The Lehman Brothers Archives contain administrative records, financial documents, trust records, and correspondence. Over 1,200 deal books from 1925-1991, documenting many of the firm’s most notable investment projects are included in the collection.
Archives
The voluminous business records included in the Lehman Brothers archives document the history of the company from 1868 until 2007. The records of the investment firm Kuhn, Loeb & Co. prior to its 1977 merger with Lehman Brothers are also part of these archives. These materials are not a comprehensive record of the company but they represent what is extant of this innovative and influential firm. The business records highlight the administrative and financial activities of Lehman Brothers, and include board meeting minutes, company strategy, financial operations, communications material and reports, and correspondence. Office and client files detail the business practices of Lehman Brothers and Kuhn, Loeb & Co. The bulk of the material dates from the 1960s to the 2000s.
The Lehman Brothers finding aid provides detailed information about the collection and includes a complete inventory of its contents.
Over 1,200 deal books, from 1925-1991, are included in the Lehman Brothers Collection. Investment firms like Lehman Brothers created these large bound volumes in the process of conducting various business transactions including mergers, initial and common stock offerings, and debentures. The volumes contain agreements between the sellers and underwriters, prospectuses and other literature advertising an offer, filings of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and correspondence. The companies represented in the deal books are extremely diverse, from small companies that survived only a few years to Fortune 500 companies that still exist today. The collection testifies to the broad reach Lehman Brothers had in both established and emerging enterprises during the course of its 158-year history.
