In November 1910, a secretive meeting took place at Jekyll Island, Georgia, that laid the groundwork for the creation of the Federal Reserve System. Organized by Senator Nelson Aldrich, the meeting included a small group of influential bankers and economic policymakers: Paul Warburg, Frank Vanderlip, Henry Davison, Charles Norton, and Benjamin Strong. To maintain secrecy and avoid public scrutiny, the men traveled under the guise of a duck hunting trip and used only first names during their stay.

The U.S. financial system at the time was unstable, lacking a central authority to manage currency and respond to financial panics. The 1907 Panic had highlighted these weaknesses, spurring interest in reform. At Jekyll Island, the group developed a plan for a central banking system that would stabilize the economy, control the money supply, and serve as a lender of last resort. Their proposal eventually evolved into the Aldrich Plan.

Though the Aldrich Plan was initially rejected, many of its ideas were incorporated into the Federal Reserve Act, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson in 1913. The Jekyll Island meeting remains a pivotal moment in U.S. financial history, marking the beginning of the modern American central banking system