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Jekyll Island: The Secret 1910 Meeting That Designed the Federal Reserve

Six men, a private rail car, first names only, and the plan that became America's central bank.

Quick answer

What happened at Jekyll Island in 1910?

In November 1910, Senator Nelson Aldrich and five financiers and officials met in secret at the Jekyll Island Club in Georgia to draft a plan for reforming the US banking system. They traveled in a private rail car, posed as duck hunters and used only first names. Their draft, the Aldrich Plan, shaped the Federal Reserve Act, which President Woodrow Wilson signed in December 1913.

Timeline

  1. 1907A financial panic exposes the weakness of the US banking system and leads Congress to create the National Monetary Commission.
  2. November 1910Aldrich, Treasury official A. Piatt Andrew, Frank Vanderlip, Henry Davison, Charles Norton and Paul Warburg meet at the Jekyll Island Club.
  3. 1911The resulting proposal, the Aldrich Plan, is presented. It does not pass Congress in that form.
  4. December 23, 1913President Wilson signs the Federal Reserve Act, which draws on ideas from the Jekyll Island plan.
  5. 1930sParticipants such as Vanderlip publicly describe the secret trip.

What is documented, and what is not

On the record

  • The meeting took place and was kept secret at the time.
  • The participants and their roles are known from their own later accounts.
  • The Federal Reserve's own history site describes the meeting.

Disputed or unproven

  • Claims that the meeting proves the Federal Reserve is privately controlled by a cabal go beyond the record. The final law was debated and passed by Congress, with significant changes.

Common questions

Who was at the Jekyll Island meeting?

Senator Nelson Aldrich, Assistant Treasury Secretary A. Piatt Andrew, Frank Vanderlip of National City Bank, Henry Davison of J.P. Morgan, Charles Norton of First National Bank of New York, and Paul Warburg of Kuhn, Loeb.

Why was the meeting secret?

Participants later said they feared that any plan known to come from Wall Street bankers would be rejected by Congress and the public.

Did Jekyll Island create the Federal Reserve?

It produced the draft that shaped the debate. The Federal Reserve was created by an act of Congress in 1913.

Read the record yourself

Links go to official archives, museums, agencies and published research. Search links open the archive's own search for this topic.

THE FICTION BUILT ON THIS RECORD · FILE 047 · VOLUME VIIISix Men. First Names Only. A Secret Train. They Designed Your Money.The most powerful decisions in history were made by people pretending to go duck hunting.Read the first pages free →

Last reviewed 2026-10-13. This page covers the public record only. Archive files are dramatized and always marked as files.

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