Portal:Philadelphia/Selected picture archive/7

Second Bank of the United States, 2007

The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank. A private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. Government, and was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury. Modeled on Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, the Second Bank was chartered by President James Madison in 1816 and began operations at its main branch in Philadelphia on January 7, 1817 managing twenty-five branch offices nationwide by 1832. The building is part of Independence National Historical Park and serves as an art gallery housing a portrait collection of prominent early Americans painted by Charles Willson Peale and many others.