1860s Safe Deposit Box?
February 13, 2013 3:52 PM Subscribe
When did American banks first offer safety deposit boxes? If they were used in Civil War times, how secure were they? Got a great source on the topic? (Don't nobody worry, I ain't plannin nothin.)
If you'll accept old books, there are frequent references to storing a trunk, the family silver or milady's jewelry at the bank, but never references to safe deposit boxes as we know them.
In fact, my own bank --- a local one, founded pre-Civil War --- just dug out and opened an old trunk about ten years ago: it had been left in their main branch around the turn of the last century by one of Robert E. Lee's daughters. I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if anybody can say when they first installed their safe deposit boxes.
posted by easily confused at 4:44 PM on February 13, 2013
In fact, my own bank --- a local one, founded pre-Civil War --- just dug out and opened an old trunk about ten years ago: it had been left in their main branch around the turn of the last century by one of Robert E. Lee's daughters. I'll give them a call tomorrow and see if anybody can say when they first installed their safe deposit boxes.
posted by easily confused at 4:44 PM on February 13, 2013
Response by poster: What I'm really after is the essence of the safe deposit box, and the storage of things at a bank may well capture it. If this practice was not institutionalized, so much the better -- it may have been a little less secure than later.
posted by LonnieK at 5:10 PM on February 13, 2013
posted by LonnieK at 5:10 PM on February 13, 2013
Well then, it seems to me that banks stored trunks or whatever for their customers throughout at least the 19th century, and possibly a few years into the 20th century. I've seen the practice mentioned quite a few times in Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes books, which were set in the 1880s-1890s; banks seem to have been used for storage both by people going on trips (which was the case of that R.E. Lee daughter's trunk I mentioned above) as well as day-to-day security for your family valuables in those pre-burglar alarm days.
Not sure if most banks usually stuffed your trunks into their vaults or just a storeroom; the Lee daughter's trunk was found in my bank's attic, which seems to have been their usual storage area.
posted by easily confused at 5:29 PM on February 13, 2013
Not sure if most banks usually stuffed your trunks into their vaults or just a storeroom; the Lee daughter's trunk was found in my bank's attic, which seems to have been their usual storage area.
posted by easily confused at 5:29 PM on February 13, 2013
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posted by IndigoJones at 4:26 PM on February 13, 2013