Category:Fun Friday Image of the Week

By: Alessandro Pezzati

The 2014 FIFA World Cup has begun in Brazil this afternoon.  Since it is being played in a tropical country this year, the Penn Museum Archives thought it fitting to show what is most likely the earliest photograph of a soccer game played north of the Arctic Circle. Taken at Point Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

Please write my caption here or here!

By: Amy Ellsworth

Spring, by small degrees, is inspiring the bulbs to show off their blooms in the the courtyard at the Penn Museum. The daffodils, with oddly narrow trumpets, are nodding visitors inside as if to say, “The Silk Road mummies may be gone, but we still have a really cool exhibit here! I swear! I’m a […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

A woman water pipe smoker “Kaliunchi” (‘nargilah’ in Arabic and Turkish) in a teahouse in Damghan, Semnan Province, Iran in 1932. Penn Museum Image #83371. Iran was an important part of the Silk Road trading routes. One of the many food items traded along the silk road was pistachios, a main export of Damghan. At […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

Since we started planning for Secrets of the Silk Road, almost every powerpoint presentation I’ve seen has been festooned with pictures of camels. We’ve spent many a coffee break needling over whether or not the camels peppering the latest powerpoint were Bactrians or Dromedaries. Bactrian camels have two humps! Surely, you knew that already. At […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

George Rawls (left) and a Bororo boy named Tari (right) during the Penn Museum’s Matto Grosso Expedition in Brasil, 1941 My former  archivist colleagues were charged with the task of scrubbing the Archives Image Database. Out of their own genuine love for the collection (and not due to a lack of work, mind you) they created […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

Sphinx of Ramesses II in front of the Main Entrance of the Penn Museum, covered with snow. The Sphinx was moved into the building in 1916, and the Lower Egyptian Gallery was built around the sphinx in 1926. Penn Museum image 140759. I just rubbed my hands together and blew into them to get them […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

Pullover wool dress, ca. 5th-3rd century BCE. Excavated from Tomb No. 55 of Cemetery No. 1, Zaghunluq, Charchan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. © Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum. This is one of the objects coming to the Penn Museum in the Secrets of the Silk Road exhibition in February 2011. I am trying to […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

These stone pendants from Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, depict the common theme of the “long-nosed God”, frequently identified with Chac, the rain god. The motif is also associated with a figure known as the jester God, a symbol of rulership. From left: H. 7 cm., H. 5.1 cm., H. 3.6 cm. Penn Museum Objects NA11371, NA11375, […]

By: Amy Ellsworth

Annie Mitchell, baby Clement Mitchell, and Pido the dog in Ukiah, CA 1904 On verso of photograph: “Girl is Annie Mitchell and baby is Clement Mitchell, children of Clara Mitchell (later Williams) and Tom Mitchell from the Yokayo Rancheria near Ukiah, CA. The dog’s name is Pido. Information courtesy of the Held-Page Library, Ukiah, CA. […]