1924 THE TRAVELERS BEACON JANUARY EMPLOYEE PUBN HARTFORD CT INSURANCE CO FR/GD For Sale

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1924 THE TRAVELERS BEACON JANUARY EMPLOYEE PUBN HARTFORD CT INSURANCE CO FR/GD:
$30.00

For those interested in vintagein-house employee publications, especially those published by insurancecompanies, up for sale is a copy of the January 1924 issue ofTheTravelers Beacon,published, as it reads on the first page, "byand for the People of The Travelers," an insurance company based inHartford, Connecticut, once known as the insurance capital of the world. Thepublication is Volume 5, Number 7, and the name of its editor, Mary A. Bowers, appears on the first page.

The publication, which isdouble-stapled and has a fun, winter-themed front cover illustration featuring two pipe-smoking snowmen, evergreen boughs, and the silhouette of the Travelers building in Hartford, measures 9 inches wideby 12 inches high and comprises 28 glossy pages, rich in illustrations andphotographs. There are the usual articles on employee activities, outings,sports groups, etc., and this issue also has, on the first page, an invitation for employees to enter verses in a company poetry contest (just imagine a firm doing something like that today!). On the next two pages is an article in a section called "The Hobby Corner" entitled "The American Clipper" and written by F. B. Edwards of the Audit Department.

Some of the other writings foundwithin include pieces of varying lengths with the following headings or titles:

• Athletics / The Season of Bowling and Basketball
• The Sure in Insurance -- Life Insurance
• Fifty-fifth Anniversary with The Travelers / J. STANLEY SCOTT
• Forty-fifth Anniversary with The Travelers / CHARLES S. ROBBINS
• The Result of the Good Cheer Carnival
• First Meeting of the Year of Girls' Club
• New Year's Greetings
  
• A six-panel comic strip called "ACTUARIAL INDOOR SPORTS"
• Prize Winners of The Travelers Extension School (centerfold article with 17 small photos of the winners)

Here’s the start of the lengthyWikipedia article on Travelers, called The Travelers Companies, with a greatdeal of information on the history of the Travelers:

TheTravelers Companies, Inc., commonly known asTravelers,is an Americaninsurancecompany. It is the second-largest writer ofU.S. commercial property casualty insurance, and the sixth-largest writer ofU.S. personal insurance through independent agents. Travelers is incorporatedin Minnesota, with headquarters inNew York City, and its largest officein Hartford, Connecticut.It has been a component of theDow JonesIndustrial Averagesince June 8, 2009.

The company has fieldoffices in every U.S. state, plus operations in theUnited Kingdom,Ireland, Singapore, China, Canada, and Brazil. Travelers ranked No. 98 in the2021Fortune 500list of the largest United States corporations withtotal revenue of $32 billion.

HISTORY. The mainpredecessor companies of The Travelers Companies, Inc. are The St. PaulCompanies, Inc. and Travelers Property Casualty Corporation.

SaintPaul Fire and Marine Insurance Co.was founded March5, 1853, in St. Paul, Minnesota, to serve local customers in lieu of waitingfor claim payments from insurance companies on theEast Coast. It barelysurvived thePanic of 1857by dramatically paring down its operationsand later reorganizing itself into a stock company(as opposed toamutual company). It then spread its operations across the country.

In 1998 itacquiredUSF&G, known formerly as United States Fidelity and GuarantyCompany, an insurance company based inBaltimore, Maryland, for $3.9billion in stock and assumed debt.By buying USF&G, they went from the13th to the eighth largest property and casualty insurance company in theUnited States. Through economies of scale between the two companies, and adifficult business environment, they downsized the company substantially overthe coming years by selling certain business units to focus on more profitablebusiness units.

TheTravelers Insurance Companywas founded in Hartford by JamesG. Batterson, astone contractor who became aware for the first timeofaccident insurancefor travelers (i.e., an early form of travelinsurance) while traveling in England in 1859 from Leamington toLondon.His railway ticket includedaccidental deathinsurancecoverage up to the amount of £1,000, and lesser indemnities for non-fatalinjuries.Batterson visited the London and Paris offices of Europeaninsurers to learn about the accident insurance business, then went home toHartford and raised $500,000 in capital to launch a company to provide accidentinsurance to American travelers.

