Kress Collection of Business and Economics Graphic Materials

The Kress Collection of Business and Economics Graphic Materials originated with the acquisition of the Bleichroeder Print Collection and was supplemented by prints from Herbert Somerton Foxwell’s collection. This collection includes over one thousand woodcuts, engravings, etchings, and lithographs, ranging from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

The collection is divided into the following general subject categories:

• views of stock exchanges, banks, mints, and treasuries

• portraits of bankers, statesmen, and financiers

• political and personal satires

• national finance and taxation

• images of money lenders, avarice, corruption, poverty, charity, and anti-Semitism

• prints on speculation and credit

Many prominent artists are represented in the collection, including Breughel, Goltzius, Rembrandt, Hogarth, and Gillray, to name a few.

The Bleichroeder collection was given to the Kress Library of Business and Economics in 1975 by the New York firm of Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder. It was generously presented in memory of Frederick H. Brunner, a member of the firm, who formed much of the collection. Mr. Brunner's love of banking history led him to acquire prints on all aspects of money's influence on humankind.