Financial History Issue 132 (Winter 2020) | Page 6
THE TICKER MUSEUM NEWS
2020 State of the Museum
The text below has been excerpted from
David Cowen’s remarks at the 2020 MoAF
Gala. Please see page 13 to read the remarks
from the three Gala honorees.
chair of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace
and Board chair of the NYSE when it was
organized as a non-profit (as well as many
others including our Museum); and in the
for-profit world, Bill was the
chair, president and CEO of
Aetna, and of course found-
ing partner of Donaldson,
David J. Cowen | President and CEO
Lufkin & Jenrette (DLJ). [A
framed DLJ stock certificate
was presented to Bill Donald-
About a decade ago, Bill Donaldson
son in recognition of his years of service to
and the late John Whitehead created the
the Museum.]
Museum’s Advisory Council to provide
What does a finance museum look like in
sage wisdom and advice, as well as to add
the 21st century? We have been thinking a
stature to the Museum. The Council was
lot about that since our flood two years ago
comprised of a handful of their friends
and the closing of our main exhibit space.
and colleagues, all of whom are legends in
As you can see by our events postcard, we
the financial industry. Tonight, we recog-
have lots of traditional programs and will
nize Bill as he will move to chair emeritus
soon be opening an exhibit in conjunction
of the Council.
with the NYC Municipal Archives.
There are five worlds: for-profit, non-
So how are we breaking the mold of
profit, academia, government and the mili-
what our Museum can be? One way is with
tary. Most people may have spent time in
classic car tours of New York City. You
two or three of those worlds, but Bill is
may have noticed the 1930s era cars parked
one of the few people I have ever met who
outside tonight, as we have partnered with a
can check all five boxes. For military, the
firm called Nowaday on the content of one-
Marine Corps; for government, chair of the
hour guided tours of Downtown New York.
SEC; for academia, founding dean of the
We also have several exhibits in firms repre-
Yale School of Management; for non-profit,
sented here tonight, including a fully digital
Message to Members
MoAF Chairman Dick Sylla and President David Cowen
with Bill and Jane Donaldson at the 2020 Museum Gala.
4 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2020 | www.MoAF.org
currency exhibit featuring the collection of
our trustee Mark Shenkman at PayPal head-
quarters in both New York and San Jose, as
well as an exhibit with traditional objects,
including historical documents and stock
tickers, at Citadel Securities in Chicago. We
are also consulting on an exhibit to open in
Times Square that features themes of New
York, and we will provide the script and
artifacts for the finance gallery.
That does not mean we won’t pursue a
traditional brick and mortar museum. Our
vision is to be multi-city with a lighter foot-
print in each. To that end, we have signed
an agreement with the American Numis-
matic Association (ANA), the congressio-
nally-chartered organization dedicated to
coins and currency, to explore opportuni-
ties nationally while continuing to identify
space in New York City. We’re incredibly
excited about this partnership and believe
the attraction of two premier organizations
will be enticing to a number of cities.
We will also continue to expand our
financial education initiatives through our
public and after-school programs. One
example is the Museum Finance Academy,
our free eight-week after school personal
finance certificate course for high school
juniors and seniors. This year the program
was funded by Con Edison and included
scholarship funds for the top performers
based on testing and an essay competition.
Our dream is to advance the legacy of
financial history through the digitization
of our collection. Our archive holds tens
of thousands of documents and artifacts,
including the nation’s premier 18th century
collection, with objects such as Alexander
Hamilton’s Report on Public Credit, which
is the economic equivalent of the US Con-
stitution. Once digitized, we will be able
to use our collection to develop exhibits
and educational programs that explain, for
instance, how Hamilton created the eco-
nomic system we live under that promotes
the value of finance and free enterprise.
Thank you for coming tonight, and for
your ongoing support of the Museum’s
mission.