J. & W. Seligman & Co

J. & W. Seligman & Co. was founded in 1846 as an importing house brothers by Joseph Seligman and James Seligman in New York. The store received government contracts to supply soldier's uniforms for the Union Army in the American Civil War. After the American Civil War ended, the Seligmans decided to go into banking where they were the first American banking firm to sell United States Government bonds in Europe.

In the post-Civil War robber baron era, the firm invested heavily in railroad finance, in particular acting as broker of transactions engineered by Jay Gould. Among the companies in the Seligman portfolio were The Missouri Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, the South Pacific, and the Missouri–Kansas–Texas railroad companies. Later, in 1876, the Seligmans joined forces with the Vanderbilt family to create public utilities in New York. In the early 20th century, the firm backed the construction of the Panama Canal. In this period, J.& W. Seligman & Co. Inc. underwrote the securities of a variety of companies, participating in stock and bond issues in the railroad and steel and wire industries, investments in Russia and Peru, the formation of the Standard Oil Company, and shipbuilding, bridges, bicycles, mining, and a variety of other industries.

In 1938, in response to the Glass–Steagall Act, the firm spun off its securities underwriting business as Union Securities. In 1980, Seligman, which had been owned by its employees in a partnership, restructured into a private corporation.