# The History of the American Investor: A Story of the Stock Market from the Business Collections

Just 15 years after the Declaration of Independence and three years after the inauguration of George Washington as the first U.S. President, a group of New York City stock dealers agreed to the first set of U.S. stockbroking rules in 1791. The following year merchants signed the 1792 Buttonwood Agreement, which marked the apocryphal beginnings of the New York Stock Exchange. Participating in the stock market wasn’t always for “the People,” and, much like the highs and lows of the market itself, Americans’ perceptions of the market fluctuated over time.

In this webinar, Library of Congress Business Section staff will look at 250 years of Americans investing in the stock market by showing items from our collections representing six different eras. From 1800s stock market listing statements to turn of the 20th century bucket shop exposés to the Y2K dotcom bubble coverage, join us for a show-and-tell of select Library of Congress collections.

- Kind: Talk
- Year: 2026
- Runtime: 53 min
- By: Burclaff, Natalie
- Genres: History
- Archive: [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/video-12288/)
- Licence or status: Rights statement at the Library of Congress (as the archive states it)
- Credit: Library of Congress
- Who can watch: Tweens profiles and older (the archive gives no rating; placed by Invisible Network from its collection and subjects)

[Watch now](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/watch/archive/loc/video-12288?play=1)