Travelers obtained itsofficial state charter on June 17, 1863.The company did not issue itsfirst regular insurance policy until April 5, 1864, but informally entered intoits first insurance agreement a month earlier.On March 1, 1864, localbanker James Bolter jokingly inquired of Batterson how much it would cost toinsure him up to $5,000 for accidental death for the journey from the postoffice to his home.Batterson replied, "Two cents," which Bolterpromptly tendered; those coins have been kept by Travelers ever since.Theoriginal company logo was aknight’s suit of armor.The red umbrellafirst appeared in Travelers advertising as early as 1870, but at that time wasnot yet the official logo.The company changed its official logo from asuit of armor to the Travelers Tower in 1920, and then replaced that with thered umbrella in 1959.

During the 20th century,Travelers was responsible for many insurance industry firsts, including thefirst automobile policy (1897), the first air travel policy (1919), and thefirst space travel policy (late 1960s, for astronauts in theApollo program).In1954, the company established the world's first privately owned weatherresearch facility, theTravelers Weather Research Center, the firstorganization to make weather predictions using probabilities ("20% chanceof rain").

By the early 1990s,Travelers was predominantly a general property and casualty insurer that alsohappened to do some travel insurance on the side, and in February 1994,Travelers quietly exited its original travel insurance business by selling theunit to a retiring Travelers executive.The resulting company is now knownas Travel Insured International,a Crum and Forster Company.

In the 1990s, Travelerswent through a series of mergers and acquisitions. It was boughtbyPrimericain December 1993, but the resulting company retained theTravelers name.In 1995 it becameThe Travelers Group. ItboughtAetna’s property and casualty business in 1996.

In April 1998, theTravelers Group merged with Citicorp to form Citigroup. However, the synergiesbetween the banking and insurance arms of the company did not work as well asplanned, so Citigroup spun off Travelers Property and Casualty into a subsidiarycompany in 2002,although it kept the redumbrella logo. Three yearslater, Citigroup sold Travelers Life & Annuity toMetLife.In2003, Travelers bought renewal rights for Royal & SunAlliance PersonalInsurance and Commercial businesses.

In 2004, the St. Pauland Travelers Companies merged and renamed itselfSt. Paul Travelers,with its headquarters set in St. Paul, Minnesota.In August of that year,it was charged with making misleading statements in connection with themerger.Despite many assurances from CEO Jay Fishman that the newly formedcompany would retain the St. Paul name, the corporate name only lasted until2007, when the company repurchased the rights to the famous red umbrella logofrom Citigroup and readopted it as its main corporate symbol, while alsochanging the corporate name toThe Travelers Companies.In2009, Travelers designated its New York City office as its headquarters forlegal purposes, but as a practical matter, the company considers its"executive offices" to be New York City, Hartford, and St. Paul, ofwhich Hartford is by far the largest.

Many of Travelers'ancestor companies, such as St. Paul and USF&G, are technically stillaround today, and still write policies and accept claims in their own names(under the overarching Travelers brand name). As is typical ofmostinsurers in the United States,Travelers never dissolved thevarious companies it acquired, but simply made them wholly owned subsidiariesand trained its employees to act on behalf of those subsidiaries. This is acommon risk management strategy used by U.S. insurance groups. If any onecompany in the group gets hit with too many claims, the situation can be easilycontained to that one company (which is placed in runoff and allowed to run itspolicies to completion), while the remainder of the group continues to operatenormally.

In November 2010,Travelers entered into ajoint ventureagreement under which thecompany would invest in J. Malucelli Participações em Seguros e RessegurosS.A., the market leader in the surety insurance business in Brazil. Thetransaction closed in June 2011 with Travelers acquiring a 43.4 percentinterest. Travelers' investment in newly issued shares significantly increasedJ. Malucelli's capital level, positioning it for substantial growth in Brazil.At the time, Travelers had the option to increase its investment to retain a49.5 percent interest, which the company later did in 2012.

In June 2013, Travelersannounced the acquisition ofDominion of Canada General InsuranceCompanyfrom E-L Financial Corporation Limited (TSX: ELF).Thetransaction later closed in November 2013. The combined organization, referredto as Travelers Canada, remains headquartered inToronto.

The company's jointventure with J. Malucelli in Brazil completed the acquisition of a majorityinterest in Cardinal Compañía de Seguros, a Colombian start-up surety providerin September 2015. The business, which is based inBogotá, operates under theco-branded name J. Malucelli Travelers.

In October 2015,Travelers acquired amajority interestin the property casualtybusiness of its J. Malucelli joint venture in Brazil. J. Malucelli commencedwriting property casualty business in 2012.The property casualty businessoperates under the Travelers brand and focuses on property, general liability,construction and financial insurance products. The business is based in SãoPaulo.

