THE AMERICAN NUMISMATIC SOCIETY GRADUATE SEMINAR
The forty-seventh Graduate Seminar in Numismatics will be held at the Museum of the American Numismatic Society from June 15 through August 14, 1999. The purpose of the Seminar is to familiarize students with numismatic methodology and scholarship and to provide them with a deeper understanding of the contributions made by numismatics to other fields of study.
The Seminar is an intensive program of study including lectures and conferences conducted by specialists in various fields, preparation and oral delivery of a paper on a topic of the student's choice, and actual contact with the coinages related to that topic. Curators of the American Numismatic Society and experts from this country and abroad will participate in the seminar.
Applications are accepted from students of demonstrated competence who will have completed at least one year of graduate work in classical studies, history, economic history, or related disciplines. Applications are also accepted from junior faculty members with an advanced degree in one of these fields.
Stipends of $2,000 are available to qualified applicants who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States and Canada. The Society will endeavor to provide round-trip travel fare from each student's home institution.
Applications are also accepted from outstanding students from foreign institutions, who have completed the equivalent of one year's graduate work, and who are able to demonstrate fluency in English. No financial aid is offered.
Information and application forms may be obtained from the Society, Broadway at 155th Street, New York, NY 10032, or from its website, http://www.amnumsoc.org. Applications must be completed by March 1, 1999, and announcement of the awards will be made by April 1.
FIDEM Congress at the Hague
The ANS and the United States as a whole were well represented at the twenty-sixth biennial congress of the Fédération Internationale de la Médaille (FIDEM) held in the Hague, Netherlands, from October 20 through 24. With 28 delegates under the leadership of ANS Curator of Medals Alan Stahl, the U.S. delegation was the largest there except for the host Dutch contingent.
On Tuesday, October 20, before the formal opening of the Congress, Stahl participated in the meeting of the Comité Exécutif of the international body on which he has served for the past decade. He also represented the United States in the Delegates Meeting later that day. In the evening he, along with vice-delegate and ANS Fellow Cory Gillilland, hosted the reception given by the U.S. delegation for the heads of the 30 other national delegations and the conference organizers. The reception, held in the Het Paleis museum, was supported by a generous donation from the United States Information Service. A highlight of the evening was the presentation to the guests of the medal commissioned specially for the occasion from sculptor Jeanne Stevens-Sollman.
The Congress itself opened in the historical Rittersaal of the Binnenhof Royal Palace, site of most Dutch state observations since the Middle Ages. At the opening session, Stephen K. Scher, ANS Councillor, gave the keynote address on "The Renaissance Portrait Medal in its Art Historical Context." An exciting surprise for the U.S. delegation was the announcement that Stevens-Sollman had won the second most important award given for the exhibition, that of the Dutch Medal Society for the best combination of word and image in a medallic work. This was only the second time in the history of FIDEM that an American artist has won an award for work in the biennial exhibition. The exhibit itself opened that evening at the new sculpture museum, Beelden an Zee, in the Hague's seafront section of Scheviningen. It will remain on view through the middle of December. A special retrospective theme to the exhibit featured medals from the entire second half of the current century, many on loan from the ANS Collection.
The next three days included formal lectures on the history of the medal, personal accounts by artists on the nature of their own work, and informal workshops and classes on the art and technique of medallic sculpture. Among the American participants were ANS Fellow Ira Rezak, who gave a fascinating talk on "Inventing a Nation: Jewish Medals of Palestine before the State of Israel (1898-1948)," and the artist James MaloneBeach who entertained a large audience with his account of "How I Have Been Influenced by Historical Ribbons and Decorations," which included slides taken from orders and insignia in the ANS Collection. During the Congress, members of the ANS Saltus Committee invited those Saltus laureates present to join them for a meeting to consider future candidates for the Saltus Award.
