The Pittsburgh Stock Exchange

By 1898 the New York Stock Exchange was the largest and most important stock exchange in the western hemisphere.  Unlike today, there were once many regional exchanges in the United States, including Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago among others.  As the largest exchange by a fair margin, the great majority of 1898 dollar stamps were used by brokers at the NYSE.  David Thompson and I have been working to complete an exhaustive database of the brokers and firms that might have canceled revenue stamps as a part of their business at the NYSE.  But the pursuit of the stamps used by all those New York brokers has also produced a need to identify cancels that aren't from the NYSE, so I've started to look into the regional exchanges.

The Moody's manuals were first published in 1900 where the members of the NYSE were listed.  But in subequent editions, regional exchanges were added.  Below is the two page list of the members of the Pittsburgh Stock Exchange and its officers from the 1901 Moody's guide.  Like the larger exchanges in Boston, Philly and Chicago, the Pittsburgh exchange had members of NYSE as its members.  NYSE members that were also members of Pittsburgh Exchange include George Whitney of Whitney & Stevenson, Alvin E. Masten, George Darr, of Darr & Moore & Preston & Co (1898 only), Joseph Morris of Morris & Brown, Alexander Robinson of Robinson Brothers, J. L. D. Speer of Speer & Co, and Henry Sproul. 

The complete list of members in 1901:

Over the next few days I'll focus on confirmed and likely Pittsburgh Stock Exchange firms and their cancels.  I'll begin with the stamps shown below.