1 2 3 4<!DOCTYPE html> 5<!--[if lt IE 7]> <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8 lt-ie7"> <![endif]--> 6<!--[if IE 7]> <html class="no-js lt-ie9 lt-ie8"> <![endif]--> 7<!--[if IE 8]> <html class="no-js lt-ie9"> <![endif]--> 8<!--[if gt IE 8]><!--> 9<html class="no-js" lang="en"> 10<!--<![endif]--> 11<head> 12<link href="/-/media/Feature/Experience-Accelerator/Bootstrap-5/Bootstrap-5/Styles/optimized-min.css?t=20250407T154631Z" rel="stylesheet"><link href="/-/media/Base-Themes/Core-Libraries/styles/optimized-min.css?t=20250407T154633Z" rel="stylesheet"><link href="/-/media/Base-Themes/Main-Theme/styles/optimized-min.css?t=20250407T154634Z" rel="stylesheet"><link href="/-/media/Themes/FedHistory/FedHistory/History-2024/styles/optimized-min.css?t=20260526T175609Z" rel="stylesheet"> 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 <!-- Google Tag Manager --> 20
20<script>
vendor: 379 bytes, lines 20-24
20(function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start': 21 new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], 22 j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src= 23 'https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f); 24 })(window,document,'script','dataLayer','
24GTM-KM2SJ6L
vendor: 3 bytes, line 24
24');
24</script>
24 25 <!-- End Google Tag Manager --> 26 27 28 <title>Home | Federal Reserve History</title> 29 30 31<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.federalreservehistory.org"> 32 33 34 35 <link href="/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/newfaviconFRH.ico" rel="shortcut icon" /> 36 37 38 39 40<meta property="og:title" content="Home"><meta property="og:url" content="https://www.federalreservehistory.org/"> 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48<meta property="twitter:title" content="Home"><meta property="twitter:card" content="summary_large_image"> 49 50 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /> 51 52 53<div class="component content"> 54 <div class="component-content"> 55 56<meta content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" http-equiv="Content-Type" /> 57<meta content="IE=Edge" http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" /> 58<meta name="title" content="Home" /> 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 </div> 70</div> 71 72</head> 73<body class="default-device bodyclass"> 74 75 76 77 78 <!-- Google Tag Manager (noscript) -->
vendor: 73 bytes, lines 78-79
78 79 <noscript><iframe src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=
79GTM-KM2SJ6L
vendor: 111 bytes, lines 79-81
79" 80 height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> 81
81<!-- End Google Tag Manager (noscript) --> 82 83<!-- #wrapper --> 84<div id="wrapper"> 85 <!-- #header --> 86 <header> 87 <div id="header" class="container"> 88 <div class="row"> 89 90 91 92<div class="component content"> 93 <div class="component-content"> 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101<style> 102 .header-alert { 103 display: flex; 104 justify-content: space-between; 105 } 106 107 .header-alert p { 108 margin-bottom: 0px; 109 } 110</style> 111<div class="row" style="width: 100vw; margin-left: calc(50% - 50vw); margin-right: calc(50% - 50vw)"> 112 <div class="col-12 alert header-alert fade d-none" role="alert" data-alert-id='a8a17c9c-dd40-4ac2-a444-935bb81a853d' id='header_alert'> 113 <div class="container d-flex justify-content-between"> 114 Our website will undergo scheduled maintenance the week of September 29th. Connection to our website and some of its features may be unavailable. 115 116 117 <button class='close d-flex' style="align-self: center; border: none; background: none; font-size: 2rem;" type='button' data-bs-dismiss='alert' aria-label='Close announcement'><span aria-hidden="true" style="line-height: 1rem;">×</span></button> 118 119 </div> 120 </div> 121</div> 122 123 124<div class="row"> 125 <div class="col-6"> 126 <a href="/" class="d-inline-flex" title="Federal Reserve History logo" tabindex="10"> 127 <img src="/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/FedHistory2024.png?h=105&iar=0&w=201&hash=AEAF022673B4F9A91DEA66FEBEF2BF2D" vspace="10" class="img-fluid d-block mx-auto mx-md-0" alt="Logo" width="201" height="105" style="margin: 10px 0px" /> 128 </a> 129 </div> 130 <div class="d-none d-md-block col-md-6"> 131 <form class="form-inline float-end mt-5" id="siteSearch"> 132 <div class="input-group"> 133 <input class="form-control" type="text" name="search" id="globalHeaderSearchbox" placeholder="Search" title="Search" alt="Submit search"> 134 <button class="btn btn-outline-secondary" type="submit"><i class="fas fa-search"></i></button> 135 </div> 136 </form> 137 </div> 138 <div class="col-4 d-md-none mt-3"> 139 <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-light"> 