INTRODUCTION
[Photos]
The Annual Report of the American Numismatic Society for the year
beginning October 1, 1995 and ending September 30, 1996 is
presented herewith.
The Society's educational activities were greatly enhanced this
past year by the acts of generous members. This past spring we
announced the establishment of the Stephen K. Scher Lecture,
endowed by Mr. and Mrs. Scher, to be presented each year in
conjunction with the Saltus Award Meeting. This summer we
received an anonymous donation to endow the Margaret Thompson
Memorial Lecture, to be delivered at the Huntington Award Meeting
by the honoree. Also beginning this past year, the January
meeting of the Society, featuring talks by recent Graduate
Seminar students, has been designated the David M. Bullowa
Memorial Conference, with generous funding from Catherine
Bullowa-Moore, continuing her long and loyal support of
educational programs at the ANS. Finally, the Stack Family
continues its sponsorship, now in the third decade, of the
Society's spring meeting devoted to presentations on Western
Hemisphere topics.
The inaugural Forum on Arab-Byzantine Coins was held at the
Society in late November, cosponsored by the ANS and the Oriental
Numismatic Society and cochaired by Michael L. Bates, ANS Curator
of Islamic Coins, and Laurence Silbert, an enthusiastic
collector. At the end of the year under review, plans were well
along for the second annual meeting devoted to issues connected
with the copper coinage of the eastern Mediterranean after the
Arab conquest. Earlier in November, nine speakers participated in
the 1995 Coinage of the Americas Conference, held at the ANS on
"Coinage of the American Confederation Period." Dr. Philip
Mossman, who served as Program Chairman, also edited the
resultant proceedings volume which includes, in addition to the
conference papers, an important catalogue of the Comitia
Americana medals in the ANS, based on an exhibition which opened
during COAC 1995. Mossman, author of the award winning Coinage of
the American Colonies and Confederation, published by the ANS in
1993, has also volunteered his services as the new editor of the
Colonial Newsletter, the premier journal in the field of American
Colonial coinage and currency, which was donated to the Society
this past year by the Colonial Newsletter Foundation and its
President, James C. Spilman, who has served as Editor of CNL
since 1963. We are grateful to the CNL Foundation for this
opportunity to further strengthen the Society's commitment to
early American numismatics.
We owe a debt of continuing gratitude to the Harry Bass Research
Foundation for supporting the Society's rapidly growing ability
to communicate and provide services via the Internet. The HBRF provided expert
assistance in the creation of an ANS domain address
(amnumsoc.org) which permits Society staff members to utilize e-
mail to communicate worldwide and participate in specialized
discussion groups via the Internet. Last winter, we cooperated
with the HBRF in the "Numismatic Indexes Project," which makes
available ANS and other important American journals and
periodicals through electronically searchable indexes. NIP, as
this bibliographic tool is known, has been inte-grated into the
Society's own Web Site (http://www.amnumsoc.org), which came on
line just after the close of the year under review and is managed
for the ANS by the HBRF.
Another educational outreach innovation of the past year is the
ANS Speakers Bureau through which organizations may request
presentations by ANS staff members. The topics currently offered
are listed in an information brochure available from the Society.
ANS curators participated in two cosponsored conferences in the
Society's ongoing effort to reach members and the public in
cities distant from New York. At the Chicago conference on "The
Science of Numismatics," this past March, a large and
enthusiastic audience heard ten speakers including William E.
Metcalf and John M. Kleeberg from the ANS.
I had the privilege of addressing the gathering at the dinner
which followed the program. The extremely well organized event
was cochaired by Harlan J. Berk and Robert D. Leonard to whom we
all owe a great debt of thanks. In May, Carmen Arnold-Biucchi and
William L. Metcalf represented the Society at the second ANS/San
Francisco Ancient Numismatic Society conference, which this year
brought together eight speakers addressing the theme "Western
Asia Minor in Graeco-Roman Times." Held on the campus of UC
Berkeley, the event was again this year ably organized by Gerald
F. Borrmann and Ben Lee Damsky.
At the 1996 Annual Meeting, Ben Damsky and Stephen K. Scher were
elected to the Society's Council, together with incumbents Harry
W. Bass, Jr., Margo Russell, Martha Carter, Jonathan H. Kagan,
and Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss. Retiring from the Council by
resignation were Glen W. Bowersock, William S. Kable, and Robert
A. Robinson. Through a special Resolution of Appreciation, the
Council paid tribute to Professor Bowersock for his distinguished
service as a member of the Society's governing board since 1983.
Baldwin Maull, Honorary Councillor for Life of the ANS, died last
December at age 95. He was a member of the Society's Council for
31 years until retiring in 1987. With sadness we also recorded
the death last year of long-time volunteer and ANS Benefactor
Charles K. Panish. From his widow, the Society has received the
excellent reference library which Charles developed over many
years to support his interest in the coinage of South and
Southeast Asia.
The Library again this year accessioned significant additions
from the sale of the Armand Champa numismatic library, thanks to
the continuing generosity of individual donors and the Harry Bass
Foundation. The coin cabinet also benefitted by donations from
old and loyal friends whose knowledge of the collections is
reflected by gifts that in many instances fill specific gaps.
Again this year, volunteers played a significant role in the
recording and management of the collections. To all we express
our great thanks.
