The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Explore The Travelers Companies
Core profile pages, annual revenue records, and related research hubs for this company.
The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Explore The Travelers Companies
Core profile pages, annual revenue records, and related research hubs for this company.
Company History
Founded 1853 in New York, New York
Eliphalet Terry, James G. Batterson, and Henry R. Fitch established the Firemen's Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut in 1853, selling accident coverage to travelers on the Hartford to New York railroad line for a penny per mile. The premise was simple: people traveling by rail faced a new kind of accidental injury risk that no existing insurance product addressed. The new product worked. The company renamed itself The Travelers Insurance Company in 1864 and introduced the now-iconic red umbrella as its symbol in 1898.
The red umbrella was chosen deliberately as a visual metaphor for protection — something that keeps you dry when conditions turn bad. It became one of the most recognized corporate symbols in American insurance history, surviving multiple acquisitions, divestitures, and corporate restructurings over the following century.
The 1906 San Francisco earthquake was the company's first catastrophic test. Travelers paid claims. The 1990 asbestos and environmental liability crisis was the second — and more existential — test. Industrial companies had used asbestos for decades, creating latent injury claims that would not be filed until decades after the exposure. Insurers who had written general liability policies for those companies found themselves facing liabilities that their original pricing assumptions had not anticipated. Travelers spent years managing and reserving against those exposures before reaching resolution in 1995.
The current corporate structure reflects a 2004 merger of Travelers Property Casualty with St. Paul Companies, creating a combined entity with significantly more geographic and product diversification. The red umbrella and the Hartford roots remain, but the company now writes commercial lines across every major industry sector and personal lines in most US states.
Eliphalet Terry (1798–1875) was an American merchant, industrialist, and the primary architect of the conservative underwriting philosophy that defined the early years of Travelers Insurance. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Terry made his early fortune in the mercantile trade before recognizing the massive, unpriced risk of catastrophic fire in the rapidly industrializing cities of the American Northeast. In 1853, he led a group of prominent Hartford businessmen in pooling their capital to form the Firemen's Insurance Company of Hartford, serving as the company's first president. Terry's philosophy was that an insurance company's only true asset was its capital surplus, and he insisted on maintaining reserves far exceeding statutory requirements, a strategy that allowed the company to survive the Great Boston Fire of 1871 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He later served in the Connecticut state legislature and was a major philanthropist, donating heavily to local hospitals and educational institutions. Terry's vision transformed a small, localized fire underwriter into a national financial institution, embedding a culture of extreme capital conservatism that remains the foundational DNA of Travelers today.
James G. Batterson (1803–1889) was an American businessman, insurance executive, and educational philanthropist who played a foundational role in the creation and early expansion of Travelers Insurance. Born in Hartford, Connecticut, Batterson started his career in the marble and monument business before shifting his focus to the nascent insurance industry. He partnered with Eliphalet Terry to form the Firemen's Insurance Company of Hartford in 1853, serving as a key director and strategic advisor during the company's formative years. Batterson's genius lay in risk diversification; he recognized that the concentrated urban fire risk was inherently volatile, and he successfully lobbied the board to expand into marine and inland marine insurance in 1859, covering the cargo and vessels that were transporting goods along the rapidly expanding canal and river networks of the Midwest. This strategic move diversified the company's risk pool and established the template for its future expansion into transportation and accident insurance. After amassing significant wealth from the insurance business, Batterson shifted his focus to the European art trade and philanthropy, ultimately playing a key role in the founding of the Wadsworth Atheneum museum of art in Hartford. His legacy endures both in the diversified risk model he helped establish and the cultural institutions he endowed.
Travelers traces part of its history to insurance organizations dating back to 1853, making it one of the oldest names in U.S. insurance.
The Travelers name became associated with accident insurance in Hartford during the railroad era, laying the brand foundation for later expansion.
The merger of The St. Paul Companies and Travelers created a major property and casualty insurer with greater commercial lines scale.
Travelers acquired Simply Business, expanding digital small-business insurance capabilities.
Travelers reported $48.828 billion in total revenues and $6.288 billion in net income for 2025.
Travelers completed the sale of its Canadian personal insurance and most Canadian commercial insurance operations to Definity in January 2026.
Travelers traces its origins to 1853, with Eliphalet Terry, James Batterson, and Henry Fitch tied to the founding story.
Travelers' specialty and commercial insurance scale made it a leading U.S. property-casualty carrier.
Travelers expanded by building business insurance, personal insurance, bond and specialty coverage, auto, home, and workers' compensation, serving businesses, households, agents, brokers, policyholders, and specialty insurance buyers, and using underwriting discipline, pricing, agent relationships, specialty lines, analytics, and investment income.
This Travelers history page covers founding, growth milestones, leadership changes, and modern strategic context.