The “Alexander Hamilton Experience” features an AI-generated Hamilton and artifacts from the founding of the US financial system.
They say money talks. If true, then the Museum of American Finance, opening July 3 at Boston’s Commonwealth Pier, is giving money a microphone.
The museum, which is free for visitors, aims to make the story of America’s financial systems both captivating and accessible, helping visitors to contextualize their own financial goals within the nation’s economic history. The museum’s leaders say they designed it to convey finance’s influence on everything from global markets to the lives of individual Americans.
“Finance can be an intimidating topic for so many people,” Museum of American Finance president David J. Cowen tells Smithsonian magazine. “As you go through the museum you’ll learn a lot about American finance, but you’ll also learn about what it means for your own life.”
The museum, an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, has half a dozen galleries. "America in Circulation" showcases the variety of currencies that have moved through the country’s economy.
“As we built this gallery, I was so amazed with all the colors and imagery that have appeared on American currency, especially considering that now we only have one,” Maura Ferguson, director of exhibits, tells Smithsonian magazine. Ferguson says she intentionally displayed the currencies together, without a placard underneath, so that guests could take in the historic bills the same way they might appreciate art. “I think the gold and silver certificates are especially beautiful.”