What does the government think about advanced numismatists (aka researchers)?
Dennis88
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I was just wondering this when browsing troughout the online exhibition of the Smithsonian posted in the other thread. Apparently the pictures are accompanied to simple descriptions of said coins, with not to much detail the more advanced numismatist or researcher would be interested in. This makes me wondering, has the government, or instutitions like museums, have ever spoken in public about numismatic research done troughout the centuries in their files or collections? Is this generally accepted as they are able to reveal much more about the history of the United States and its coinage, or are they considered to be people who delve up the oldest facts from dusty archives no one cares about (in their opinion) and that this research just takes up the time of these instutitions?
Dennis
Dennis
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from hobbyists and researchers. They've also followed the hobby press as a sort
of quality control.
But then authors have said they sometimes hurry a book to be published so the
critics can tell them what it's about.
The Clain-Stefanelli's were a national treasure - capable researchers, but also able promoters of numismatics within the museum sphere - and this is the sort of personal leadership that it comes down to. You have good leaders running your institutional collections, the better chances that they will thrive, at least for the short term. Socially liberal government probably helps too - they tend to be better about spending on the arts and cultural development. I think there is a Euro/American dynamic going on here too - Euro gov'ts spend proportionately far more than we do on this sort of thing - in the end I suppose it reflects the values of the society, since these are all democratic nations.
To answer your question, I don't think anyone in the government is really capable of specifically addressing numismatic research within the context of the Nat. Archvies. I am sure that RWB and Denga know more about the Nat. Archives numismatic content than anyone in the gov't. The Nat. Archvies folks can speak to the general question of archival research, but only from the point of view of budgeting or museum-science operational questions.
The second audience include researchers, academics and scientists. Here, the museum collections are accessed by appointment and verification of credentials. The emphasis is on independent examination and study. Specialized libraries further support the research and curators help with dissemination of knowledge. The researchers, in turn, publish their findings and that information is used by the museums to improve both public displays and research facilities.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is a huge research archive built up from the internal files and documents of all the past and present agencies of the US government (and the Confederacy). Their purpose is to protect the documents from damage, organize the collections for research, and make them available to anyone who wants to access them.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that mint officials have a limited knowledge about the Mint Bureau’s history or about coinage. Until recently, there was no one in the Mint Bureau to do this. The folks now there, have to depend on the work of numismatic researchers to develop public information and produce informative and accurate display materials. Rather than being “bureaucratic hacks,” they are more commonly overburdened employees trying to cope with an overload of information. It is not unusual to have to rely on low-paid summer interns to perform important work because there is no one else available.
A few people volunteer at museums in numismatics, but there are so few collectors who have the detailed knowledge necessary to be helpful, that most museums do not bother – the curators are too busy to hand-hold neophytes.
One of the greatest problems is that in the US, most agency heads are political appointees – often with no better credentials than that they passed out award ribbons at horse shows and gave money to the Republican Party (aka – former head of FEMA during hurricane Katrina, etc.). Such folks are there to push political agendas, not objective knowledge. The people working for them – civil service employees – have to do what they are told. Thus we have Mint Director Stella Hackel (appointee of President Carter) ordering Mint HQ employees to destroy historical documents, and the non-political staff unable to prevent it.