Looking through a collection of 16mm films housed in the Museum Library, our film archivist came across a 1972 film which gives a rare glimpse of peace in a country often torn apart by war. We got in touch with the filmmakers, Judith and Stanley Hallet, who let us know that this film is a [...]
While researching the large collection of Mary Louise Baker’s archaeological drawings in the Penn Museum’s archives, I came across a beautiful watercolor of Egyptian jewelry excavated in Nubia, 1907-1911. I found myself drawn to Baker’s archaeological illustrations after learning of their conservation treatment by the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts, and after creating [...]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_Cfadcxf4 From the Watson Kintner Collection. More info.
In preparation for the Chinese New Year celebrations we have pulled some archival travelogue footage from two collections; Kate and Arthur Tode, and Mrs. J. Shipley Dixon. As you will see, the films are remarkable for their view of pre-revolutionary period China, both 1930 “Canton” (Guangzhou) and 1945(?) “Peking” (Beijing). The filmmakers in both cases [...]
Missing sibling film re-united with Matto Grosso: The Great Brazilian Wilderness (1931) Three weeks ago you were introduced to Tari, the cute Bororo boy who appears in one of the Penn Museum’s films. He also had a starring role in his own short film, which was only recently rediscovered. You will be able to see [...]
This man is one of many workers at the excavation of the Seneferu Pyramid in 1929. Maybe it was the presence of the motion picture camera that inspired him to start dancing. Notice the reaction of his fellow workers. For some, the inspiration to start singing and dancing seems pretty commonplace, but others start to [...]
I recently received a very thoughtful email from a reader (a graduate student in a museum studies program) who had some questions about what we do here at the archives — I thought that I would post his thoughts and my replies for our readers’ edification. His email: Hello. I am a graduate student taking [...]
Maureen: Digitization is iterative. There was a time that every institution with a desktop scanner and a work-study student was scanning every item they could lay their hands on like kids in candy stores, and throwing them up onto the web without thinking much about the user experience. Now that we’re at a point of [...]
In the archives, we tend to have about a thirty-year lag between something happening at the museum and a researcher wanting to look at those records. However, it’s worth reminding our public that the Penn Museum is actively involved in dozens of research projects, and that the scientists and others involved in this process are [...]
