You've heard about "taking a long-term view." We're giving it a twist. We examine how we got to where we are in the U.S. fund industry, with a long look back - to the 1800s, when a forerunner of the mutual fund appeared in the United Kingdom.

Can you name three giant U.S. fund companies that were started as the nation was recovering from the Great Depression? If Vanguard Group founder John Bogle didn't create the nation's first index-based fund, who did? Check out your history skills here:

In what U.S. city was the country's first stock mutual fund launched?

A. New York

B. Philadelphia

C. Baltimore

D. Boston

Answer: D. Though New York was a financial powerhouse in the early 1900s, wealth built up over decades of mercantile trade made Boston a center for money management. In the 19th century, rich sea captains would depart for voyages that lasted months, leaving their money to be managed by a "Boston trustee."

In 1924, the founders of the company now known as MFS Investment Management, a unit of Sun Life Financial Inc., invented Massachusetts Investors Trust, with the goal of bringing the power of investing to more Americans.

Which of the following wasn't true of this first U.S. mutual fund?

A. The fund borrowed money to increase small investors' exposure to the roaring market of the latter 1920s.

B. The fund's initial minimum investment was $250, equivalent to the price of a Model T.

C. The fund pioneered the concept of an "open end" fund, meaning investors could redeem their shares from the fund at any time for their full value, without having to find a buyer for the shares.

Answer: A. Massachusetts Investors Trust focused on large, blue-chip, dividend-paying stocks, and unlike many other funds at the time, it avoided leverage. The original portfolio held stocks such as General Electric Co., Standard Oil of Indiana (now part of BP PLC) and American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T Inc.) By the time the stock market hit bottom in 1932, many rival funds were wiped out, but Massachusetts Investors Trust survived and exists today.

A founder of a mutual-fund company wrote in his diary in 1937: "I may be a darn fool for taking this unnecessary risk, but I am going to have the satisfaction of knowing that I tried to build my own business. If I later fail, I will have no regrets." Who was it?

A. Jonathan Bell Lovelace, founder of Capital Research & Management Co., which runs American Funds

B. Van Duyn Dodge, co-founder of Dodge & Cox mutual funds

C. E. Morris Cox, co-founder of Dodge & Cox mutual funds

D. T. Rowe Price Jr., founder of T. Rowe Price Group Inc. mutual funds

Answer: D, Price. But all three of the fund companies were founded in the same era. Dodge & Cox was founded in 1930, and Capital Research in 1931. Perhaps because of their Depression-era roots, the three firms are known for their frugality, offering generally low-cost mutual funds.

What was Fidelity Investments' first mutual fund and its start date?

A. Fidelity Shares, 1930

B. Fidelity Pilgrim, 1943

C. Fidelity Puritan, 1946

D. Fidelity Magellan, 1963

Answer: A. While 1946 is generally recognized as the date Fidelity Management & Research Co. was founded, its roots stretch to 1930 when a group of Boston investors set up Fidelity Shares.

Renamed Fidelity Fund in 1943, it had failed to make significant inroads in the industry when Edward C. Johnson II, whose family runs Fidelity Investments today, bought the contract for the fund and became its president.

Fidelity Puritan Fund was launched after World War II. Magellan, meanwhile, began life in 1963 - as Fidelity International Fund. It got its current name in 1965, when Fidelity renamed the fund to broaden its scope to include U.S. stocks.

Fidelity Pilgrim doesn't exist.

Vaudeville comedian Eddie Cantor played a bit part in fund-industry history during the 1930s. What was it?

A. The popular entertainer was featured in fund-industry advertisements to help restore confidence in Wall Street.

B. He sued for losses he suffered in a Goldman Sachs Trading Corp. investment fund, and made the company the butt of jokes.

C. After suffering big losses, he quit showbiz to found a securities business.

Answer: B. By 1930, Goldman Sachs Trading represented much of the excesses of investing in the 1920s, due partly to Cantor.

The 1970s were a tough stretch for mutual funds in the U.S., as the stock market fell, inflation accelerated and oil shortages frightened the country. Which of the following wasn't a Fidelity innovation to improve business during this harsh period?

A. The industry's first money-market mutual fund.

B. Check writing as a money-market-fund feature.

C. Direct sales to individual investors through a toll-free telephone line.

D. Computerized telephone system to provide price and yield quotes around the clock.

Answer: A. New York-based Reserve Funds and some other rivals already were offering the first money-market mutual funds when Fidelity in 1974 introduced Fidelity Daily Income Trust. Fidelity's various other moves, though, are credited with helping to revolutionize the mutual-fund industry.

In one of the seemingly oddest pairings around, what was the business of the longtime corporate parent of what is now Denver-based Janus Capital Group Inc.?

A. Food manufacturing

B. Railroads

C. Mining

D. Ski-resort operation

Answer: B. Railroads, specifically Kansas City Southern. The railroaders spun off the fund company and its other financial units in 2000 as Stilwell Financial. Janus managers ultimately took control of Stilwell and changed the name to Janus Capital.