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Scandalous artifacts

The UI Libraries is proud to be a part of “Scandal!”, the featured exhibit at the Museum of American Finance in New York:

“From betrayals of the public trust by government officials to betrayals of investors by Ponzi artists, and from corporate accounting fraud to egregious failures of risk management in more recent years, ‘Scandal!’ explores the history of these episodes in American history, scrutinizing the people involved and the damage they caused. Even though names like Teapot Dome, Credit Mobilier, Ivar Krueger and Tino De Angelis have all but faded from history, they created shockwaves in their time and continue to echo in events that are unfolding today.”

On loan are a number of documents from the UI Special Collections’ Papers of Levi O. Leonard collection that formerly belonged to financier and railroad executive Thomas C. Durant (1820-1885), a central figure in the Credit Mobilier financial scandal. Three of these digitized artifacts can be seen in slides 4-6 of this New York Times feature; thousands more may be viewed at the Iowa Digital Library’s Levi O. Leonard Railroadiana digital collection.