I received my DPhil in History and MSc in Economic and Social History from the University of Oxford. After completing my doctorate I joined the Department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum as a Project Curator for the Money in Africa project. I was a co-curator of a display on mobile money in Africa in the Citi Money Gallery in 2013. A year later I became curator of the Smithsonian's National Numismatic Collection and have curated a variety of Smithsonian exhibitions including The Value of Money, Really BIG Money, Women on Money, and Ukraine's Distinct History. 

My research interests include the history of money and monetary objects, counterfeiting and forgery, and legal institutions and the administration of justice. I am passionate about making the history of money relevant and accessible to everyone. You can find my recent work featured in Politico Magazine, Smithsonian Magazine, NOVA (on PBS), NPR's Marketplace, and the Sidedoor and Million Bazillion podcasts. 

Article

• Feingold, Ellen, Frederick-Frost, Kristin, Liebhold, Peter, Lord, Alexandra, Ott, Katherine, Perry, Tony, Saha, Abeer, Sherman, Roger, and Wallace, Hal. 2023. "These Objects Tell the Story of Human-Driven Climate Change." Smithsonian Magazine, Jun 24, 2023, Washington, DC. 2023
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2022. "How Medieval Money Shaped Ukraine's Modern Identity." Smithsonian Magazine, Washington, DC. 2022
• Feingold, Ellen R., Pfisterer, Abby, Serrano,Orlando R., Jr., and Weicksel, Sarah. 2022. "Working Together: New Approaches to a History Exhibition for Children." AHA Perspectives on History, 2022
• Feingold, Ellen. 2021. "A Harriet Tubman $20? That's Just the Beginning." Politico Magazine, Feb 15, 2021, 2021
• Feingold, Ellen, Fourie, Johan, and Gardner, Leigh. 2021. "A tale of paper and gold: The material history of money in South Africa." Economic History of Developing Regions, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/20780389.2021.1926232. 2021
• Feingold, Ellen and Gardner, Leigh. 2020. "Research-Led Digitization: Inverting the Usual Way of Thinking about Digitization." Perspectives on History, 58, (8). 2020
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2017. "International Currency Counterfeiting Schemes in Interwar West Africa." Journal of West African History, 3, (1) 77–101. 2017
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2016. "How the Redesign of U.S. Money Shows the Power of Protest." Smithsonian Magazine, 2016
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2016. "Women on Money." Financial History, (118) 20–23. 2016

Blog Posting

• Moore, Geoffrey, Garcia, Julia Sytsma, Grant, Jordan, and Feingold, Ellen R. 2022. "Making Match the Money." National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/making-match-money. 2022
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2022. "What can really BIG money teach us about our world?" National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/what-can-really-big-money-teach. 2022
• Feingold, Ellen, Gloede, Jennifer, Pearce Seigerman, Emily, Wiggins, Kelsey, and York, Hillery. 2018. "One coin, two coin, old coin, new coin: Searching for Dr. Seuss in the National Numismatic Collection." O Say Can You See? Stories from the National Museum of American History Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Mar 1, 2018. http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/dr-seuss-coins;. 2018
• Feingold, Ellen. 2017. "Exploring connections between the U.S. and East Asia through the Howard F. Bowker Numismatic Collection." O Say Can You See? Stories from the National Museum of American History Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Nov 8, 2017. http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/east-asia-bowker-collection. 2017
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2016. "Art from money: Paper money origami." National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/art-money-paper-money-origami. 2016
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2016. "What is innovation in money today?" National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/what-innovation-money-today. 2016
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2016. "Women on money." National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/women-money. 2016
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2015. "1.5 ton vault door to greet visitors in the new Gallery of Numismatics." National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/15-ton-vault-door-greet-visitors-new-gallery-numismatics. 2015
• Feingold, Ellen R. 2015. "Collecting the present: Partnering with researchers to document new developments in money." National Museum of Natural History. Stories https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/collecting-present-partnering-researchers-document-new-developments-money. 2015

Book

• Feingold, Ellen R. 2018. Colonial Justice and Decolonization in the High Court of Tanzania, 1920-1971. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan. In Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies (CIPCSS). (https://doi.org/2635-1633), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69691-1. 2018
• Feingold, Ellen. 2015. The Value of Money. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. 2015