Several scholars worked in the collections this past year with
support from various fellowships sponsored by the ANS. A generous
contribution this past year inaugurated the Shaykh Hamad Bin
Abdullah Al-Thani Fellowship in Islamic Numismatics at the ANS,
named for the donor. Parvaneh Pourshariati, a historian
specializing in the early Islamic period in eastern Iran, has
been selected as the first recipient of the award. The Fellowship
in Roman Studies, funded anonymously, was held during the 1995/6
year by Mary Joann McDaniel of the University of North Carolina.
For the 1996/7 period, the Society's Graduate Fellowship in
Numismatics has been awarded to Eleonora Luciano of Indiana
University and the Frances M. Schwartz Fellowship will bring
Diana Whitecage of Bennington College to the museum. Eleven
students representing eight universities participated in this
year's Graduate Seminar in Numismatics, benefitting from the
presence of Andrea Saccocci, of the University of Udine, Italy,
who served as the Visiting Scholar for the period.
It was a great pleasure and honor this past March to welcome back
to the ANS the 1996 Huntington Award recipient, Theodore V.
Buttrey, an alumnus of the first ANS Graduate Seminar in 1952,
who subsequently served on the Society's Council for the 20 year
period 1963-83, and later was President of the Royal Numismatic
Society in London, 1989-94. The previous month, we also had the
privilege of honoring the English artist, Nicola Moss, as the
1996 Saltus Medal winner in recognition of "signal achievement in
the art of the medal," amply demonstrated by the exhibition,
"Nicola Moss, a Retrospective," on display in the Society's East
Gallery this past spring.
Another achievement of note is that accomplished by the
membership this past year. For the first time, the Society's
Annual Giving campaign exceeded $100,000 and contributions
associated with ANS Circle memberships topped $25,000, all to the
benefit of the Society's core programs. A special thanks goes to
all those who are proudly displaying their "Donor" pins denoting
a gift of $200 or more to Annual Giving. We are also pleased to
add names to each of our three aggregate giving rolls. Kenneth L.
Edlow has been named a Benefactor of the Society in recognition
of his generous contributions to our organization which now
exceed $200,000. Edlow, Secretary of Bear, Stearns & Co. in New
York City, has been a member of the ANS since 1972. He was
elected to the Society's Council in 1991, serves on the Finance
Committee, and chairs the Society's Committee on Governance. In
addition, two new Patrons of the Society were recorded, denoting
aggregate giving of at least $50,000: Chester L. Krause of Iola,
WI, and Dr. Arnold-Peter Weiss of Barrington, RI. Named as
Sponsors in recognition of giving at the $10,000 level were: Ben
Lee Damsky, Belmont, CA; Silvia Hurter, Zurich, Switzerland;
Frank L. Kovacs, San Mateo, CA; George Lill III, La Paz, Bolivia;
Anna Marguerite McCann, New York, NY; Krause Publications, Iola,
WI; and The William S. Paley Foundation of New York. We are
grateful to all who contribute to the growth and welfare of our
organization.
Three foreign scholars were honored by the Society by election as
Corresponding Members: Francois de Callatay, Curator at the
Bibliotheque Royale Albert, Brussels; Christian E. Dekesel of
Ghent who, among other responsibilities, serves as Honorary
Managing Director of the Bibliotheca Numismatica Siliciana; and
T. V. Buttrey of Cambridge, our Huntington Award honoree for
1996. For their contributions to the discipline, two members were
elected as Fellows this past year: Edoardo Levante of Paris whose
Cilician coins are being published in the SNGSwitzerland, and
Ralph W. Mathisen, Professor of History at the University of
South Carolina. A fine time was had by all this past July when
James Risk regaled the audience with information and anecdotes on
British Royal Family decorations, all part of a special
celebration here at the ANS recognizing four new Honorary Life
Members, honored for fifty years membership in the ANS: Leon
Lacroix, Liege, Belgium; Mendel L. Peterson, McLean, VA; Mark M.
Salton, Hartsdale, NY; and Randolph Zander, Alexandria, VA.
Another innovation of the past year is the formal recognition of
other important milestones of ANS membership. Members celebrating
their 25th, 30th, 40th, and 50th anniversary of membership during
1996 were sent suitably engraved lapel pins proudly displaying
their long and loyal association with the Society.
Congratulations to ANS Chief Curator William E. Metcalf on the
appearance of his latest book, The Silver Coinage of Cappadocia,
Vespasian-Commodus, published by the Society as ANSNNM 166. It is
a pleasure to report the promotion of John M. Kleeberg as Curator
of Modern Coins and Currency. Kleeberg joined the staff in early
1990. In December we welcomed Terrance Lindall as our new
Business Manager, replacing Richard A. Phillips who moved from
the area. With sadness, we accepted Arlene Jacob's decision this
past spring to retire as Society Development Officer. Happily,
she has continued as a consultant on special projects, the most
evident of which was the gala tribute dinner in honor of Eric P.
Newman which took place at the Explorers Club in New York City on
the evening preceding our 1996 Annual Meeting. It was, by any
measure, a splendid event -- well attended, beautifully served,
skillfully chaired by our good friend Joseph R. Lasser, and
infused with tributes which spoke eloquently of the affection,
warmth, and respect with which Eric Newman is held by all, and
capped by his boundless wit in acknowledging the accolades paid
him. We are reminded, at times like these, that the ANS is
blessed in many ways. May it continue to flourish!
ARTHUR A. HOUGHTON