As a result of thetransaction, Travelers now owns 95 percent of the property casualty businesswith Paraná Banco, the parent company of J. Malucelli, retaining a five percentinterest. Travelers’ interest in the surety business of the J. Malucelli jointventure remains at 49.5 percent.

In March 2017, Travelersagreed to acquire UK-based Simply Business from Aquiline Capital Partners forapproximately $490 million. Simply Business is a leading U.K. distributor ofsmall business insurance policies, offering products online on behalf of abroad panel of carriers. It has more than 425,000 microbusiness customerscovering more than 1,000 classes of business and was named “Best Company toWork For” byThe Sunday Timesin 2015 and 2016. Thetransaction adds to Travelers' digital capabilities.

In 2018, Travelersranked 106 on theFortune 500list of largest U.S. companies.OnJune 8, 2009, Travelers replaced its former parent Citigroup on theDowJones Industrial Average.

On August 4, 2015, thecompany announced that Alan Schnitzer would succeed Jay Fishman as ChiefExecutive Officer effective December 1, 2015.

On August 4, 2017,Travelers completed its previously announced acquisition ofSimplyBusiness, a leading provider of small business insurance policies in the UnitedKingdom.

On August 15, 2018,Travelers acquired the majority stake of Zensurance, a digital businessinsurance brokerage in Canada.

The overall condition of thisdouble-stapled publication, with numerous black-and-white photographs andillustrations, is fair to good. There's staining and likely water or other liquid damage on the bottom of the front and rear covers, the former featuring two snowmen and a silhouette of the Travelers Hartford skyscraper above the title. There's no writing anywhere on the wrapper, or inside the publication's 28 glossy pages (all of which are shown in the photos I've uploaded), but there's water damage at the bottom of all the pages within, as well as spotting, smudging, corner bends, etc. There are no annotations, marginalia, underlining, scribbles, etc., within, nor any otherdamage or flaws in the way of clipped or missing pages, tape repairs, largetears, etc. In addition to the aforementioned spotting, smudging, corner bends, and water (orother liquid) damage, the pages are a bit rippled / wrinkled, etc. Also, the two silver-tone metal staples have rusted a bit, causing some browning on the centerfold pages and the wrapper. Thepublication has neither a musty nor smoky odor.

This copy of the January 1924 issue ofThe Travelers Beaconis beingsold AS IS,AS DESCRIBED ABOVE AND PICTURED WITHIN. I am setting what Ifeel is a very reasonable starting price for the sale, and there is . I am also including a Buy It Now price.

Shipping andhandling for thepublication: $5 to U.S. addresses (via MediaMail).

Note that has now instituted ashipping program whereby buyers from outside the U.S. can offer on or buy allsellers' items, and the seller sends everything to an facility in the USfor shipping. So far, this seems to be working out well (though one item I soldto someone in China never made it to its destination, though very quicklyrefunded the buyer).

If you want this publication sentmorequicklyto you (e.g., via Priority Mail in the U.S.),youmust request this asap after winning or purchasing it (or beforehand,if possible), and I will adjust the amount accordingly.

I will do my best to send thepublication out to you no more than 2-3 business days following receipt ofpayment (that is,when informs me that your payment has been postedto or otherwise cleared in my account).

If you are the winner or buyer of thiscopy ofThe Travelers Beacon, PAYMENT IS EXPECTED WITHIN ONE WEEK(7 DAYS) FROM THE PURCHASE DATE. If you cannot pay within this time frame,PLEASE contact me asap so we can work something out. I'm very flexible andunderstanding, but I would appreciate communication from you one way oranother.

PLEASE NOTE THAT RETURNS WILL NOT BEACCEPTED NOR REFUNDS MADE FOR THIS PUBLICATION, SO PLEASE READ MY DESCRIPTIONCAREFULLY, LOOK CLOSELY AT THE PHOTOGRAPHS I’VE UPLOADED, AND ASK ME ANYQUESTIONS YOU MAY HAVE ABOUT THE CONTENTS OR CONDITION OF THE ITEM. THANKS FORYOUR UNDERSTANDING!

Thanks for looking, and please don'thesitate to email me if you have anyquestions about this January 1924 (Vol. 5, No. 7) issue ofThe Travelers Beacon, edited by Mary A. Bowers.

PLEASE NOTE THAT, IF POSSIBLE, I WILLHAPPILY ADJUST SHIPPING CHARGES FOR MULTIPLE PURCHASES!!! (THIS DOES NOT APPLYTO SALES FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S. AT THIS TIME.)

ALSO, NOTE THAT, IF APPLICABLE, WILL ADD ANY APPROPRIATE STATE SALES TAX TO THE INVOICE.

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