PIPER JAFFRAY COMPANIES INC.:

The Piper Jaffray Companies Inc. trace their roots back to 1895, when George B. Lane established a commercial paper brokerage firm with offices in the Guaranty Loan Building in Minneapolis. In 1913 H. C. Piper, Sr., and C. Palmer Jaffray, who were classmates at Yale, formed a partnership of Piper, Jaffray and Company. Like Lane and his firm, they first dealt in commercial paper, which are short-term unsecured notes. When a company needed quick capital, they would go to a dealer in commercial paper, which would then find a lender.

In 1917 the two small firms, the George B. Lane & Company and Piper, Jaffray and Company, merged to form a company called Lane, Piper & Jaffray, Inc. During the 1920s this company became involved in the investment banking business, which involved the underwriting of new stock and bond issues, setting up mergers between companies, and financing company expansion through securing public and private capital. From its very beginning the firm played a key role in the growth of Minnesota business. They pioneered the first public stock offerings of such firms as Archer Daniels Midland, Munsingwear, Greyhound Corporation, The Pillsbury Company, and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M). As a result, several top executives of Lane, Piper & Jaffray served on the board of directors of some of these firms.

The firm grew steadily through the 1920s, reaching a staffing peak of 45 brokers before the stock market crash of October 1929. Within eighteen months, however, only three brokers remained at the firm. In 1932 the firm merged with the two-person office of Robert G. Hopwood, giving the company its most enduring and recognizable name, Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood. An immediate benefit of the merger was a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and affiliations with several other stock exchanges.

After World War II the company began a slow expansion. First came offices in Great Falls (1944) and Billings, Montana (1949) followed by Rochester, Minnesota (1957); Fargo, North Dakota (1960); and Rapid City, South Dakota. In 1964 the firm acquired the brokerage firm of Jamieson and Company, increasing the number of offices to 12 and the number of employees to near 300. In 1966 an office was opened in Mankato, Minnesota; in 1967 the Bismarck, North Dakota office was opened; and in 1968 five more offices were opened in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Nebraska. In 1969, after 74 years as a partnership, Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood became a corporation, which led to further expansion in the 1970s and 1980s. While most of the new offices were acquired or opened in the northwestern part of the United States, offices were also opened in New York City (1969) and in London, England (1987). In 1971 the company became a publicly held corporation known as Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Incorporated. In 1974 a holding company, Piper Jaffray Incorporated, was established to pave the way to further expansion. This firm became the parent company of Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Incorporated. In the 1980s two other subsidiaries were added. These included Piper Capital Management Incorporated, a money management company (1985), and the Piper Trust Company (1989), which offered trust services to individuals and institutions. In 1992 the holding company changed its name to Piper Jaffray Companies Inc. and its brokerage and investment banking subsidiary, Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood Incorporated, was renamed Piper Jaffray, Inc. In 1998 U.S. Bancorp acquired the Piper Jaffray Companies Inc. The company has been kept intact as an operating subsidiary and is now known as U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.

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The records of the Piper Jaffray Companies date from the founding of the company in 1895 until its acquisition by U.S. Bancorp in 1998. However, the bulk of the collection dates from the early 1970s, when the firm changed from a partnership to a corporation, to the mid-1990s. Most of the pre-1970 information concerns client companies or is miscellaneous subject file material. The collection is arranged into thirteen series including financial reports, employee publications, board of directors minutes, and material documenting the annual stockholders meeting. Other series document the acquisition of other companies by the firm from 1964 to 1992; branch office activities; as well as some of the work of two subsidiaries, Piper Capital Management Incorporated and the Piper Trust Company. Files of two executives, H.C. Piper, Sr. and H.C. Piper Jr. (Bobby Piper), as well as extensive subject files and oral history tapes and transcripts and video tapes round out the collection.

The financial records contain the 10 K (1971-1996) and the 10 Q (1986-1995) forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Usually, these records are not widely available to the public. The bulk of the remaining detailed financial records date from the 1950s, though brief quarterly financial statement brochures exist for the years 1962 to 1997. Several different employee publications dating from the 1970s to the 1990s are found in this collection with the longest runs belonging to The Boardcaster (1972-1982), Local over the Counter (1980-1998), and Quote (1980-1998). Also, a run of press releases, though not complete for the years 1973-1998, adds to this series.

The records of the two subsidiaries, Piper Capital Management and Piper Trust Company, mainly consist of prospectuses and annual reports of various money market funds and trusts managed by the two companies from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The files of Harry Piper, Sr., contain information on several companies on which he served on the board of directors: Munsingwear, Pillsbury, Truax-Traer Coal Company, and the Wayne Knitting Mills. Some personal correspondence from 1940-1958 also is included. The files of Harry Piper, Jr., also contain information on Truax-Traer Coal Company and Wayne Knitting Mills, as well as material relating to his seat on the New York Stock Exchange Board of Governors and several files of his speeches and biographical material, including information on his degree in theology.

The subject files contain examples of company print advertising and brochures from the 1920s to the mid-1990s, client and employee surveys, and files on the commercial paper business (negotiable instruments). There is also material relating to the community affairs activities of the company, as well as material from the human resources department. Also of mention are prospectuses for and research files on client firms (1970s and 1980s mostly), newspaper clippings (1960-1995), and biographical files on some other members of the Piper family.

The collection is supplemented by oral history cassettes and transcriptions done in the 1980s and early 1990s in research for the two published company histories. About sixty interviews were done with an alphabetical listing giving name, transcript number, and tape number (when known) provided. The transcripts are filed numerically in box 20 and the cassettes are found in box 21.

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These documents are organized into the following sections:

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Availability:

The collection is open for research use.

Preferred Citation:

[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Piper Jaffray Companies Corporate Records. Minnesota Historical Society.

See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.

Accession Information:

Accession number: 15,711

Processing Information:

Processed by: Rich Arpi, September 2001

Catalog ID number: 990017372490104294

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The files contain news clippings and photographs on the branch openings and on the lives and activities of their personnel.

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Business files and some personal correspondence of one of the principal founders of the firm.

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Business files of, and biographical files on, Harry C. Piper, Jr., who was chairman of the board, 1967-1988.

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