Members and friends gathering at the ANS on July 19 for Members Appreciation Day were witness to a special "unveiling" ceremony. A new Benefactor Tablet has been installed at the ANS, to record the names of donors whose contributions to the Society aggregate over $200,000. The first four stone plaques, recording 70 individuals and organizations, are fully engraved.
ANS President Arthur A. Houghton drew attention to the new tablet, draped in a tricolor cloth.
Greeting the audience, Mr. Houghton remarked, "As we prepare to enter the meeting room, I ask you to pause a moment before our newest plaque recording the five most recent Benefactors of the Society. The covering displays the Society's colors representing the traditional metals of money: gold, silver, and bronze-- fitting in that the donors here recorded have generously contributed at least $200,000 to the collections and coffers of our institution."
Newly immortalized in the halls of the ANS are: The Arcana Foundation, 1989; Raphael Solomon, 1992; Donald G. Partrick, 1993; Kenneth L. Edlow, 1995; and Olivia Garvey Lincoln, 1997.
The American Numismatic Society mourns the passing of John Jermain Slocum, a man of extraordinary intellectual breadth and diversity, a friend, a supporter, and a good counselor. He was, in the finest and truest sense, our Traveler to an Antique Land. Slocum died on August 13, 1997, at his home in Newport, Rhode Island.
John J. Slocum was elected a member of The American Numismatic Society in 1962, a Fellow in 1964, and in 1974 was elected to his first term as a member of the Society's governing Council. A specialist in Middle Eastern coinages, particularly of the time of the Crusades, he served as the Chairman of the Society's Standing Committee on Islamic and South Asian Coins during the years 1974-1990.
Slocum began his career as a journalist. Armed with a B.A. from Harvard in 1936 and a Master's from the Columbia University School of Journalism in 1938, he served as Press Secretary to the colorful New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia from 1940 to 1942, and in 1940 helped found, and was a junior partner in a New York literary agency. In 1942, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force, rising to Major and serving with the Army of Occupation before returning home in 1946 to embark on a career in the foreign service.
Slocum served in the Press Division of the United States Information Agency and was posted to Cairo in the early 1960s as Cultural Attache. On returning to Washington in 1969, he served as Cultural Advisor in the USIA's Policy Division, and enjoyed a variety of assignments promoting cultural activities, particularly as Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for Bicentennial Planning. He served as a member of the American Numismatic Society's Organizing Committee for the International Numismatic Congress held in New York and Washington, September 1973, and was given special responsibility for liaison with the Smithsonian Institution. In 1973 he was named a Patron of the ANS in recognition of his many contributions.
On his retirement as a Councillor of the ANS in 1993 following nineteen years of loyal service, he was honored with a special Resolution of the Society. Other recent honors accorded Slocum include his election as a Trustee Emeritus of the Archaeological Institute of America, on whose governing board he had served for twenty-three years, commencing in 1969. He was also given an honorary degree in humane letters from Trinity College, Dublin, conferred upon him in December 1993 in recognition of his important contributions to James Joyce scholarship, including his coauthorship with Herbert Cahoon of an authoritative bibliography of Joyce, published by Yale University Press in 1953. A chance meeting in 1935 with Ezra Pound while Slocum was canoeing on the Salzach River in Austria led him to accompany Pound by car to Italy. In an article published in the Yale University Library Gazette for October 1982, Slocum recounted this experience as well as later encounters and correspondence with Pound in New York from 1939 to 1950. An example of John Slocum's diverse intellectual interests is his translation of a Renaissance Latin poem by Giovanni Gioviano Pontano in Poemata Humanistica Decem published by the+Nø÷Ù;Á}é˜ Friends of the Houghton Library at Harvard in 1986.
