THE TICKER
MUSEUM NEWS
Museum Participates in Business History Conference
Bibliography of Business History and Race
By all accounts, 2020 has been a most
unusual and challenging year. From the
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic early in
the year, to the recent wave of racial and
social justice campaigns throughout our
nation this spring and summer, many of
us have never felt as ensconced in living
history as we have in 2020.
Message to Members
David J. Cowen | President and CEO
This spring, several members of our
staff and board attended a webinar featuring
Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of
the Smithsonian Institution. One of his
many insightful remarks was that museums
today should play an active role
in their communities as history unfolds,
rather than being places where “history
and science go to die.” We have taken that
advice to heart, launching our “Pandemics
& Epidemics: Financial and Economic
Effects” online exhibit in June, dedicating
the Spring issue of Financial History to
the exploration of the historical impact of
national and global pandemics and featuring
numerous programs this summer on
various aspects of this subject as well.
Program highlights include veteran
CNBC Reporter Bob Pisani and “Wealth-
Track” Anchor and Executive Producer
Consuelo Mack on “The Rally and the
Recovery: Where Are We?,” economic
historian and MoAF Chairman Richard
Sylla on “Pandemics & Epidemics: Financial
and Economic Effects” and entrepreneur
and financial communications
expert Dan Simon on “Innovation in Crisis.”
Videos of most programs become
available on our website a few weeks after
they are presented.
In addition, I am pleased to announce
that several articles from Financial History
magazine have been accepted for inclusion
in the Business History Conference
Elsa Ruiz
(BHC)’s Open Bibliography of Business
History and Race. This crowdsourced bibliography,
which launched in July, is a
major new collaborative effort to promote
published resources that explore the history
of business and race on an international
scale. This important initiative
will help scholars better understand the
role that race has historically
played in business and economics,
and it will help historians
identify gaps in this
history that need to be filled
by additional research. It will
also serve as a consolidated
resource where students and laypeople
interested in history can access hundreds,
and potentially thousands, of published
works on this subject.
The full bibliography can be found at
https://www.zotero.org/groups/2527203/
business_history_and_race_a_partial_
open_bibliography, and some Financial
History articles that have been included
are listed in the sidebar on the next page.
The cover story of this issue, “New Deal or
Raw Deal? Black Americans in the Roosevelt
Years,” by Jill Watts, will be added to
the bibliography this month as well.
As members and friends of the Museum
of American Finance, we know our readers
are inherently interested in the history
of business, economics and finance, and
we invite you to submit any articles or
publications you have read and would
recommend that pertain to business history
and race (see instructions, page 5).
We welcome your participation in this
important initiative.
Moving forward, we will continue to
focus on inclusivity in our programming
and content. For those who may have
missed our 2017–2018 exhibit with the
Museum of UnCut Funk titled “For the
Love of Money: Blacks on US Currency,”
we are highlighting the men and women
featured in that exhibit on our social
media channels in commemoration of
important moments in Black history. The
positive representation of free Black people
on commemorative currency is one
of the earliest forms of public recognition
of Black excellence, contribution and
value. An overview of the exhibit including
materials and resources can be found
at www.moaf.org/exhibits/ftlom.
Finally, I would like to thank our supporters
for continuing to attend our programs
and utilize our resources in what
has been a difficult time for museums. We
are planning several exciting virtual events
for the fall, all of which are free to attend,
and we welcome our members and friends
to tune in and spread the word.
The 2017
“For the Love of
Money” exhibit, in
collaboration with
the Museum of
Uncut Funk.
4 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org