Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society

This Week in SEC History

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New IN THE MUSEUM

Oral History of Carman G. Blough, SEC’s First Chief Accountant

During the 30 years from 1934 to 1964, Blough played a significant role in virtually every development in the field of professional accounting. He was without doubt one of the most influential ‘high priests’ of the profession during the Twentieth Century.

- Moonitz, Maurice. "Memorial: Carman George Blough 1895-1981." The Accounting Review 57, no. 1 (1982): 147-60. Accessed June 25, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/246745.

Carman George Blough (1895 – 1981)
Carman George Blough (1895 – 1981)

Carman G. Blough joined the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a staff member in 1934, the year the agency was established. Blough then became the Commission’s first Chief Accountant in December 1935, where he served through May 1938.

The Society is grateful to Dr. Stephen A. Zeff (Keith Anderson Professor of Accounting at the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University) for his recent donation of a written transcript of his 1967 interview with Carman G. Blough.

Read the Transcript (PDF)

A simple search of “Blough” using the museum’s search feature will return a number of additional items, including speeches, lectures, letters, memos and other artifacts related to this important historical figure.

New Gallery
Original PCAB Eight floor Reception Sign, from 2003 – 2019.
Original PCAOB headquarters reception sign, in place from 2003-2019.

Auditing the Auditors: Creating the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

The Society is pleased to open its newest gallery on the founding and early history of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), a unique regulatory entity established by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to oversee, inspect and enforce standards for auditors of publicly traded companies.

Visit the Gallery

THANK YOU! This gallery was curated by Lucy Harvey and is sponsored by the Center for Audit Quality and its Governing Board member firms: Deloitte & Touche LLP, EY, KPMG LLP, PwC, Grant Thornton LLP, Crowe LLP, BDO USA, and RSM US LLP.

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