At the closing General Assembly, the German delegation invited those in attendance to the next Congress, to be held in 2000 in Weimar, Germany, and plans were already announced for 2002 in Prague. At the closing banquet, Alan Stahl issued an invitation to those present to come to the ANS on February 13 for the award of the J. Sanford Saltus Medal to Jeanne Stevens-Sollman, who was by then well known to all at the Congress.
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Stevens-Sollman to receive Saltus Award
On Saturday, February 13, at 3 P.M. Jeanne Stevens-Sollman will receive the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal at the Society's headquarters on Audubon Terrace. Stevens-Sollman will be recognized for her innovative and personal medals, many of which relate to aspects of her life in rural central Pennsylvania but reflect a sophisticated understanding of historical and contemporary developments in medallic art. The award will be accompanied by a retrospective exhibition of her work. At the same meeting, an as-yet undesignated scholar will deliver the annual Stephen K. Scher Leture on the Art and History of the Medal.
Dumbarton Oaks to Honor Philip Grierson: Three ANS Curators Will Speak
Dumbarton Oaks, the Washington, DC, center for Byzantine Studies, will honor the completion of its massive Catalogue of the Dumbarton Oaks and Whittemore Coin Collections, a standard reference work for Byzantine numismatics, and the retirement of its Advisor for Byzantine Numismatics, Philip Grierson, a Corresponding Member of the ANS since 1957, with a colloquium on "Byzantium in the Medieval World: Monetary Transactions and Exchange."
This year the two final volumes of the DOC, vol. 4 (1081-1261) by Michael F. Hendy and vol. 5 (1261-1453) by Grierson will appear. The Dumbarton Oaks catalogue began with A. R. Bellinger's 1966 volume on the coinage of Anastasius I to Maurice. Philip Grierson's two-part second volume, issued in 1968, covered the emperors from Phocas to Theodosius III, and his vol. 3, also in two parts, went from Leo III to Nicephorus III.
The Colloquium will take place at Dumbarton Oaks on March 26-27, 1999. Three ANS curators will be among the nine speakers. William E. Metcalf will discuss "Byzantine Numismatics Then and Now." Michael L. Bates will address "Looking at Byzantine and Early Arab Coinage Together--or Separately?" Alan M. Stahl will examine "Venice and the Coinage of the Latin Empire."
The remaining speakers include Grierson, Marian McCormick, Anthony Cutler, Lucia Travaini, A. Laiou, and Cécile Morrisson. Morrisson will replace Grierson as Advisor for Byzantine Numismatics at the Center.
FRANCES M. SCHWARTZ FELLOWSHIP
The Frances M. Schwartz Fellowship was created in 1985 to support work and the study of numismatic and museum methodology at the American Numismatic Society. Applicants must have the B.A. or the equivalent; the stipend will vary with the term of tenure (normally the academic year) but will not exceed $2,000. The deadline for application is March 1.
Application forms may be obtained from the American Numismatic Society, Broadway at 155th Street, New York, NY 10032, or from its website, http://www.amnumsoc.org. Applications must be completed by March 1, 1999, and announcement of awards will be made by April 1.
THE DONALD GROVES FUND
Through the Donald Groves Fund the American Numismatic Society seeks to promote publication in the field of early American numismatics involving material dating no later than 1800. Funding is available for travel and other expenses in association with research as well as for publication costs.
Applications should be addressed to the Secretary of the Society and should include an outline of the proposed research, the method of accomplishing the research, the funding requested, and the specific uses to which funding will be put. Applications are reviewed periodically by a committee which makes its recommendations to the Society's Council.
Information and application forms may be obtained from the American Numismatic Society, Broadway at 155th Street, New York, NY 10032, or from its website at http://www.amnumsoc.org.
Bates Speaks to Flushing Coin Club
On October 9 the Flushing Coin Club of Queens, NY, hosted ANS Curator of Islamic Coins Michael Bates, who spoke on "The Origins of Islamic Coinage." About 40 club members heard the presentation as part of the club's regular meeting, chaired by its president, James Dombo. The meeting took place in the educational center of the Queens Botanic Gardens.
