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Concept
Hetty Green
Summary
Hetty Green (November 21, 1834 – July 3, 1916), was an American businesswoman and financier known as "the richest woman in America" during the Gilded Age. Those who knew her well referred to her admiringly as the Queen of Wall Street due to her willingness to lend freely and at reasonable interest rates to financiers and city governments during financial panics. Her extraordinary discipline during such times enabled her to amass a fortune as a financier at a time when nearly all major financiers were men. Two days after her death on July 3, 1916, The New York Times paid tribute to Green and corrected many common misconceptions, writing:
It was that Mrs. Green was a woman that made her career the subject of endless curiosity, comment, and astonishment...Her habits were the legacy of New England ancestors who had the best of reasons for knowing "the value of money," for never wasting it, and for risking it only when their shrewd minds saw an approach to certainty of profit. Though something of hardness was ascribed to her, that she harmed any is not recorded, and victims of ruthlessness are usually audible...That there are few like her is not a cause of regret; that there are many less commendable, is one.Despite Hetty Green's exceptional investment instincts, discreet generosity, and admirable character, most media reports from the era (and soon thereafter) characterized her thrift as evidence of miserliness. She was also referred to often as the Witch of Wall Street, and the Guinness Book of World Records even named her the "greatest miser." Stories that were often cited include her refusal to buy expensive clothes, pay for hot water, and her habit of wearing a single dress that was only replaced when it was worn out. Yet many of these habits were considered abnormal mainly because the Gilded Age was a time of celebrating excess rather than hiding it. When Hetty Green's life is evaluated in its entirety and in the context of the time period, it is clear that media criticism grossly misrepresented her true character.
Official source
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