930-1933, consist of correspondence, memoranda, minutes of meetings, copies of congressional legislation, printed material, and other papers (2,134 items; 4,269 images). They represent a part of a larger collection of Meyer's papers available to researchers in the Manuscript Division Reading Room at the Library of Congress.
Representing the scanned contents of five containers (Boxes 117-121), the digitized portion focuses on economic and financial history, corporate finance, currency regulation, foreign trade, and war reparations. It documents early efforts to address the effects of the Great Depression in the country following the stock market crash of 1929.
Other materials relating to Meyer's tenure with the Federal Reserve Board may be found in the larger collection, along with materials pertaining to his business and financial interests ranging from the automobile, airplane, and metals industries to mining, ranching, real estate, and the Washington Post, as well as his personal and family life, connections to the artistic community, philanthropic work, and his interest in mental health issues.
A finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the Eugene Meyer Papers is available online with folder-level links to the digitized content.