At a special meeting on February 15 at the Society's Audubon Terrace Headquarters, Leonda Finke received the J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal. Finke has been an Associate Member of the ANS since 1990, but has been visiting Audubon Terrace since her youth, when she marveled at the monumental sculpture by Anna Hyatt Huntington in the sculpture garden of the Hispanic Society of America. This long association is recalled in the Saltus Citation to Finke read at the meeting:
"The medal, possibly more any other form of sculpture, offers a distinctive medium for emotional expression, with its intimate scale and demand for personal involvement from the viewer. No contemporary American medalist, and few anywhere in the history of the medium, has explored the expressive potentials of the medal more powerfully than Leonda Finke.
"Finke has long been known for her larger-than-life figures of women, evocative statues which grace the gardens of public spaces, corporate parks, and private homes. Those who are familiar with the breadth of her medallic achievement may find it difficult to realize that she turned to this medium barely a decade ago, in 1986. Her commissions for medals have included issues of the Society of Medalists, the British Art Medal Society, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London.
"It is, however, in those medals which she has made on her own initiative, without commission, that Finke's art achieves its greatest force. Her 1987 medal Survivors realizes its dramatic effect with barbs of wire shooting through the medal without loosing its focus on the subject, whose survival emerges as heroic yet horrible. Her 1989 portrait of Virginia Woolf is one of a series of medals to honor historic women with a perceptive portrait on the obverse and a symbolic evocation on the reverse, in this case the image of A Room of One's Own, Woolf's prescription for self-fulfillment. The dagger of Clytemnestra frames Finke's dramatic 1991 portrait of Martha Graham, shown dancing the part of the avenging Mycenaean on the reverse.
"A deceptively simple incised line is the basis for Finke's 1992 medallic sketch titled In Praise of Life Drawing, whose distinct character from her other medals mirrors the complex interplay of drawing and sculpture which she explored at her lecture-demonstration at the 1992 London FIDEM Congress. The Budapest FIDEM exhibit of 1994 was the venue for the premiere of Finke's dramatically moving series Medal of Dishonor, Worldwide, which included the pieces entitled Rape-Companion of War and Famine-Hunger. With her 1995 medal Hannah, Her Despair / Her Desire, Leonda Finke has produced a contemplative work which is at once personal and universal.
"As a young girl growing up in Washington Heights, Leonda Finke drew her earliest artistic inspiration from the heroic sculpture of Anna Hyatt Huntington on Audubon Terrace. In the intervening years she has built a career which has established her as Huntington's successor in both monumental and medallic sculpture. It is therefore fitting that we welcome Leonda Finke back to Audubon Terrace as the 1997 recipient of the American Numismatic Society's J. Sanford Saltus Award for Signal Achievement in the Art of the Medal."
Medallic Exhibits In East Hall
Two exhibits opened in the Society's East Exhibit Hall on February 15, to continue on view through April 13.
The first shows the work of this year's Saltus Award recipient, Leonda Finke. Entitled "Leonda Finke, A Retrospective," the exhibit features a selection of the sculptor's medallic work, both commissioned and personal, mainly on loan from the artist's collection. Finke's life-size and monumental sculpture are recalled with photographs of pieces in their outdoor sites. A special case features examples of the artist's highly successful small-scale figurative sculpture, also on loan from her collection.
The other exhibit presents "American Women Medallists," and features examples from the Society's collection and works on loan from a number of contemporary artists. The exhibit begins with the work of Lea Ahlborn, Chief Engraver of the Swedish Mint in the late nineteenth century, and author of a number of American medals, including three of the earliest medals issued by the American Numismatic Society. The exhibit then features the medallic work of women sculptors who worked on the 1893 Columbian World's Exposition, and of Laura Gardin Fraser, the first woman to design a United States coin. The show continues through the twentieth century, and ends with a sample of the work of women who participated in the U.S.A. exhibit at the 1996 FIDEM biennial exhibition of medallic art in Neuchatel, Switzerland, last summer.
The first issue of The Colonial Newsletter to be published under the new sponsorship of the American Numismatic Society is now on its way to the printer. Serial #104 marks the beginning of the thirty-seventh year for this journal devoted to the study of numismatics prior to the operation of the Federal Mint. The same format established by James C. Spilman, who piloted the CNL single-handedly for the past 33 years, is being continued. Jim's former duties are now shared between the new editor, Philip L. Mossman, and Gary A. Trudgen, a technical writer in real life, who manages the technical aspects of publication. Both Gary and Michael Hodder remain as Associate Editors.
Featured in this issue will be a presentation by Hodder of the enigmatic Gloucester Token of 1714 and 1715, a further discussion by the editor of Moreau de St. Méry, a famous French émigré and diarist of the late eighteenth century, the concluding installment of Charles W. Smith's classification system of error coinages, a new Connecticut variety reported by Ken Mote and Jeff Rock, and two observations by ANS Curator, John Kleeberg, regarding a fantasy Bar Cent and the money paid to the Hessian mercenaries. Editor emeritus, Jim Spilman, and the new editor each make some additional comments.
