Money Matters: Meaning, Power, and Change in the History of Currency

Money comes in a surprising multitude of forms and serves a variety of functions. We can trade it, we can hoard it, we can use it to measure our debts. However, Money Matters: Meaning, Power, and Change in the History of Currency demonstrates that money is much more. The objects on view, ranging from Mesopotamian clay tablets to 18th- and 19th-century American account books and counterfeit bank notes, reveal how money portrays the shape of societies and records moments in time. Money makes apparent histories of power, but also histories of everyday life, of trust, of social transformation, and even of war and revolution. The artifacts and ideas presented in Money Matters were inspired by students enrolled in “History of Money,” a course taught by Associate Professor Desmond Fitz-Gibbon.

This exhibition is made possible by the Susan B. Weatherbie Exhibition Fund and the Leon Levy Foundation.

Take a virtual tour of the exhibition with Associate Professor of History Desmond Fitz-Gibbon