Financial History Issue 133 (Spring 2020) | Page 6

THE TICKER  MUSEUM NEWS
Museum Programs Move Online
During covid -19 Shutdown
Much has changed in New York City
and throughout the world since my last
column in our Winter edition. As our city
essentially shut down in early March, our
Museum—like so many other institutions
—has needed to adapt its programming
to continue to serve our audiences in new
and innovative ways.
In response to the covid‑19 crisis, MoAF
Chairman Dick Sylla, along with Finan-
cial History editorial board members Bob
Wright and Janice Traflet, wrote the cover
story of this issue exploring the financial
and economic impacts that previous pan-
demics have had on the United States. Our
exhibit team adapted this article, “Pan-
demics & Epidemics: Finan-
cial and Economic Effects,”
into an online mini-exhibit
that can soon be found at
David J. Cowen  |  President and CEO
www.moaf.org/pandemics.
We are working closely
with our partners at the
On March 5, just before the city-wide
Fordham University Gabelli Center for
shutdown, we opened “Ebb & Flow: Tap-
Global Security Analysis to reschedule our
ping into the History of New York City’s
Spring programs as online/virtual events.
Water,” an exhibit produced in partner-
Our first virtual partnership event was a
ship with the NYC Municipal Archives
full-day conference on Social Innovation
that explores the history of bringing clean
held on April 21. We expect to hold weekly
water to New York City while highlighting
webinars with Fordham from late May
the story of the Manhattan Company (pre-
through August. Stay tuned to our web-
decessor of today’s JPMorgan Chase). The
site and social media for event updates as
exhibit opening included a live recording
additional programs are confirmed.
of Person Place Thing with Emmy Award
As of April, the American Institute for
winner Randy Cohen, featuring an inter-
Economic Research (AIER) has almost
view with the commissioner of the NYC
fully catalogued our library collection,
Department of Environmental Protection,
which is on loan to them. It can now be
Vincent Sapienza. It is now available as
searched online at www.aier.org/archives.
a podcast at www.PersonPlaceThing.org.
The call numbers for books in our collec-
While that exhibit is currently not open
tion begin with “MoAF.”
to the public, the section about Aaron
On May 8, we launched a new video
Burr and the Manhattan Company, titled
series exploring our collections and exhib-
“Dirty Water,” is featured on page 15 of
its, which is available on our YouTube
this issue of our magazine.
channel (www.youtube.com/Finance
Message to Members
4    FINANCIAL HISTORY  |  Spring 2020  | www.MoAF.org
Museum) and across our social media
platforms (@FinanceMuseum). I am cur-
rently narrating these short video pro-
grams from home, and the first several
videos take a closer look at objects in our
“Out of the Vault” traveling exhibit.
And, finally, on May 4, registration
opened for our first virtual Museum
Finance Academy (MFA) for high school
juniors and seniors. Weekly classes begin
on May 14 and are offered via Zoom. See
page 5 for more details.
During this difficult time, we are con-
tinuing to adjust and adapt to serve our
members, students and constituents with
quality programming. Stay safe and well,
and we look forward to seeing you online
until we can once again see you in per-
son.