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THE ANA CONSIDERED OMAHA FOR ITS HOMEE-Sylum Feature Writer and American Numismatic Biographies author Pete Smith submitted this article on the proposed ANA museum and headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Thanks! -Editor
The ANA Museum in Omaha
I frequently read old newspaper articles during my research. I recently came across some articles I found interesting that related to the proposed ANA Museum in Omaha. The first article appeared in the Omaha World-Herald on Tuesday, March 22, 1965.
"The American Numismatic Association will locate its national headquarters in Omaha… The ANA's board announced the decision Monday night in Oklahoma City, Okla… …the building will be erected on a 27,750-square-foot site north of Davenport Street between Twenty-Third and Twenty-Fourth Streets. It will be located in a cultural center which the Joslyn Arts Society is planning in the four blocks north of Joslyn Art Museum."
During the ANA convention in Cleveland in 1964, representatives from Oklahoma City, Wichita and Kansas City spoke at the convention. They offered free land and exclusion from taxation. The ANA site selection committee included Ralph Cleaver, Charles Johnson and First Vice President Matt H. Rothert. Sixteen cities made proposals and one or more committee members visited most of these cities. They rated these on fifteen factors and seven cities stood out over the other nine. Of those, four cities were clearly better than the other three. The ANA Board voted by secret ballot with Omaha placing first, Colorado Springs placed second, Oklahoma City third and Kansas City fourth. The Omaha plan made it sound like an ideal location. This was followed by an article in the Omaha World-Herald on Saturday, May 29, 1965. "The American Numismatic Association has changed its mind and will not locate its national headquarters and a coin museum in Omaha." The decision apparently was due to Omaha's inability to put together a promised parcel of land soon enough for the coin group. An explanation appeared in the Evening World-Herald later on May 29, 1965, in a statement from Charles M Johnson, chairman of the ANA site selection committee: "…the Omaha group stated the site would contain 27,500 square feet of space. A later study of the plans, however, showed that this depended on the closing of sections of Twenty-Third and Davenport Streets. The uncertainty of the street being closed, together with certain building setback requirements, reduced the buildable area to 9,699 square feet. We said we needed a minimum of 22,500 square feet, and we need all of this for the building, parking and landscaping. The indefinite status of a cultural center planned around Joslyn Art Museum also contributed to the change of mind by the ANA. It's a very forward plan, but it may be 10 of 15 years before anything is done. Some apartments now located between Joslyn and the proposed Numismatic site are to be torn down eventually, but it might be a long time and in the meantime, we would be sitting in a blighted area." So, the ANA headquarters and museum were built in Colorado Springs. Since then, what has happened with the Omaha site?
This is a small part of a larger untold story. Did any other prospective tenant show a serious interest in the cultural center? If the ANA was the first, why couldn't the city offer a site large enough for their needs? Did the ANA failure discourage other tenants? There are ANA members who still think the Omaha location would have been better than Colorado Springs. Perhaps if the ANA had located in Omaha, the Byron Reed collection would have remained there instead of the Durham Museum. As things have turned out, the Omaha option has not lived up to the promotional hype.
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There were other connections between the Joslyn Art Museum and local numismatic collections. During the period of 1960 to 1970, the ANA had an exhibit of medals on loan to the Joslyn Art Museum. In 1985 there was discussion about moving the Byron Reed Collection to the Joslyn Art Museum. A decision was made to go with the Durham Western Heritage Museum instead. Thanks, Pete. Interesting hobby history. When Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Natural History announced plans to divest its numismatic collection in the 1970s, local clubs had a meeting with city development officials in hopes of stirring interest in a separate museum, perhaps affiliated with the ANA. But without funding in hand the idea was a non-starter, and the museum sold off the bulk of the collection. As noted earlier, the American Numismatic Society is looking to move its headquarters from New York City and had recently opened talks with city officials in Fall River, Massachusetts. As seen with the ANA's Omaha negotiation, these efforts can fail for any number of reasons. Much has to go right to achieve success. Only time will tell if Fall River becomes a new home for the organization, or just another footnote in its long history. -Editor
To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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