ARTHUR A. HOUGHTON WINS 2015 ANS HUNTINGTON AWARD

The Trustees of the American Numismatic Society have voted to award Arthur A. Houghton, III the 2015 Archer M. Huntington Award in recognition of his outstanding career contributions to numismatic scholarship. The award ceremony will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 3:00 at the American Numismatic Society, 75 Varick Street, Floor 11, in New York City. The event will include remarks by Mr. Houghton for the Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture, entitled “Seleucid Excursions: More Questions than Answers,” followed by a reception in his honor.

Mr. Houghton, ANS Honorary Life Fellow and Trustee who served as the President of the Board of Trustees from 1994 to 1999, has been a student of Hellenistic coinages, and particularly those of the Seleucid Empire, for more than fifty years. In that time he has sought to develop his own understanding of the coinages of the Seleucid successors of Alexander the Great, while actively encouraging the detailed study of their coinage by others. He has authored or co-authored numerous articles and several books, most notably, Coins of the Seleucid Empire (New York, 1983); SNG Israel I: The Arnold Spaer Collection of Seleucid Coins (Jerusalem/London, 1988); with Catharine Lorber, Seleucid Coins, Part I: Seleucus I through Antiochus III (New York/Lancaster, 2002); and with Catharine Lorber and Oliver Hoover, Seleucid Coins, Part II: Seleucus IV through Antiochus XIII (New York/Lancaster, 2008).

The Chairman of the Society’s Huntington Committee, Professor Jere L. Bacharach, described the honoree with the following words: “Arthur Houghton’s impeccable background – from his academic credentials to his service with the U.S. government in international affairs, to his fierce determination in following his personal interests – made him an obvious choice for this prestigious award. He pursues his goals whole-heartedly. His contributions to numismatics alone are worthy of recognition, and we are all grateful and indebted to him for the additions to and improvements of our knowledge in this arena.”

Mr. Houghton was born in New York City in 1940. He attended Harvard College, graduating in 1963 with a degree in Government; following a year of travel in the Middle East and Africa, he attained an M.A. degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the American University in Beirut and entered the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer. From 1966-1979, he held assignments in Beirut, Amman, Cairo and Washington, D.C., and served on the National Security Council staff from 1974 to 1976.

Mr. Houghton returned to Harvard, attaining a second M.A. degree in Art History in 1981, and was then employed by the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, CA, where he served as Associate Curator and Curator in Charge of Antiquities from 1982 to 1986. From 1988-1995 he was a senior staff member at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; and from 1995-2005, was president of Arthur Houghton Associates, Inc., a Washington, D.C. consulting firm. Mr. Houghton has served on the boards of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, the Cyprus-American Archaeological Research Institute, the Corning Museum of Glass, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the American Numismatic Society, the Middle East Institute and American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA), among others. From 2011-2013, he was president of the Cultural Policy Research Institute. His public service has included membership in the U.S. Cultural Property Advisory Committee from 1984-1987, and the U.S. Mint’s Citizens’ Coin Advisory Committee from 2007-2011.

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