1920s / 1930s / 1940s / 1950s / 1960s / 1970s / 1980s / 1990s / 2000s

The nineteen fifties began with the continued adjustment toward peacetime operations.
 
Confidence was growing, industrial production rising, commodity prices firming, and the prices of common stocks soaring. However, the sudden shock of the Korean conflict and the fear of another world war temporarily brought stock prices down. By 1951, the US economy was dominated by a shift from peacetime to "garrison-state" conditions, which supported high levels of business activity in the war industries. The wide variations in equity prices demanded the careful investment selection of Tri-Continental's approach.
 
The fifties also marked important milestones in Tri-Continental's history. Selected Industries merged with Tri-Continental, culminating the business relationship begun more than 20 years prior, and increasing Tri-Continental's assets to more than $127 million. In 1951, Tri-Continental established a regular quarterly dividend distribution policy. Most significant, the Corporation became the country's largest, diversified, publicly traded closed-end investment company in 1951. Nineteen fifty-six marked the first year in which Tri-Continental's dividend payments to both Preferred and Common Stockholders passed the $10 million mark.
 
Also in 1956, Union Securities Corp., the wholly-owned securities underwriting subsidiary of Tri-Continental, transferred the portion of the business involved in securities underwriting and distribution to the firm Eastman, Dillon, thereafter known as Eastman, Dillon, Union Securities & Co. The intermediate financing portion of the business was retained, and Union Securities Corp. was renamed Tri-Continental Financial Corporation. Tri-Continental Financial Corporation's focus was on intermediate financing and the acquisition of interests, often illiquid, in situations that required holding the investments for extended periods to realize the profit potential. In this business, Tri-Continental was a pioneer in what is an active area of the financial world today.