The severe U.S. financial crisis that began in 1893 was called the Panic of 1893.
The panic followed the failure of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad and growing doubts about railroad finance. The collapse of the banking firm Jay Cooke & Company in 1893 had already demonstrated how heavily financial institutions depended on railroad investment.
Bank runs spread, businesses failed, and unemployment rose. The crisis also affected Australia and parts of Europe, making it an international depression rather than an isolated Wall Street event.
President Grover Cleveland’s administration faced a major gold-reserve problem and arranged a private bond sale led by J. P. Morgan to replenish the Treasury. The Panic of 1893 is separate from the Panic of 1907, which later helped motivate creation of the Federal Reserve.