The Panic of 1901 was the U.S. stock-market panic centered on a takeover battle for Northern Pacific Railway.
E. H. Harriman and James J. Hill, backed by financier J. P. Morgan, competed with Edward H. Harriman’s rivals for control of Northern Pacific. Heavy buying drove the railway’s stock sharply higher in May 1901. When investors who had sold shares short tried to cover their positions, the market became extremely disorderly.
Northern Pacific stock briefly traded at extraordinarily high levels before the corner collapsed. The panic damaged confidence and spread losses through the market, although it was shorter and less systemically severe than the Panic of 1907. The two events are often confused because both involved J. P. Morgan and railway finance, but the 1901 episode specifically arose from the Northern Pacific control struggle.