Description: Elvira Clain-Stefanelli worked with the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s National Numismatics Collection between 1957 and 2000. Although she initially arrived at the Smithsonian as an assistant to her husband, chief curator Vladmir Clain-Stefanelli, she eventually became the department’s first executive director in 1984. In 1973, both Elvira and Vladmir
Description: Though small in stature, Elvira Clain-Stefanelli was a force to be reckoned with at the Smithsonian, where she earned the role of the first executive director of the National Museum of American History’s National Numismatic Collection.