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History of the Treasury
Secretaries of the Treasury
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Frederick Moore Vinson
(1945- 1946)
During World War II, Fred M. Vinson (1890-1953) was director
of the Office of Economic Stabilization, an executive agency charged with
fighting inflation. In 1946, President Truman named him Secretary of the
Treasury. His mission  was to stabilize the American economy during
the last months of the war and to adapt the United States financial position
to the drastically changed circumstances of the postwar world. Before the
war ended, Vinson directed the last of the great war-bond drives.
At the end of the war, he negotiated payment of the
British Loan of 1940, the largest loan made by the United States to another
country, and the lend-lease settlements of economic and military aid given
to the allies during the war. In order to encourage private investment
in postwar America, he promoted a tax cut in the Revenue Act of 1945.
He also supervised the inauguration of the International Bank for Reconstruction
and Development and the International Monetary Fund, both created at the
Bretton Woods Conference of 1944, acting as the first chairman of their
respective boards. In 1946 Vinson resigned from Treasury to be appointed
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court by Truman.
About the Artist
Thomas Edgar Stephens was born in England in 1886 and studied art at Cardiff University in Wales, at the Heatherly School in London, and at the Académie Julian in Paris. He came to New York in 1929 and became a United States citizen. His distinguished sitters include the Duke of Windsor, General Douglas MacArthur, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He also painted the last life portrait of Sir Winston Churchill. His portrait of Fred M. Vinson was painted from life and presented to the Treasury Department in 1952. Stephens painted another portrait of Vinson, as Chief Justice, which hangs in the trustee's boardroom at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Office of the Curator
All rights reserved. 2001
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