Representative Theodore Albert Peyser

Theodore Albert Peyser (February 18, 1873 – August 8, 1937) was an American businessman and Democratic politician who served three terms as a member of the United States House of Representatives from New York during the 1930s. His congressional service, which extended from 1933 to 1939 and is also cited as covering the period from 1932 to 1937, took place during a transformative era in American political and economic life, as the nation confronted the Great Depression and the early years of the New Deal.

Born on February 18, 1873, Peyser came of age in the late nineteenth century, a period marked by rapid industrialization and urban growth in the United States. Details of his early life, including his family background and formative influences, are not extensively documented in the surviving public record, but he entered adulthood at a time when business and finance were becoming central to the nation’s economic development. This environment shaped his early pursuits and laid the groundwork for his later career in both business and public service.

Before entering national politics, Peyser established himself as a businessman. His professional activities in the private sector provided him with practical experience in economic and commercial affairs, experience that would later inform his legislative work. As an American businessman operating in the early twentieth century, he witnessed firsthand the cycles of prosperity and hardship that characterized the period, including the boom years of the 1920s and the subsequent collapse that ushered in the Great Depression. This background contributed to his understanding of the challenges facing his constituents and the broader national economy.

Peyser’s political career reached its height with his election as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives from New York. He served as a Representative from New York in the United States Congress from 1933 to 1939, encompassing three terms in office, and is also recorded as having served three terms from 1932 to 1937. During these years he participated actively in the legislative process at the federal level. As a member of the House of Representatives, he represented the interests of his New York constituents at a time when questions of economic recovery, social welfare, and federal intervention in the economy dominated the national agenda.

Serving during a significant period in American history, Peyser took part in the democratic process as Congress debated and enacted major policy responses to the Great Depression. As a Democratic member of the House, he was situated within the majority party that supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal initiatives. In this capacity, he contributed to the legislative deliberations that shaped federal policy in areas such as economic relief, financial regulation, and public works, helping to give voice to the concerns of his district within the broader national conversation.

Theodore Albert Peyser remained in office through the mid-1930s, a time when the initial emergency measures of the New Deal were followed by efforts to institutionalize longer-term reforms. His three terms in Congress reflected both the confidence of his constituents and the central role New York played in national political and economic life during this era. His service concluded in the later 1930s, consistent with the overlapping accounts that place the end of his tenure between 1937 and 1939.

Peyser died on August 8, 1937, bringing to a close a public career that had coincided with one of the most challenging periods in modern American history. Remembered as both an American businessman and a Democratic Representative from New York, he left a record of service that linked private-sector experience with legislative responsibility, and his time in Congress stands as part of the broader story of how elected officials responded to the economic and social upheavals of the 1930s.