Help - Historical Bank Runs

Keyboard Shortcuts

On episode pages, you can use the following keyboard shortcuts to navigate quickly:

Key	Action
`J` or `←`	Go to previous episode (chronologically)
`K` or `→`	Go to next episode (chronologically)

The search box on the home page allows you to find episodes by:

Bank name — partial matches work (e.g., "First National" will find all banks with those words)
Charter number — for national banks, search by their charter number (e.g., "235")
City name — find banks by the city where they were located

Start typing at least 2 characters to see results. Click on a result to go directly to that episode page.

Episodes are classified by their outcome. Types with arrows (→) indicate a sequence of events:

Type	Description
Run Only	A bank run occurred but the bank did not suspend operations
Run → Suspension → Closure	A run led to suspension, which resulted in permanent closure
Run → Suspension → Reopening	A run led to suspension, but the bank later reopened
Suspension → Closure	Bank suspended operations and permanently closed (no run described)
Suspension → Reopening	Bank suspended operations but later reopened (no run described)
Suspension → Run → Closure	Suspension preceded a run, resulting in closure
Suspension → Run → Reopening	Suspension preceded a run, but the bank reopened
Other	Other events (e.g., bank openings, reorganizations)

Each episode tracks whether certain response measures were employed:

Success — The bank successfully weathered the crisis
No Run Described — No depositor run is mentioned in sources
Accommodation — The bank received accommodation from other institutions
Borrowing — The bank borrowed funds to meet demands
Public Signal — The bank made public displays of solvency (e.g., showing gold reserves)
Capital Injection — New capital was injected into the bank
Partial Suspension — The bank partially suspended payments
Full Suspension — The bank fully suspended payments
Examination — A bank examination was conducted
Clearinghouse Involved — A clearinghouse association was involved

You can browse episodes in several ways:

By State — View all episodes for a specific state, sorted chronologically
By Year — View all episodes that started in a specific year
Chronologically — Use the Previous/Next buttons on episode pages to step through all episodes in date order

Each episode includes:

Events — Individual events (runs, suspensions, receiverships, etc.) with dates and newspaper excerpts
Newspaper Articles — Links to digitized newspaper images documenting the episode
Coordinates — Click on the latitude/longitude to view the bank's location on Google Maps
Charter Links — National banks link to the SPMC Bank Note History database

Dates marked with an asterisk (*) are approximate. The exact date may not be known from the sources.