Winslow, Lanier & Co. was a New York-based investment firm founded by Indiana financier James Franklin Doughty Lanier and Richard Winslow in 1849.[1] It was an early source of financing of railways in the United States, selling railroad securities to private investors in the United States and Europe.[2] In the 1880s, the firm operated under the stewardship of J.F.D. Lanier's youngest son Charles D. Lanier (1837-1926), a close friend of Pierpont Morgan[3] with whom he joined on numerous railroad financings such as the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad in 1877, the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railway in 1881 and the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad in 1884.[3] One of its largest financings was a $40 million bond offering for the New York Central in 1880, co-managed with Drexel, Morgan & Co. and August Belmont & Co.[3] In the 1880s, the firm also provided financing to Thomas Edison's development of the electric light.[4]