Bates described the Arab continuation of earlier imperial coinages at Alexandria in Egypt and at many mints in the former Sasanian Persian empire, contrasting these with the Muslim capital, Damascus in Syria, where there was no previous coinage. The caliph 'Abd al-Malik set up a mint there in 692, which at first issued gold, silver, and copper coins like the coins of the Roman and Persian empires that the Arabs were already using without special notice. The institution of the new mint with new coin issues still bearing old imperial images and religious symbols, however, must have drawn attention, and brought out the need for a distinctively Arab Muslim coinage.
The first attempt to create a new Arab coinage was the standing caliph phase, depicting the caliph himself. This series, which was also issued in gold, silver, and copper at Damascus (and copper elsewhere), can be assigned to the years 694-97. During this period some atypical issues also carried Muslim religious symbols like the mihrab or believers praying. This series, too, must have drawn the attention of Muslim religious thinkers, who would have asked why the caliph, the head of the community, was pictured on the coins like the old-time emperors, and what religious symbols could represent Islam better than the Word of God itself from the Qur'an.
The result was a wholly new coin design for the new religious community. The new coinage had no imperial or religious images and named no ruler. It had only Arabic inscriptions drawn from the Qur'an proclaiming the one unique undivided God with Muammad as His Messenger. The concept and design typified Islamic coinage for centuries to come.
Bates's presentation continued the recent tradition of close relations between the ANS and the Flushing club. He was preceded on other occasions by ANS curators Metcalf and Stahl and former ANS photographer Frank Deak. Last year the club visited the ANS for a tour of our exhibits and facilities. The Society welcomes opportunities for co-operation with coin clubs. Meeting organizers should contact the appropriate curator for presentations or Ute Wartenberg for visits and seminars at the ANS.
FELLOWSHIP IN ROMAN STUDIES
Through the gift of a generous benefactor, the American Numismatic Society is able to offer a fellowship of up to $5,000 to promote the use of its collections and library in connection with studies of the Roman world. The fellowship is intended to support extended residence in New York and work in the Society's cabinet and library, and to permit consultation with relevant staff in support of a substantive research project.
Applicants must be American citizens or affiliated with a North American institution of higher learning, and must demonstrate academic competence and submit a detailed proposal for their work. There is no minimum age or degree requirement, but it is expected that the work proposed will lead to publication and teaching. The work undertaken may or may not be in pursuit of a higher degree, but preference will be given to those seeking advanced degrees.
Application forms may be obtained from the American Numismatic Society, Broadway at 155th Street, New York, NY 10032, or from its website, http://www.amnumsoc.org. Applications must be completed by March 1, 1999, and announcement of awards will be made by April 1.
Hamad Fellow Selected for 1998-99
The 1998-99 Shaykh Hamad Bin Abdullah Al-Thani Fellowship in Islamic Numismatics has been awarded to Roxani Margariti, a graduate student at Princeton University, renewing her appointment from the previous year.
During her first tenure, Margariti cleared up the department's backlog of accession processing and carried out the preliminary organization and inventory of the Slocum collection donated by John J. Slocum, Jr., in late 1997. This year, she will finish the detailed computer cataloguing of that collection of 1,311 objects, including computer registration, weighing, and arrangement in individually labelled boxes. She was to present a brief report on the collection at the Arab-Byzantine Forum IV on November 14, and to help organize a small exhibition of some of the Slocum rarities.
The Fellowship is made possible every year by a generous donation to the Society's Islamic Department from Shaykh Hamad Al-Thani of Qatar, a Life Associate of the ANS. The Hamad Fellowship is intended to combine service to the Society with training in Islamic numismatics and museum practice. Ms. Margariti, who commutes here from Princeton, expects to be at the Society every Friday until May 1999. The Fellowship provides a stipend of $3000.