November 2006

PNC-Riggs Bank Donates Historical Archives to GW Gift Valued at More than $5 Million

Includes Documents from Abraham Lincoln, Francis Scott Key, and Susan B. Anthony

President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg joins PNC Bank Regional President Michael N. Harreld to announce PNC-Riggs Bank’s donation of historical archives to GW.

By Zak M. Salih

Deep inside the PNC-Riggs Bank offices on 17th Street, NW, the scent of history is overpowering. Within the bank’s archives, row upon row of historical material exudes the rich musk of bank ledgers that haven’t been opened in over a century. Upon the shelves of peeling bindings and flaking pages are records that, however ordinary in their time, now contain important historical data.
Currently stored in the bank’s basement archives, the collection is moving to GW’s Gelman Library. The PNC Financial Services Group Inc. recently selected GW as the recipient of its historical records, in honor of the University’s continued dedication to preserving the history of Washington, D.C. The donation is the largest single gift ever received by the Gelman Library System.

“There are few institutions in this great city that have influenced the development of the District of Columbia as much as Riggs Bank,” says GW President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg. “The George Washington University shares this long legacy in, and commitment to, Washington, D.C. This generous gift of the Riggs archives by PNC will ensure that these significant historical records will be well cared for and accessible to future generations.”

PNC Bank Regional President Michael N. Harreld calls GW a fitting home for the archives. “We are delighted to complement the Gelman Library’s rich Washingtonia Collection and are confident that GW has the expertise to protect and preserve these extraordinary Washington treasures for generations of scholars
to access,” he says.

With an estimated value of $5.2 million, the collection features a wealth of material about the development of the District of Columbia and the financial records of important historical figures. Among the donated materials are records outlining the financial development of Georgetown, the Washington Aqueduct, and the Mexican War. “It helps show the establishment and development of the Washington economy,” says Mary Beth Corrigan, curator of the PNC-Riggs archives.

Peeking out from the ledgers are tabs marking the financial records of prominent former bank clients, including Abraham Lincoln, John Marshall, William Wilson Corcoran, and Joseph Pulitzer. Pull a particularly heavy journal off the shelf and through the brief flurry of dust you’ll find Lincoln’s deposit of his presidential salary in 1861: $2,083.33 written in faded cursive handwriting.

Future visitors to the collection’s permanent home at GW will also be able to search through the records of other presidents, including Tyler, Polk, Fillmore, Garfield, and McKinley, along with various congressmen and cabinet members. Other key historical players with financial information in the archives are women’s suffrage pioneer Susan B. Anthony and Francis Scott Key, composer of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

How the library will organize and maintain the collection once it arrives is still under consideration. The records, dating back to the early 1800s, will be delivered in December or January. Afterward, library officials expect to spend about 18 months cataloging the items before opening the archive to the general public.
Both the library and PNC-Riggs Bank officials have no doubts about the profound impact the gift will have on the GW community. University Archivist and Historian G. David Anderson envisions “several levels of research” that will benefit everyone from undergraduates to faculty and staff to doctoral candidates.

Corrigan agrees. “My hope is that some people will look and gain an appreciation for both history and the bank,” she says.

For now, the numerous ledgers lie dormant in the basement of the PNC-Riggs Bank building, their pages filled with enough historical data to fuel scholars for decades to come.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu