The 1893 U.S. financial crisis was called the Panic of 1893.
The panic followed the collapse of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and growing concerns about railroad overbuilding, weak companies, and the government’s silver policy. Investors lost confidence, causing banks and businesses to fail and sending stock prices sharply lower.
The crisis produced a severe depression in the United States. More than 500 banks and roughly 15,000 businesses failed during the broader downturn, although exact totals vary by source and counting method. Unemployment rose substantially, and labor unrest included the Pullman Strike of 1894.
The Panic of 1893 is often confused with the Panic of 1907, another U.S. financial crisis that also involved bank runs. The 1893 episode occurred during the late nineteenth-century debate over whether the dollar should be freely convertible into silver as well as gold.