Category:Museum

By: Gabrielle Niu

With the political uprisings that have swept across the Middle East and Northern Africa in the past few months, we see the important role that social media has played in elucidating the general public as well as in creating and portraying a cohesive national voice for the people themselves during times of conflict.  Without the […]

By: Sureeratana Bubpha

YOC or “yuk” as my friends in Thailand pronounce it. Since I came to Penn last September, I have been keeping up-to-date with my friends and colleagues back in Thailand on Facebook. They often ask the question, “What is the progress of my work here at The Ban Chiang Project?” Last semester, when I was […]

By: Brian Rose

Today was devoted exclusively to a tour of the ancient monuments of Ghazni, which stretch from perhaps as early as the Achaemenid or Persian period to the Timurid period in the early 16th century. This trip required us to travel to all sides of the city. Although we advised at the beginning of the day […]

By: Brian Rose

Early this morning we boarded a military helicopter and flew to Ghazni, nearly 150 km to the southwest of Kabul. The flight took us over the Hindu Kush mountains, which had been crossed by Alexander over 2,300 years ago. We’re staying just outside of Ghazni at a PRC (Provincial Reconstruction Center), which contains a mix […]

By: Brian Rose

C. Brian Rose, former President of the Archaeological Institute of America, shares his observations about Afghanistan during his current trip: As many of you will remember, two years ago I had the good fortune of visiting Iraq at the invitation of the US Embassy in Baghdad, and I described my impressions of the country, and […]

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: Gabrielle Niu

Like “a limpid bubble” floating atop the crest of a silver wave, the Crystal Ball that anchors the vaulted ceiling of the Chinese rotunda has an exciting and mysterious past. The forty-nine pounds of transparent quartz crystal is supposedly from the imperial collections of the infamous Qing dynasty Empress, Cixi (1835 – 1908). Cixi was […]

By: Bounheuang Bouasisengpaseuth

Wednesday morning I start my day early at the West Philadelphia home-stay of Anne and Seth. My room is on the third floor rear part of the house where I can see the Vientiane Café and community gardens from my window. Anne and Seth have 5 children as well as three home-stay visitors, two men […]

By: Christine Romano

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 […]

By: Gabrielle Niu

The New York Times is hosting a twitter conversation on Thursday, March 17th between 1pm and 2pm, Eastern time, on the subject of social media and museums. Technology officers from museums including the Met, SF MoMA, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Indianapolis Museum of Art will discuss the role of the internet and social media […]