As a coin collector, Slocum developed a broad archaeological connoisseurship and also brought his scholarly interests to bear on the objects he acquired. His collecting interests were stimulated by his extensive travels in the Middle East during a period when large numbers of coins were coming into the local markets. His collection of Crusader gold and copper coins was by all accounts extraordinary. But he also had a special interest in the coinage and history of the kingdoms that fell between Rome and Persia, such as Characene, Elymais, and especially Hatra, about which he wrote an important article which appeared in the 1977 issue of the American Numismatic Society's journal. John Slocum's interest in the Crusaders also extended to related Byzantine, Muslim, Armenian, and western European issues. In his later years, he formed a collection of Danishmendid bronzes, rare issues of a little understood twelfth century dynasty in Anatolia that issued a transitional coinage bridging Byzantine and Muslim traditions, often with Greek inscriptions. His own collection of Islamic coins was augmented by the purchase of the famous Munzel collection, highlights of which were published in the Jahrbuch für Numismatik und Geldgeschichte for 1972 and 1974. In 1979, his summary of recent numismatic scholarship for "The Latin Orient" was published by the International Numismatic Commission in its Survey of Numismatic Research.
Slocum's interest in the preservation of material culture led naturally to his appointments to the U.S. Commission to UNESCO (1981) and the President's Cultural Properties Advisory Committee (1983). He has also served as the First President, Friends of the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC; as President of Redwood Library in Newport, RI; and as a Trustee of the New England Genealogical Society and of the American Research Center in Egypt.
At its meeting on July 19, the Society's Council elected 37 Associates, either as new or reinstated members of the ANS. Newly elected Associates are:
Abdul Rahman Bin Jaber Alkhalifa, Manama, Bahrain
Bahrain Monetary Agency, Manama, Bahrain
Mr. David B. Bailey, Staten Island, NY
Mr. Thomas Michael Barhorst, Sidney, OH
Mr. Harold J. Black, Morton, IL
Mr. Eric Cheung, New York, NY
Dr. Morris Ehrenreich, West Hempstead, NY
Mr. Richard G. Fleddermann Jr., Baltimore, MD
Ms. Mary Margaret Fulghum, Raleigh, NC
Mr. Richard E. Gray, Enfield, NH
Mr. Eric J. Hanne, Ann Harbor, MI
Dr. Muzammel Haq, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Dr. Ann L. Harris, Snowmass, CO
Mr. Charles Helfand, Little Neck, NY
Mr. Jesse Holzer, New York, NY
Mr. John Madlon, Babylon, NY
Mr. Charles S. Mamiye, Keasbey, NJ
Mr. Joseph Marchitelli, Staten Island, NY
Mr. Dan Masters, San Francisco, CA
Mr. William J. McKivor, Seattle, WA
Mr. Walter Arruda de Menezes, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Mr. Richard P. Miller, Troy, MI
Mr. David W. Page, Williamsburg, VA
Ms. Cleopatra E. Papaevangelou, Athens, Greece
Dr. Luigi Pedroni, Napoli, Italy
Mr. Alan W. Pense, Bethlehem, PA
Ms. Peggy Quisenberry, New York, NY
Mr. Glen A. Risdon, San Francisco, CA
Dr. Michael Sarris, Chestnut Hill, MA
Mr. William Simon, Clifton, NJ
Mr. Joshua D. Sosin, Durham, NC
Mr. Edgar Z. Steever, Devon, PA
Mr. Kevin Uhalde, Princeton, NJ
Four Reinstated
Four previous members were welcomed back as ANS Associates:
Ms. Janet C. Dockendorff, Lincoln, MA
Mr. William C. Dowling Jr., St. Thomas, VI
Mr. Raphael Ellenbogen, Upper Arlington, OH
Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Erlangen, Germany
Thomas J. MacDonough, Dover, MA (Assoc. 1985)
William B. Warden, New Hope, PA (Assoc. 1968; Fellow 1993)
All ANS members have the option to convert to Life Membership by the one-time payment of $1,000. Life Associates and Life Fellows are excused from the payment of annual dues and are insured against any increase in member dues.
All are Welcome
Associate membership in the ANS is open to all with an interest in numismatics. Members receive a range of benefits including the Society's annual journal, American Journal of Numismatics, and are informed about forthcoming events and opportunities through receipt of the quarterly ANSNewsletter and special mailings. An added benefit instituted in 1997, provides members the opportunity to receive a free subscription to the Colonial Newsletter, a journal devoted to the numismatic history of the United States in the pre-Federal period, which was donated to the ANS by the CNL Foundation as of 1997. Three issues of CNL appear each year.
