Ira Galtman is part of a small community of corporate archivists. They are historians, cataloguers and documentarians for large companies. They keep track of how companies change their products over time, while also looking for ways for the company to harken back to its history.
For nearly three decades, Galtman’s job has been to document how American Express went from a packing, shipping and express stagecoach company in New York in 1850, to the inventor of the traveler’s cheque in the 1890s to the credit card company it is today. He’s also popular on TikTok, where cardmembers ask him regularly for AmEx trivia.