Subscription Information
CNL is available by subscription at $16.00 for the three issues to be published during 1997. Members of the ANS are invited to enjoy a free subscription to CNL during 1997, simply by requesting it. In 1996, the CNL Foundation, through its President, James C. Spilman, contributed this important journal, specializing in the numismatic history of the United States during the pre-federal period, to the ANS commencing in 1997. The Society is offering the free 1997 subscription to the entire membership in order to acquaint a larger circle of readers with this important specialty journal which we believe, due to its history of well researched and informative articles, will prove of lasting value to all with an interest in modern coins and currency.
The second annual Bullowa memorial conference was held at the ANS on Saturday, January 11, and featured three students from the 1996 Graduate Seminar. Isabelle Pafford, of San Francisco State University, spoke on "The Denominational System and Chonology of Megarian Coinage During the Hellenistic Period"; Harry Bone of Princeton University followed with a talk on "Umayyad Syria: Copper Coinage and Administrative History"; and the rostrum of speakers concluded with Robert Papp of Columbia University discussing "The Road to Chervonetz: The Representation of National Identity in Russian Money, 1896-1924."
The Bullowa Memorial Conference was actually the seventh such gathering. These conferences are designed to expose the work of Seminar students to a broader audience and the Society is particularly grateful to Catherine Bullowa-Moore for support of this important undertaking. The conferences also provid a special opporunity for seminar alumni to gather, and this year was no exception. The semi-formality of the occasion was reduced to informality at a dinner afterwards, which featured home-style American food at an upper West Side restaurant.
Elizabeth Shapiro Peña to Deliver 1997 Stack Memorial Lecture
As has been true since 1992, the Stack Memorial Lecture will be devoted to a topic in the numismatic history of the Western hemisphere with emphasis on the British North American plantations before 1783 and/or the United States. The 1997 program will be delivered on Saturday, April 12, 1997 at 3:00 P.M. by Dr. Elizabeth Shapiro Peña. The title of her lecture is, "Wampum Production in New Netherland and Colonial New York."
Dr. Peña obtained a B.A. with high honors from the University of Michigan; majoring in Classical Archaeology. She then did graduate work in the Department of Archaeology of Boston University, where she received a Ph.D. writing her doctoral dissertation on the historical and archaeological context of wampum production; her supervisor was Professor M. Beaudry. She has extensive field experience in both classical and New World archaeology. Her field experience at classical sites includes Tel Anafa, Israel; Carthage, Tunisia; and Castel Porziano, Italy. In New World archaeology she has worked at sites in Andover, Arlington, Attleboro, Cambridge, Franklin, and Thompson Island, Massachusetts; and at the Bureau of Historic Sites of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation in Albany.
The Stack Memorial Lecture is presented at the ANS each April through the courtesy of the Stack family of New York. A reception will follow Dr. Peña's presentation.
Carmen Arnold-Biucchi
As announced in the Fall Newsletter, the American Numismatic Society will award its 1997 Archer M. Huntington Medal Award, one of the highest numismatic distinctions, to the Swedish scholar Ulla Westermark. Ceremonies are scheduled for March 15, at 3:00 P.M.; ANS members and the public are invited.
One is tempted to say that Dr. Westermark is best known for her work on hellenistic coins, on coins of Greek Sicily and of the early Macedonian kings, but perhaps that is only from the perspective of the Greek numismatist. In fact a glance at the bibliography published by H. Nilsson in the volume of essays, Florilegium Numismaticum. Studia in Honorem U. Westermark Edita (Stockholm, 1992), which he edited at her retirement, shows that she is also well published in Roman, Medieval and Modern numismatics, and that in her typically quiet and modest way, she has rendered a tremendous amount of service to the discipline and to the National Museum in Stockholm, as an editor, a curator, and as a writer of general works and bibliographies.
Ulla Westermark was born in Trollhättan, a small town in western Sweden and went to school in Örebro, between Stockholm and Göteborg (she still has a much cherished summer house in that area where she can enjoy the peace of her garden and her own thoughts). She studied "Altertumswissenschaft" at the University of Stockholm while working at the same time to support herself since those were the years following World War II with no scholarships or student loans available. Her teachers were the archaeologist Gösta Säflund and the numismatist Willy Schwabacher who instilled in her a lasting passion for numismatics. In 1958 she received her doctoral degree with a dissertation on Philetairos which was published in German in 1961, Das Bildnis des Philetairos von Pergamon. Corpus der Münzprägung.
Ulla Westermark had worked part time at the Royal Coin Cabinet in Stockholm between 1955 and 1960, when she became a permanent member of the staff. She then stayed for over 30 years, serving as its Director between 1979 and 1983. She has been the Editor for the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum for the International Numismatic Commission since 1986. The tabula gratulatoria in her Florilegium lists many friends and colleagues from all over the world. With Kenneth Jenkins she started working on Greek Sicily and their collaboration resulted in The Coinage of Kamarina (RNS Special Publication no.9, London, 1980). She is now preparing a definitive corpus of the coinage of Akragas in Sicily. She has published several Sylloge volumes, the latest of which is SNG Finland. The Erkki Keckman Collection in the Skopbank, Helsinki (1994) with Richard Ashton.
