He did so in part to seek a commission from President George Washington as superintendent of construction for the new federal city then being built along the Potomac River (an amateur architect, Blodget would later design the First Bank of the United States building in Philadelphia[4]), but also to collaborate on a business venture with former U.S. Postmaster General Ebenezer Hazard, who owned a counting house in the city.

[5] Hazard had previously invested in an idea of Blodget's called the Boston Tontine, a sort of early annuity fund that also acted as a lottery for the last surviving investor.

In November 1792, its investors met at the Pennsylvania State House (today Independence Hall) to decide what to do with their fund.

Due to opposition from private underwriters and others, the legislature took over a year to approve the petition; Governor Thomas Mifflin signed the charter incorporating INA on April 14, 1794.

[citation needed] The board of directors appointed Henry to head a committee "to consider as to the benefit and propriety of extending insurances against Fire generally to other Cities and Towns in other States beyond what is now customary to take."

Henry's committee recommended in favor, and the board authorized INA President John Inskeep to appoint "suitable and trusty persons at such places as he shall think advisable to act as Surveyors and Agents of the Company whose duty it shall be to Survey and Certify the situation of all Buildings and property on which insurance is required, at the expense of the persons applying therefor [sic]."

On January 26, 1808, Inskeep appointed agents to Lexington, Frankfort, and Louisville, Kentucky; Washington, Pennsylvania, near the Ohio border; and Cincinnati.

[13] This is often credited as the start of the "American agency system," and in 1957 a marker was erected on the campus of Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky, commemorating the 150th anniversary of the event.

[14] In 1850, INA bought a property at 232 Walnut Street in Philadelphia to begin the tenure of its longest-serving home office site.

[25] The Insurance Company of North America Building, at 1600 Arch Street, opened in 1925 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

[26] INA came out of the Great Depression as one of the nation's largest insurance companies, with total assets in December 1941 of about $117 million.

[27] In 1942, INA celebrated its 150th anniversary through the book Biography of a Business, a narrative history of the company by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Marquis James and published by Bobbs-Merrill.

[35] As the financial services industry emerged in the 1960s, INA's directors sought to diversify further by entering insurance-related and non-insurance businesses.

[39] Effective July 2, 1999, ACE Limited acquired CIGNA's international and U.S. property and casualty businesses, including INA.

Includes much about the history of INA and the CIGNA Property & Casualty companies prior to their acquisition by ACE Limited in 1999.