Photo of the Smithsonian's physical display of West African currency objects courtesy Dr Ellen Feingold
Dr Leigh Gardner, together with Dr. Ellen Feingold of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, have collaborated on the creation of an open-access digital collection of the 880 West African currency objects in the National Numismatic Collection, funded by LSE’s Knowledge Exchange and Impact Fund. A curated sample of these appears on Learning Lab, the Smithsonian’s online education platform:
Link to Learning Lab.
Further curated collections can be tailored for use in classrooms. Its aim is to provide a template for cooperation between museums and universities in using the digitization of museum collections to help disseminate research to wider audiences.
The project also includes a physical display at the National Museum of American History, based on Leigh Gardner’s work on Liberia (pictured). A digital version of the display can be found on Learning Lab website and a blog post about the display appeared recently on the NMAH’s blog: https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/dollars-liberia