Mergenthaler Linotype Stock Certificate Issued to and Signed by William C. Whitney

1896, Brooklyn, NY. 10 ½" x 7 ¼".”Mergenthaler Linotype stock certificate for 100 shares. Green/Black. Engraved vignette of a linotype machine at top right. Issued to and signed on verso by William C. Whitney (1841-1904) Financier and Secretary of the Navy. Through his marriage to Flora Payne, daughter of Standard Oil's Oliver H. Payne, Whitney gained enormously important corporate contacts. In 1883, he became involved in a bitter struggle for control of the Broadway Railroad Company, eventually gaining control by entering into an alliance with Thomas Fortune Ryan and Peter A. B. Widener. Whitney remained active in street railway affairs until his appointment as Secretary of the Navy, where he rebuilt America's naval forces. Extremely Fine. Stamp cancelled and punch cancelled, though not affecting Whitney's signature.