140 <button class="navbar-toggler" type="button" data-bs-toggle="collapse" data-bs-target="#navbarSupportedContent" aria-controls="navbarSupportedContent" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Toggle navigation"> 141 <span class="navbar-toggler-icon"></span> 142 </button> 143 </nav> 144 </div> 145</div> 146 147<div class="row navbar-row"> 148 <div class="col-12"> 149 <nav class="navbar navbar-expand-md navbar-fed-history px-2 pb-0 mb-2"> 150 <div class="collapse navbar-collapse" id="navbarSupportedContent"> 151 <form class="d-md-none form-inline" id="siteSearchMobile"> 152 <div class="input-group"> 153 <input class="form-control" type="text" name="search" id="globalHeaderSearchboxMobile" placeholder="Search" title="Search"> 154 <div class="input-group-append"> 155 <button class="btn" type="button"><i class="fas fa-search"></i></button> 156 </div> 157 </div> 158 </form> 159 160 161 <ul class="navbar-nav me-auto"> 162 163 164 165 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 166 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown{3D832227-7D6B-43DF-9C8A-62AB26A23557}" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"> 167 Time Periods 168 </a> 169 <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown{3D832227-7D6B-43DF-9C8A-62AB26A23557}"> 170 171 172 173 <a class="dropdown-item" title="Overview" href="/time-period/federal-reserve-history">Overview</a> 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 <div class="dropdown-divider"></div> 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 <a href="/time-period/great-recession-and-its-aftermath" class='dropdown-item'>Great Recession and After (2007-)</a> 195 196 <a href="/time-period/great-moderation" class='dropdown-item'>Great Moderation (1982-2007)</a> 197 198 <a href="/time-period/great-inflation" class='dropdown-item'>Great Inflation (1965-1982)</a> 199 200 <a href="/time-period/treas-fed-accord-to-m
200id1960s" class='dropdown-item'>After the Accord (1951-1965)</a> 201 202 <a href="/time-period/wwii-and-its-aftermath" class='dropdown-item'>WWII and After (1941-1951)</a> 203 204 <a href="/time-period/great-depression" class='dropdown-item'>Great Depression (1929-1941)</a> 205 206 <a href="/time-period/feds-formative-years" class='dropdown-item'>Fed's Formative Years (1913-1929)</a> 207 208 <a href="/time-period/before-the-fed" class='dropdown-item'>Before the Fed (1791-1913)</a> 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 <div class="dropdown-divider"></div> 216 217 218 219 220 221 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/all-essays">List all essays</a> 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 </div> 229 </li> 230 231 232 233 234 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 235 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown{2A52F9A0-4C23-4718-A335-40957A5D48DB}" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"> 236 People 237 </a> 238 <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown{2A52F9A0-4C23-4718-A335-40957A5D48DB}"> 239 240 241 242 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/people/current-fed-leaders">Current Fed Leaders</a> 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 <div class="dropdown-divider"></div> 253 254 255 256 257 258 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/people/time-period">People by time period</a> 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/people/affiliation">People by affiliation</a> 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 <div class="dropdown-divider"></div> 277 278 279 280 281 282 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/people">List All People</a> 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 </div> 290 </li> 291 292 293 294 295 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 296 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdown{0D5431AA-088E-4AE6-BAAB-315FC4CA819E}" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"> 297 Topics 298 </a> 299 <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdown{0D5431AA-088E-4AE6-BAAB-315FC4CA819E}"> 300 301 302 303 <a class="dropdown-item" title="Introduction" href="/topics">Browse by Topic</a> 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/topics/fed-stru
