The Atlas Corporation is an American

investment firm An investment company is a financial institution principally engaged in holding, managing and investing securities. These companies in the United States are regulated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and must be registered under th ...

that was formed in 1928.

History

Atlas corporation was formed in 1928, in a merger of the United Corporation, an investment firm started in 1923 with $40,000, with Atlas Utilities and Investors Ltd. The corporation specialized in

capital formation Capital formation is a concept used in macroeconomics, national accounts and financial economics. Occasionally it is also used in corporate accounts. It can be defined in three ways: *It is a specific statistical concept, also known as net invest ...

and management. In 1929, Atlas was a $12,550,000

investment trust An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as Public limited company, public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot red ...

. The company was able to shrewdly weather the Wall Street crash of 1929, and continue to grow through the 1930s and 1940s. The corporation was founded by

Floyd Odlum Floyd Bostwick Odlum (March 30, 1892 – June 17, 1976) was an American lawyer and industrialist. He has been described as "possibly the only man in the United States who made a great fortune out of the Depression", referring to the Great Depre ...

and his brother-in-law Boyd Hatch. With Floyd Odlum as president and Boyd Hatch as vice-president, Atlas invested, managed or controlled numerous industries, including

Greyhound Lines Greyhound Lines, Inc. is an American operator of Intercity bus service, intercity bus services. Greyhound operates the largest intercity bus network in the United States, and also operates charter and Amtrak Thruway services, as well as interci ...

Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the partnership a ...

(acquired 1934) and Franklin Simon & Co. (acquired 1936) ladies' apparel stores,

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...

, and various mines, utility companies, aviation related businesses, and banks. After Atlas Corporation acquired the Bonwit Teller ladies' apparel stores, Floyd Odlum convinced his wife,

Hortense Odlum Hortense McQuarrie Odlum (July 17, 1892 – January 12, 1970) was the first woman president of Bonwit Teller Department Store in New York City and the first wife of financier Floyd Odlum. Biography Hortense McQuarrie was born on July 17, 1892, i ...

, to become involved in the store's operations. She became the first female president of a major department store chain when she became president of Bonwit Teller in 1934. In 1948,

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American Aerospace engineering, aerospace engineer, business magnate, film producer, and investor. He was The World's Billionaires, one of the richest and most influential peo ...

acquired controlling interest in

RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...

from Atlas. The Atlas Missile program was named after the Atlas Corporation, the contractor through its Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, (later

Convair Convair, previously Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, was an American aircraft-manufacturing company that later expanded into rockets and spacecraft. The company was formed in 1943 by the merger of Consolidated Aircraft and Vultee ...

) subsidiary, which was used in the Mercury missions to send astronauts into orbit. Today, the company has ownership in natural resources investments.

References

{{Authority control Financial services companies established in 1928 Investment companies of the United States Holding companies of the United States Holding companies established in 1928 American companies established in 1928