Museum of American Finance opens in Boston

Nearly a decade after leaving its former home, the Museum of American Finance is welcoming the public to its new headquarters, just in time for the nation’s 250th anniversary.

The 5,400-square-foot museum on Boston’s Commonwealth Pier will be the Smithsonian Institution’s first permanent home since it ended its lease at 48 Wall Street in New York due to flooding in 2018.

After signing a new lease just 16 months ago, the museum was able to open its first seven exhibitions. One, developed in partnership with the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology, uses artificial intelligence to create an interactive Alexander Hamilton.

“We are bringing him back to life,” Erich Umar, head of technical strategy and planning at FCAT, said at a press conference at the museum earlier this week ahead of its opening. “History doesn’t just live in the past; it also interacts with the future.”

Visitors can converse with the first U.S. Treasury Secretary in more than 50 languages ​​and even ask unique questions, like asking him more about compound interest using a football analogy.

“Advances in technology are creating opportunities that could only be imagined just a few years ago,” Umar told CNBC. “This will expand financial education regardless of geography, language, or preferred learning method, making it possible for more Americans to access education wherever they are.”

When a visitor enters a museum, the first theme they explore may seem mundane: money.

The interactive exhibit “America in Circulation” features several examples of the nation’s currencies from the earliest to modern times, showing how currencies have evolved over the centuries.

“Everyone knows a lot about money, so we wanted the Currency Gallery to be the first exhibit visitors explore,” said Christine Aguilera, the museum’s deputy director. “So let’s start with topics that are accessible to everyone.”

The oldest currency on display is the 1652 Pine Tree Shilling, and the oldest banknotes on display date back to the 18th century. Despite showing such a large area, visitors can use the touchscreen to dive deeper. With just a few taps, you can zoom in to see the intricate details and symbolism of a particular example.

“Many of these banknotes are from significant events in our history, like the War of Independence,” said Rahul Arora, a financial historian and guest curator of the exhibit. “Some of these notes don’t exist.”

Arora said he hopes the exhibition will inspire others to understand the true value of the currency, especially from an artistic perspective. This outcome could not have come at a better time, as the federal government has already stopped producing new banknotes and Arora predicts it is only a matter of time before the dollar itself is phased out.

“Nowadays, when you shop online, all you see is the price,” he says. “When you go to Amazon and buy something, you just look at the price. You don’t think about the money transactions that are happening there.”

In order to bring financial education to the masses, admission is free to ensure that anyone who wants to learn about finance can do so.

This comes at a time when existential financial anxiety is plaguing Americans. In April, 64% of Americans said the federal budget deficit was a “very big problem” for the United States, up from 57% in February 2025, according to a Pew Research poll.

Currently, the fiscal year-to-date national deficit is over $1.2 trillion. The national debt has exceeded $39 trillion.

“We are moving away from the principles laid down by Hamilton,” said Richard Sila, professor emeritus of economics at New York University’s Stern School of Business and former chairman of the museum’s board. Mr. Shira, who remains a member of the museum’s board of directors, oversaw three of the exhibits, one of which chronicled the creation of the American financial system.

“There’s a lot of negativity about the situation in this country right now,” he said in an interview. “I think this is a great positive reminder that while you may think things are terrible right now, we actually have a glorious history of becoming the richest country in the world.”

Despite concerns about the fiscal trajectory the U.S. has been on, Shira is optimistic that these issues will be resolved in the coming years.

“When Mr. Hamilton took office, we were in an even bigger mess than we are now, because we were actually in default. Now the debt is just rising and maybe heading toward default, but we were actually in default with both our domestic and international creditors,” he said.

“There’s a lot of stuff in the museum that was left out of the musical (‘Hamilton’),” Shira said later.

As visitors near the end of their museum journey, they enter the final exhibit, “Personal Finance.” In this section, we hope to tie together the themes of previous galleries and provide visitors with a deeper understanding of the U.S. financial system and how we can develop tools to improve financial well-being.

Bob Pisani, former CNBC senior markets correspondent, said the museum is about financial history as well as financial literacy.

“Alexander Hamilton helped invent America’s first bank, stabilized American finances, and put America on a path to innovation,” said Pisani, a member of the museum’s board of directors. “Financial literacy is about understanding that history, but it’s also about understanding your own personal finances. It’s also about setting a budget.”

He noted that for individuals to set their own personal budget, it is essentially “very similar” to a government setting its own budget.

“There’s not that big of a difference between the personal budget and the federal budget,” he said. “Financial literacy teaches people how to invest. It teaches people how to save money wisely. It teaches people the value of compound interest and how to make money work for you.”