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Insurance Company of North America Records

 Collection
Identifier: MS-1184

  • Staff Only

This collection of 140 letters, receipts, and legal papers documenting the work of the Insurance Company of North America, the oldest joint stock insurance company in the United States. These records detail the activities of the company’s first fifty years from 1792 to 1843 and include the signatures of prominent figures from this period including John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Robert Morris, and Daniel Webster.

Abbreviations Used:

ADS
Autograph Document Signed
ALS
Autograph Letter Signed
DS
Document Signed
D
Document

Dates

  • 1792 December 1-1843 February 18

Conditions Governing Access

Collections are stored offsite, and a minimum of 2 business days are needed to retrieve these items for use. Researchers interested in consulting any of the collections are advised to contact Special Collections.

Conditions Governing Use

The copyright interests in this collection remain with the creator. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library.

Extent

1 Linear Feet (6 folders)

Abstract

This collection of 140 letters, receipts, and legal papers documenting the work of the Insurance Company of North America, the oldest joint stock insurance company in the United States. These records detail the activities of the company’s first fifty years from 1792 to 1843 and include the signatures of prominent figures from this period including John Quincy Adams, James Madison, Robert Morris, and Daniel Webster.

Biographical/Historical Note

The Insurance Company of North America (INA), the oldest joint stock insurance company in the United States, was formed in 1792 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The business grew out of the idea of the tontine, in which investors contribute equally to a joint fund and the money is given to the last individual living. Although similar schemes had recently failed in Boston and New York, the INA proved successful in its initial marine insurance ventures. They offered to secure any bottom sailing from between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Charleston, South Carolina or from New York for up to $20,000 at a 1% premium. This system was a distinct improvement over the previous method of insuring cargo, in which a merchant contracted with a private (and unregulated) underwriter and lost any money he had invested should the underwriter fold. The INA became the new nation's largest marine insurer within its first decade. It began offering fire insurance in 1794 and even dabbled in life insurance during the late 1700s and early 1800s. As America grew, the INA began appointing agents in such distant territories as California and Texas, thus establishing itself as the first insurance company to offer its services on a national level. These agents eventually formed the model for the later local agency system.

In 1898 Benjamin Rush, Thomas Young, and Harry Farnham devised a new, scientific method of classifying marine risks. Their work allowed the company to write vastly improved policies and inaugurated 21 straight years of profitable operation. When Rush became President of the INA in 1916, he expanded the company's scope to allow it to write every form of insurance policy known except for life. After World War I ended, Rush led an expansion program in which INA acquired such smaller insurance agencies as the Philadelphia Fire and Marine Insurance Company, Alliance Casualty Company, and the Indemnity Insurance Company of North America. The company re-entered life insurance in 1956, when it acquired the Life Insurance Company of North America. In 1982 the INA merged with the Connecticut General Insurance Company to form CIGNA. The organization began downsizing in the late 1990s, selling its U. S. individual life insurance and annuity operations to the Lincoln National Corporation (1998) and its domestic and international property and casualty operations to ACE Limited of Bermuda (1999). Thus, although the company's successor continues to operate, it no longer enjoys the diversity that its predecessor established.

Arrangement

This collection consists of 140 letters arranged in approximate alphabetical order across six folders.

Repository Details

Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository

Contact:
University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Knoxville TN 37996 USA
865-974-4480