Old Wall Street’s Preserved Fish

What early New York financier’s name described pickled herring, finnan haddie and other storable seafood?

That was the question posed by WQXR’s Know-It-All New Yorker contest this week. Answer: Preserved Fish.

Born in 1766, Preserved (a Quaker name, properly pronounced “Pres-ser-ved”) left the farm to become cabin boy on a whaling ship. By age 21 he was a ship’s captain. By his 40’s, whale oil had made him rich enough to move to New York, where he and a cousin started a shipping company. Preserved helped found the New York Exchange Board (forerunner to The New York Stock Exchange) and in 1829 became president of the Tradesman's Bank of New York. 

More on Preserved Fish here.