311cture">Structure of the Fed</a> 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/topics/fed-functions">Purposes and Functions</a> 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 </div> 327 </li> 328 329 330 331 332 <li class="nav-item"> 333 <a class="nav-link fw-bold" href="/historians-corner">Historian's Corner</a> 334 </li> 335 336 337 </ul> 338 339 340 341 <ul class="navbar-nav ms-auto"> 342 <li class="nav-item dropdown"> 343 <a class="nav-link dropdown-toggle" href="#" id="navbarDropdownRight" role="button" data-bs-toggle="dropdown" aria-haspopup="true" aria-expanded="false"> 344 About 345 </a> 346 <div class="dropdown-menu" aria-labelledby="navbarDropdownRight"> 347 348 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/about">About This Site</a> 349 350 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/historian">Federal Reserve Historian</a> 351 352 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/authors">Our Authors</a> 353 354 <a class="dropdown-item" href="/related-resources">Related Resources</a> 355 356 </div> 357 </li> 358 </ul> 359 360 361 </div> 362 </nav> 363 </div> 364</div> 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374
375<script> 376document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", function(){ 377 378 const searchBarRedirectResults = (terms) => { 379 if (terms) { 380 window.location.href ="/search#results_q=" + terms; 381 } 382 }; 383 384 const onClick = (evt) => { 385 evt.stopPropagation(); 386 evt.preventDefault(); 387 searchBarRedirectResults(searchbox.value); 388 }; 389 390 const onKeyUp = (evt) => { 391 if (evt.keyCode === 13) { 392 searchBarRedirectResults(searchbox.value); 393 } 394 }; 395 396 const onClickMobile = (evt) => { 397 evt.stopPropagation(); 398 evt.preventDefault(); 399 searchBarRedirectResults(searchboxMobile.value); 400 }; 401 402 const onKeyUpMobile = (evt) => { 403 if (evt.keyCode === 13) { 404 searchBarRedirectResults(searchboxMobile.value); 405 } 406 }; 407 408 const searchbox = document.getElementById('globalHeaderSearchbox'); 409 const searchboxMobile = document.getElementById('globalHeaderSearchboxMobile'); 410 const searchsubmit = document.querySelector('#siteSearch .input-group .btn'); 411 const searchsubmitMobile = document.querySelector('#siteSearchMobile .input-group .btn'); 412 413 searchbox.addEventListener('keyup', onKeyUp); 414 searchsubmit.addEventListener('click', onClick); 415 searchboxMobile.addEventListener('keyup', onKeyUpMobile); 416 searchsubmitMobile.addEventListener('click', onClickMobile); 417 418}); 419</script>
419 420 421 </div> 422</div> 423 424 425<div class="component content col-12"> 426 <div class="component-content"> 427 </div> 428</div> 429</div> 430 </div> 431 </header> 432 <!-- /#header --> 433 <!-- #content --> 434 <main> 435 <div id="content" class="container"> 436 <div class="row"> 437 438<div class="component content"> 439 <div class="component-content"> 440<div class="row mb-1"> 441 <div class="col-12 col-lg-6 col-light-background border-lg-end border-white"> 442 <div class="pt-3"> 443 <div class="row px-4 pb-4 darklinks"> 444 <div class="col-12"><h2>The Federal Reserve's History</h2></div> 445 <div style="display:flex; gap: 15px;"> 446 <div class="d-none d-md-block mr-3" style=""> 447 <img src="/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/Images/structurefrs_bog_1981_wh.png?h=300&iar=0&w=300&hash=C683E724FFECAA01C0117EA6925A37FF" class="img-fluid" alt="Stylized text block reading The Federal Reserve System" width="300" height="300" style=" display: flex; flex: 1 1 70%; align-items: flex-start;" /> 448 </div> 449 <div style="display: flex; flex: 1 1 40%;"> 450 <p>Begin learning about the Federal Reserve's history in <a href="/essays/federal-reserve-history">this overview essay</a></p> 451 </div> 452 </div> 453 </div> 454 </div> 455 </div> 456 <div class="col-12 col-lg-6 border-lg-start border-white position-relative mt-lg-0 mt-1" style="background-color: #e9eaeb; min-height: 254px;"> 457 458 <div class="pt-3 featured-content-background d-none d-md-block" style="height: 90%; top: 4%; position: absolute; width: 90%; left: 5%; background-image: url(/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/Images/featured/ach-map-featured.png); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-size: cover;"> 459 <div class="row pt-2 darklinks featured-content-text" style="max-height: 67%; position: absolute; left: 5%; background-color: #e9eaeb; transform: translateY(33%)"> 460 <div class="col-12 featured-content-blurb-div"> 461 <h2><a href="/essays/automated-clearing-house">Featured Essay</a></h2> 462 463 <p>The Federal Reserve began operating an ACH electronic payment system in the 1970s</p> 464 465 <p class="sr-only">Image Description: Featured Essay</p> 466 <p class="sr-only">Image Source: </p> 467 </div> 468 </div> 469 </div> 470 <div class="pt-3 d-block d-md-none"> 471 <div class="row px-4 pb-3 darklinks"> 472 <img class="img-fluid mb-2" src="/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/Images/featured/ach-map-featured.png" /> 473 <div class="col-12 featured-content-blurb-div"> 474 <h2><a href="/essays/automated-clearing-house">Featured Essay</a></h2> 475 476 <p>The Federal Reserve began operating an ACH electronic payment system in the 1970s</p> 477 478 <p class="sr-only">Image Description: Featured Essay</p> 479 <p class="sr-only">Image Source: </p> 480 </div> 481 </div> 482 </div> 483 </div> 484 </div> 485 486 <div class="row mb-1"> 487 <div class="col-12 col-md-6 col-dark-background border-end border-white"> 488 <div class="pt-3 "> 489 <div class="row px-4 pb-4 darklinks"> 490 <div class="col-12"> 491 <h2> 492 493 <a href="/historian-corner">History and Policy</a> 494 495 </h2> 496 </div> 497 <div class="col-12"> 498 <p> Learn about the history behind Federal Reserve policy efforts.