Experiences of a Century

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. One hundred years of continuous participation in the business life of a community has seemed to us to be of sufficient interest to our friends and clients to warrant some permanent record. We have, therefore, had compiled, from such information as we have been able to secure, a short historical sketch of the activities of our firm with special reference to its connection with the growth of the commerce and business of Philadelphia.<br><br>In the one hundred years covered by this brief review the entire course and nature of our business has been altered from time to time, to conform with the progress and development of the methods of purchase and sale and transportation of merchandise, of the systems of credit and foreign exchange, and of the issuance and sale of Government obligations as well as those of foreign and domestic corporations.<br><br>Acknowledgment should be made of the aid that has been received in the preparation of this sketch from two privately printed volumes: One Hundred Years of Merchant Banking, by John Crosby Brown, and Alexander Brown and His Descendants, by Mary Elizabeth Brown. Further than this various books dealing with merchant shipping and railroads and with the history of Philadelphia have been freely consulted.