Mary Bridges

Mary Bridges is a sixth-year graduate student in US history, and her research focuses on the international expansion of US banks in the early twentieth century. Under the direction of Professors Paul Kramer and Sarah Igo, her dissertation examines the way US banks' establishment of branches around the world affected foreign relations, trade, and social orders. Her work focuses especially on the way in which US bankers working overseas assessed credit-worthiness, both before and after the creation of the Federal Reserve System, and how these practices influenced local relationships as well as the global economic status of the United States.