Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Company

Date

1796

Location

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Amount

$1 Share*

Signatures

  • Edward Burd
  • Israel Whelen

Description

This stock certificate (No. 1161) represents 1 share in the company for the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company. This is the first company to have vignettes printed on their stock certificates, after which all other certificates soon followed its example. Companies believed vignettes allowed a personal connection between their investors and the product.

Notable Bond Imagery

This is the first company to have vignettes printed on their stock certificates, after which all other certificates soon followed its example. Companies believed vignettes allowed a personal connection between their investors and the product. At the top center, a horse-drawn carriage heads toward a gate near a house behind lots of flora. The vignette itself is bordered by a ring of leaves. This certificate has a seal on the left side that reads, “Seal of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company.”

Certificate with black handwritten ink, a seal, and an intricate vignette showing a horse-drawn carriage near a gate and house behind lots of flora
Back of certificate shows legal language including spacing for dates, amounts, signatures and stamps
Transcription 
						The Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road Company stock certificate reads:
Philadelphia.
February 10th 1796
No 1161
	Be It Hereby Certified, by the President, Managers, and Company of the Philadelphia and Lancaster Turnpike Road, that Edward Burd of the City of Philadelphia is entitled to one Share of Stock, in the said Company, numbered Eleven hundred and Sixty one transferrable in the Presence of the President or Treasurer; by the said Edward Burd or his Attorney: Agreeably to an Act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, passed the Tenth Day of APril, in the Year of our Lord One thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety two, and the Charter of said Company. Sealed with the common seal of said Company.
Signed by the Treasurer (illegible)
Signed by the President Israel Whelen

The backside of this document is the listed history of this document up to 1899:
No 1161
Edward Burd
Transferred to Washington & illegible March 3rd 1803
Transferred to Robert Harwood January 26th 1804
Transferred to T. Biddle and J. Wharton Feb 20th 1810
Transferred to the Pound for the time being of the Philadelphia illegible 1810
Transferred to T Biddle and J Wharton January 15th 1813
Transferred to Ellison and Jn Per on January 16th 1813
1834 illegible 20 Transferred to illegible — 
1859. May 25. Transferred to Elliston P. Morris
1899. Nov 3. Transferred to A.M. Taylor, Trustee

Accession No:

2017.002.086