Edward Laning, a mural painter who lost his personal fortune in the stock market crash, gained a measure of revenge in this melodramatic version of the panic on the Stock Exchange floor. Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney stands illuminated and unperturbed in the center as prices and brokers collapse around him. A few years later, however, Whitney went to prison for stealing from other people’s accounts to cover his own losses.Collection of John. P. Axelrod/Picture Research Consultants & Archives.