Westermark's ties to the ANS go back to her friendship with Margaret Thompson. She has been a Corresponding Member since 1989. I was first introduced to Ulla by my teacher and our mutual friend, Herbert Cahn, at the INC in New York and Washington in 1973, and since that time, she has followed my work and helped me in more ways than I can tell. I have many fond personal memories of times together at the Convegni in Naples, at several INCs and two memorable visits to Stockholm, where I enjoyed her hospitality and that of her family. Perhaps fittingly, following the award ceremony, Westermark will deliver the first Margaret Thompson Memorial Lecture, speaking on "The Early Didrachms of Akragas."
The Harry Bass Research Foundation (HBRF), of Dallas, TX, has announced several additions to its WWW searchable Numismatic Indexes Project (NIP).These indexes may be accessed through the Home Page index of the ANS WWW site (URL: http://www.amnumsoc.org).
The Celator
NIP now includes an index for The Celator, Vols. 1-10, 1987-96. The Celator (ISSN #10480986) is an independent commercial journal published monthly in an 8-1/2x11" magazine format. Its content is primarily centered on ancient Greek and Roman numismatics, but it also includes coverage of all other areas of ancient coinage, as well as sporadic articles on medieval numismatics, and classical and medieval antiquities. Articles include subjects for all ranges of collecting experience, from beginner to advanced.
Each issue includes 3-5 feature articles, 5 monthly columns, coming events calendar, people in the news, art and market reports, auction previews, trivia and humor, letters to the editor, classified and display advertising, book news, and much more.
Numismatic Literature
The numismatic citations published semiannually in Numismatic Literature, issued by the ANS since 1947, are now available and searchable on-line for the issues covering 1947-1949, 1952, and Sept. 1994 through Sept. 1996. These citations consist of bibliographic information, and, in most cases, abstracts of the works. The HBRF is endeavoring to add all issues of NumLit to the searchable NIP index over time.
Numismatic Periodicals Comprising the NIP Indexes
Insofar as the information has been available, each NIP entry is a complete reference - carrying the author, title, subject, periodical name, month and year, page number, and whether it is illustrated. The NIP indexes cover a wide range of numismatic scholarship over many decades from both this century and the last. All references have been combined into one searchable file.
From the American Numismatic Society they include (NIP title abbreviation in parentheses):
Professor D. M. Metcalf, Keeper of the Heberden Coin Room, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, spent two weeks in New York in January, working at the ANS on the early Cypriot deniers from the Tripolis Hoard. The hoard, purchased in Beirut in 1929, was published by Dorothy Cox as ANS Numismatic Notes and Monographs 59 in 1933. Since then, most of it has resided in the Numismatic Collection of Yale University, which is currently closed to outside researchers.
Professor Metcalf needed to examine the coins for his work on the first volume of the Corpus of Lusignan Coinage, which he is editing in conjunction with A.G. Pitsillides. Volume 2 of the Corpus, covering the silver coinage from 1285 to 1382, has already been written by Metcalf and appeared last year as Cyprus Research Centre Texts and Studies of the History of Cyprus 21 (Nicosia, 1996).
The Tripolis Hoard, with 850 deniers of the earliest Lusignan rulers of Cyprus, is the only extant find with a significant representation of the first issues, and hence indispensable to Metcalf's study. Through the kind cooperation of Richard V. Szary, Head of the Department of Manuscripts and Archives of the Yale University Library, the hoard was placed on deposit with the ANS so that Metcalf could examine and record the relevant pieces. The hoard will then return to the Yale collection. While visiting the ANS to deliver the hoard, Szary consulted with members of the Society's staff as part of the formulation of plans for the future of the Yale Numismatic Collection.
The forty-fifth Graduate Seminar in Numismatics will be held at the museum from June 17-August 15, 1997. The Visiting Scholar is scheduled to be Dr. Michael Alram of the Münzkabinett at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Dr. Alram studied at the Institut für Numismatik at the University of Vienna, and has published extensively on a wide range of coinages, from darics and sigloi to coins of the middle ages. He has compiled one volume and collaborated in the compilation of another in the Thesaurus nummorum romanorum et byzantinorum, a series devoted to the publication of smaller Austrian collections.
He is perhaps best known for works in two widely different fields: his Nomina propria iranica in nummis: Materialgrundlagen zu den iranischen Personnennamen auf antiken Münzen (1986), and Moneta Imperii Roman Band 27: die Münzprägung des Kaisers Maximinus I. Thrax, 235/238 (1989), both published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Alram will thus bring to the seminar an unusual breadth of experience.
Applications will be accepted for the seminar through March 1.
As announced in the Fall ANSNewsletter, the theme of this year's Coinage of the Americas Conference will be "The Medal in America." Proposals are now being accepted for papers on any aspect of the history and art of American medals or decorations for the meeting, which will be held on November 8. Proposals should take the form of a one-page abstract and should be sent to Alan Stahl, ANS Curator of Medals by April 1.
