ANA Names Smithsonian's Douglas Mudd, Museum Curator

(Portland, Oregon) American Numismatic Association Executive Director, Christopher Cipoletti, surprised and delighted the ribbon cutting audience when he announced the hiring of a new employee during opening ceremonies of the ANA's National Money Show™ in Portland, Oregon, March 26.

"I am pleased to announce the ANA has filled an important job opening, and this will be wonderful for the entire hobby. Douglas Mudd, who has served as Manager of the National Numismatic Collection at The Smithsonian Institution since 1991, will be joining the ANA Money Museum in Colorado Springs as our curator later this spring," Cipoletti told the crowd.

"He brings impressive numismatic education and credentials to his new position at ANA headquarters. Doug Mudd has been responsible for the care, storage and security of 1.6 million items in the Smithsonian's numismatic collection. He has extensive knowledge about museum data entry, cataloging, numismatic photography, research and of course, creation of exhibits. The ANA Board of Governors is elated he is joining the ANA team. Of course, I am, too!" While at the Smithsonian, Mudd developed a digital image database of more than 3,500 objects and created web pages for the National Numismatic Collection. Based on his extensive experience in cataloging and Internet programming, more of the ANA museum's collection is expected to be available for online viewing and study in the months ahead.

Mudd was one of the Portland convention's scheduled Numismatic Theatre speakers, discussing money and sovereignty, on Saturday, March 27, and earlier shared his expertise by teaching ANA Summer Seminar courses on the topic, "Numismatics for the Museum Professional." Mudd's expertise will be used again in the "Numismatics for the Museum Professional" course at this year's ANA Summer Seminar.

An international relations graduate of the College of William and Mary, he has taken post graduate American history classes at George Mason University and a class on ancient Greek coinage at the Department of Agriculture Graduate School.

Mudd also was a student at four ANA Summer Seminar courses between 1993 and 2001: Coinage of the Ancient World, Advanced Coinage of the Ancient World, Oriental Coinage, and Early British Coinage.

His experience in creating exhibits includes traditional types of displays, interactive computer exhibits and online presentations. Mudd recently completed work on two interactive computer stations in the National Numismatic Collection exhibit hall that incorporated over 300 coins with text and images. He also worked on the Money & Sovereignty exhibit that opens in April 2004 at the International Monetary Fund Center in Washington, D.C.

Mudd has wide ranging experience cataloging coins, and has authored numerous educational brochures. His numismatic photography has appeared in many journals and books, including "Life in Republican Rome on its Coinage," by Elvira Clain Stefanelli.

His first duties at the ANA Money Museum will include work on the museum's exhibit schedule. Mudd will also continue work on online access to the museum collection, and generating new museum donations and acquisitions.

For additional information about the ANA and the ANA Money Museum, contact the American Numismatic Association, 818 N. Cascade Ave., Colorado Springs, CO 80903. Phone: (719) 632 2646. Online: www.money.org.