Harriman, Ripley and Company was an investment bank created by the partners of Brown Brothers Harriman after the passage of the Glass Steagall Act mandated firewalls between commercial banks and investment banks. Brown Brother Harriman positioned itself into a private bank while Harriman Ripley engaged in the marketing and underwriting of securities. Employees were recruited primarily from Brown Brothers Harriman, and also from the National City Bank. Harriman Ripley maintained offices in Boston, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. E. Roland Harriman and W. Averell Harriman owned the company outright until 1946, when it was reorganized and the brothers wound up with 97% of the non-voting stock and 43% of the voting stock.
In 1965, the firm merged with the fellow "white shoe firm" Drexel and Company, creating Drexel Harriman Ripley. In the mid-1970s, it sold a 25 percent stake to Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, renaming itself Drexel Firestone, which evolved into Drexel Burnham Lambert after the 1976 absorption of the boutique investment research firm William D. Witter.