Joe Fitzgerald

Who is Joe Fitzgerald?

Joe Fitzgerald is one of the designers of the 2005 United States nickel. His design, President Jefferson with Handwritten Liberty, appears on the obverse of that coin. Fitzgerald, who is also an active and accomplished painter, was one of the twenty-four United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program artists. He has had numerous one-man-shows. His work has been exhibited in the U.S. State Department's Art in Embassies Program. He is also known as a sparkling public speaker, bringing ebullience and wit to his endeavors. His wife, Jean, is a retired archivist with the Smithsonian Institution.

He retired in 2005 as the chief of graphics at the National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. While with the Library, he led or participated artistically in numerous projects and exhibitions over the years, such as the Turning the Pages series of rare-book animations and the Visible Human Project.

He is listed in Who's Who and Who's Who in American Art.