Members are eligible to receive a unique benefit during 1997. By joining an ANS Circle in 1997 -- Bronze, Silver, Electrum, or Gold -- a member will receive the special 1997 calendar, "Treasures of the ANS American Cabinet," presented on the occasion of the Eric P. Newman Tribute Dinner. Quantities are limited and when the supply of calendars is exhausted, the offer will be withdrawn.
Reeder Elected Fellow
Ellen D. Reeder, Curator of Ancient Art at the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore, MD, was elected a Fellow of the Society. At the July meeting, Dr. Reeder was placed in nomination for election as a member of the Society's governing Council (see related story).
Members continue to renew their ANS membership in higher categories of support and benefits. Each Circle above the basic level offers attractive benefits and discounts while providing additional, much needed support for the core programs of our organization.
It is not too late for members to collect the special 1997 calendar. "Treasures of the ANS American Cabinet," which is only available as our gift to ANS members who join an ANS Circle during 1997. The calendar, featuring full color illustrations of such rare and important American coins as the Brasher doubloon, the 1804 dollar, and the Confederate half dollar, was issued in honor of Eric P. Newman and presented to him on the occasion of his ANS Tribute Dinner last fall.
It is a pleasure to record the members of the Society who have joined the Electrum, Silver, or Bronze Circles for 1997 during the past quarter.
Electrum Circle ($500)
Dr. Stephen K. Scher, Clifton, NJ
Mr. Robert Schonwalter, Fort Lee, NJ
Silver Circle ($250)
Mr. Arthur I. Appleton, Chicago, IL
Mr. Joseph F. Keane, Hyde Park, MA
Mr. Landon Thomas, New York, NY
Bronze Circle ($100)
Mrs. Cecilia Bakula PhD, Lima, Peru
Ms. Barbara A. Baxter, Baltimore, MD
Ms. M. Cruces Blazquez Cerrato, Salamanca, Spain
Mr. James K. Brandt, Pearl River, NY
Mr. John Farquharson, Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, Great Britain
Mrs. Marny A. Gilluly, Washington, DC
Mr. Thomas E. Higel, APO, AE
Mr. Georges Husni, Paris, France
Prof. C. P. Jones, Cambridge, MA
Mr. Omar S. Khudari, Cambridge, MA
Dr. Henry Clay Lindgren, San Francisco, CA
Mr. Charles S. Mamiye, Keasbey, NJ
Mr. Volker Popp, Mainz, Germany
Mr. Robert J. Riethe, Ardmore, PA
Mr. Robert M. Row, Jasper, TX
Mr. Eckart Schlosser, Giessen, Germany
Mr. John Schreiner, Valparaiso, IN
Prof. Susan Wood, Rochester, MI
Mr. Edward C. Zimmerman, Dunwoody, GA
The American Numismatic Society is planning a special exhibition at the New York International Numismatic Convention this December 4-7 at the World Trade Center. The exhibit last year, "Treasures of Ancient Coinage," featuring outstanding Greek and Roman coins from the private collections of ANS members, was widely acclaimed and greatly appreciated by visitors to the convention.
John D. Leggett Collection
This year, the ANS will mount "Masterpieces in Miniature: The John D. Leggett Collection of the Coins of Greek Sicily." This extraordinary collection, assembled by an outstanding student of Greek numismatic art, was donated to the ANS by bequest on the death of Mr. Leggett in 1995.
Carmen Arnold-Biucchi, the Margaret Thompson Curator of Greek Coins at the ANS, will serve as curator for the show; an illustrated catalogue, prepared by Dr. Arnold, will accompany the exhibition.
As an added incentive for ANS members to visit the NYINC and enjoy this beautiful assemblage of art from ancient Syracuse and other Sicilian mints, the NYINC board of directors has authorized a Free Admission coupon. The ANS will have an information table at the show and we look forward to greeting our current members and encouraging new ANS applicants on that occasion.