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.

Omaha's presentation pointed out that:

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 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:

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 seriousinterest in the cultural center? If the ANA was the first, why couldn't the city offer a site largeenough 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.

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.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ANS EVALUATES NEW LOCATIONS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n46a10.html)