Anxious Depositors

The original caption for this photograph reads: Crowds of depositors gathered outside of the banks after Clearing House Association announced withdrawals would be limited to five per cent of deposits. The crowd shown above is gathered in front of the Guardian Trust Company and National City Bank. The imposition of the withdrawal rule, which is for an indefinite period, followed steady runs on the banks as a result of the moratorium declared a week ago in Michigan.

Some of the most harrowing moments of the Great Depression came in the final weeks of President Herbert Hoover’s administration with the collapse of the nation’s banking system in February 1933. The imminent failure of two large banks in Michigan prompted that state’s governor to declare a "banking holiday" on February 14, setting off a panic that soon infected the entire nation. During the last two weeks of Hoover’s Presidency (Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office on March 4), more than $1.2 billion was taken out of the nation’s banks to be stored in mattresses, shoeboxes, and other hiding places believed to be more secure than the country’s financial institutions.