Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum to Open “Bulls of Wall Street,” a New Exhibition on 19th-century Finance

The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum will open a new exhibition titled, “Bulls of Wall Street: High Finance, Power, and Social Change in Victorian America.”

With rare and never-before-seen period artifacts, photos, documents, and costumes from public and private collections, this exhibition curated by Museum Consultant Stacey Danielson will explore the financial world of LeGrand Lockwood, one of America’s leading figures in 19th-century American finance, and his peers—Vanderbilt and Gould. This program will also investigate the role of trailblazing women such as Victoria Woodhull and Hetty Green, as well as individuals from marginalized communities such as the first black millionaire in America, Jeremiah Hamilton, who tried to break Wall Street’s “glass ceiling” and enter the world of finance and the market in 19th-century America.

Visitors will also delve into the birth of Wall Street, its financial instruments, and scientific breakthroughs that modernized and accelerated the exchange of information, making Wall Street the new economic engine, and propelling “self-made men” to new heights of prosperity.
Ms. Danielson is a longtime independent museum professional who received her BS in business administration from Ohio University and holds a certificate in Historic Interiors and Decorative Arts from New York School of Interior Design. She has assisted many institutions with curatorial and exhibition work including the statewide Museum Makeover program conducted by Conservation ConneCTion and Connecticut League of Museums to enhance the visitor experience at cultural heritage organizations throughout the state.

LMMM Chairman of the Board Douglas Hempstead and Executive Director Susan Gilgore said, “The Museum is thrilled to open this exciting, new exhibit on American finance, which has been several years in the making. We are very grateful to CT Humanities and all our supporters and look forward to sharing rarely seen images and artifacts as well as a new perspective on early Wall Street with all our visitors.”

Author and Independent Historian, Sheri Caplan will join Ms. Danielson as an expert advisor on women’s history of finance. The exhibition was developed with the assistance of Independent Museum Curator/Consultant Kathleen Craughwell-Varda and several outstanding expert advisors including Challis Professor of History at The University of Sydney, Australia, Shane White, award-winning author of, “Prince of Darkness, The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street’s First Black Millionaire” ; John E. Herzog, who spearheaded the expansion of Herzog, Heine, Geduld, Inc. into the third-largest NASDAQ market maker in the country, founder of the Museum of American Finance in NYC, and author of, “A Billion to One”, and Prof. Janice Traflet, Ph.D. M.B.A. author of Traflet, M. J., Wright, E. R., (2022) “Fearless: Wilma Soss and America’s Forgotten Investor Movement,” All Seasons Press.

The exhibition, “Bulls of Wall Street” is generously sponsored by: CT Humanities, for both the research and the implementation phases of the project, and supporters Tim & Sheila Pettee, Kathy Olsen, and Dr. Michele & Attorney Miklos Koleszar.

LMMM’s 2025 programs are made possible in part by LMMM’s Founding Patrons: The Estate of Mrs. Cynthia Clark Brown; LMMM’s Leadership Patrons: Dr. Michele & Attorney Miklos Koleszar, and The Sealark Foundation; and LMMM’s 2025 Season Distinguished Benefactors: The City of Norwalk, The Maurice Goodman Foundation, Inc., and Lockwood-Mathews Foundation, Inc. For more information on tours and programs, please visit www.lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, email info@lockwoodmathewsmansion.com, or call 203-838-9799.