</p> 499 </div> 500 </div> 501 </div> 502 </div> 503 <div class="col-12 col-md-6 col-dark-background border-start border-white"> 504 <div class="pt-3 "> 505 <div class="row px-4 pb-4 darklinks"> 506 <div class="col-12"> 507 <h2> 508 509 <a href="/topics">Explore Fed History by Topic</a> 510 511 </h2> 512 </div> 513 <div class="col-12"> 514 <p>
514Browse essays by theme.</p> 515 </div> 516 </div> 517 </div> 518 </div> 519 </div> 520 521 <div class="row mb-1"> 522 <div class="col-12 border-end border-white col-light-background"> 523 <div class="pt-3"> 524 <div class="row px-4 pb-4 darklinks"> 525 <div class="col-12 mt-1"> 526 <h2>What's New</h2> 527 </div> 528 <div class="col-12"> 529 <p><a href="/essays/penn-central">A new essay explores the Penn Central commercial paper crisis of 1970 and the Fed's response </a>(2026-09-24)</p> 530 531 <p><a href="/essays/fomc-executive-committee">New: An essay on the FOMC's Executive Committee, a smaller decisionmaking committee active from 1933 to 1955 </a>(2026-08-14)</p> 532 533 <p><a href="/essays/federal-reserve-building-tax-dispute">Our newest essay explores the Federal Reserve building tax dispute of 1939-1941 </a>(2026-07-06)</p> 534 535 </div> 536 <div class="col-12"> 537 <p><a href="/whats_new">View All</a></p> 538 </div> 539 </div> 540 </div> 541 </div> 542 </div> </div> 543</div> 544</div> 545 </div> 546 </main> 547 <!-- /#content --> 548 <!-- #footer --> 549 <footer> 550 <div id="footer" class="container"> 551 <div class="row"> 552 553 554 555<div class="component content"> 556 <div class="component-content"> 557 558<div class="row border-top mt-3 mb-2 pt-2"> 559 <div class="col-12"> 560 <h5><a href="/">Federal Reserve History</a></h5> 561 </div> 562 <div class="col-12 col-md-8"> 563 564 565 <a href="/about">About</a><br /> 566 567 <a href="/authors">Our Authors</a><br /> 568 569 <a href="/terms-of-use">Terms of Use</a><br /> 570 571 <a href="/privacy-policy">Privacy Policy</a><br /> 572 573 <a href="/sitemap">Sitemap</a><br /> 574 575 576 </div> 577 <div class="col-12 col-md-4"> 578 <div class="text-md-end"> 579 580 581 582 <div class="footer-logo"><a href="/contact-us"> 583 Contact Us <i class="fas fa-envelope"></i> 584 585 </a> 586 </div> 587 588 589 590 <div class="footer-logo"><a href="http://twitter.com/FedHistory"> 591 @FedHistory 592 593 <img src="/-/media/Project/FedHistory/FedHistory/x-logo-black.png" class="x-logo-black" /> 594 595 </a> 596 </div> 597 598 599 600 601 </div> 602 </div> 603</div> </div> 604</div> 605</div> 606 </div> 607 </footer> 608 <!-- /#footer --> 609</div> 610<!-- /#wrapper --> 611 612 613 614 615
616<script> 617</script>
617 618 619
620<script src="/-/media/project/fedhistory/shared/bootstrapbundlemin.js"></script>
vendor: 2 bytes, line 620
620
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Core-Libraries/scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154633Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/XA-API/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154633Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Main-Theme/scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154633Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Google-Maps-JS-Connector/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154634Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Maps/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154634Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/SearchTheme/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154634Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Components-Theme/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154635Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Base-Themes/Resolve-Conflicts/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20250407T154635Z"></script>
621<script src="/-/media/Themes/FedHistory/FedHistory/History-2024/Scripts/optimized-min.js?t=20260526T175548Z"></script>
621 <!-- /#wrapper -->
622<script type="text/javascript" src="/IfBRl25SmArrTl7UhA/wEaLJhbpNmbcrSEaiO/HwsSMCkYAQ/KQc5/eRR4KVo"></script>
622</body> 623</html>
Line numbers count LF bytes from the start of the resource, as the search results do. Vendor segments are library code the classifier recognised; they are stored but not indexed. Bytes are shown as Latin1 characters, one per byte.