The archives’ collections document archaeological and anthropological fieldwork as well as the administrative and collections history of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Archival organization reflects the Museum’s curatorial and administrative divisions: Egypt, Near East, Mediterranean, Asia, the Americas, Africa and Oceania. Field documents begin with the first American excavations in the Near East: Nippur, Iraq, 1889-1900 and continue to document Penn’s expeditions throughout the world through the present.
The Museum keeps and makes available various administrative records from the museum departments, related organizations, and different curatorial sections.
0001 Office of the Director
0001.01 Board of Managers
0001.02 Stewart Culin
0001.03 George B. Gordon
0001.04 Horace H. F. Jayne
0001.05 George C. Vaillant
0001.06 Marian Angell Godfrey Boyer
0001.07 Froelich G. Rainey
0001.08 Martin Biddle
0001.09 Robert H. Dyson
0001.10 Jeremy A. Sabloff
0001.11 Richard Leventhal (forthcoming)
0001.12 Richard Hodges (forthcoming)
0002 Buildings / Office of the Superintendent
0003 Conservation Laboratory
0004 Membership
0005 Education Department
0006 Exhibits Department
0007 Registrar’s Office / Collections
0008 Information Technology
0009 Development Office / Rentals
0010 Events
0011 Business Office
0012 Publicity / Public Information Office
0013 Publications Department
0014 Archives
0015 Photography Studio
0016 Sales / Museum Shop
0017 Women's Committee
0018 Library
0031 University Archaeological Association
0032 Egypt Exploration Fund
0033 American Exploration Society
0034 Babylonian Exploration Fund (with Nippur)
0035 Archaeological Institute of America (Philadelphia Chapter)
0036 Philadelphia Anthropological Society
0037 Kolb Foundation
0038 Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal
0039 “What in the World?” Television Program
0040 Works Progress Administration
0041 African Section
0042 Stewart Culin
0043 Henry U. Hall
Heinrich A. Weischhoff
Carleton S. Coon
0044 American Section
0045 Charles C. Abbott
Henry C. Mercer
Stewart Culin
George B. Gordon
0046 George G. Heye
William C. Farabee
0047 Louis Shotridge
0048 J. Alden Mason
0049 Frances Eyman
0050 H. Newell Wardle
0051 Linton Satterthwaite
0052 Asian Section
Stewart Culin
0053 Carl W. Bishop
0054 Helen Fernald
0055 Schuyler V. R. Cammann
0056 Egyptian Section
0057 Sara Y. Stevenson
David Randall-MacIver
Clarence S. Fisher
Battiscombe Gunn
Hermann Ranke
Rudolph Anthes
0058 European Archaeology Section
0059 Mediterranean Section
Sara Y. Stevenson
William N. Bates
0060 Edith Hall Dohan
Stephen B. Luce
Rodney S. Young
G. Roger Edwards
0061 Near East Section / Babylonian Section (Tablet Collection)
0062 Hermann V. Hilprecht
Stephen Langdon
0063 Leon Legrain
Samuel N. Kramer
Francis R. Steele
Robert H. Dyson
James B. Pritchard
0064 Oceanian Section
Stewart Culin
William H. Furness
George B. Gordon
Henry U. Hall
Ward H. Goodenough
William Davenport
0065 Section of General Ethnology
Stewart Culin
William H. Furness
0066 George B. Gordon
Henry U. Hall
Carleton S. Coon
Ward H. Goodenough
0067 Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology
0068 Elizabeth K. Ralph
0069 Henry N. Michael
0070 Radiocarbon Laboratory
Penn Museum's Manuscript Collections include selections from Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, Egypt, Near East, Mediterranean, Europe, Asia, the Americas, and several private collections.
1000 * Henry M. Kerr — Cameroon, 1893–1897
1001 * Amandus Johnson — Angola, 1922–1924
1002 Henry U. Hall — Sierra Leone, 1936–1937
1003 Thomas S. Githens — African Handbook, 1944–1951
Carleton S. Coon — South Africa, 1955
1004 Nicholas B. David — Bé, Cameroon, 1966–1970
1005 Margaret Plass, David Crownover — West Africa, 1969
1006 Talcott Williams — Morocco, 1897–1898
1141 Carleton S. Coon — Libya, 1966–1967
1007 Charles Rosher — Dendereh, Egypt, 1896
Sara Y. Stevenson — Egypt, 1898
1008 David Randall-MacIver, Leonard Woolley — Nubia, 1907–1911
Eckley B. Coxe
1009 Clarence S. Fisher — Giza, Egypt, 1914–1915
1010 Clarence S. Fisher — Memphis (Mit-Rahineh), Egypt, 1915–1923
1011 Clarence S. Fisher — Dendereh, Egypt, 1915–1918
1012 Clarence S. Fisher — Dra Abu el-Naga (Thebes), Egypt, 1921–1923
1013 Alan Rowe — Meydum, Egypt, 1929–1932
1014 Rudolf Anthes — Memphis, Egypt, 1955–1956
Yale-Penn Expedition to Nubia, Egypt
Froelich G. Rainey — Aswan Dam Salvage, Abu Simbel and other Nubian sites, Egypt
1015 Ray Smith, Donald Redford — Akhenaten Temple Project, Egypt, 1966–1970
Iraq
1016 * William Ward, John H. Haynes — Wolfe Expedition to Mesopotamia, 1884–1885
1017 John P. Peters, Hermann V. Hilprecht, John H. Haynes, Clarence S. Fisher — Nippur, Iraq, 1889–1900
1018 C. Leonard Woolley, Leon Legrain, Max E. Mallowan — Ur, Iraq, 1922–1934
1019 Edward Chiera, Charles Bache — Nuzi, Iraq, 1927–1931
1020 Erich F. Schmidt — Fara, Iraq, 1931
1021 E. A. Speiser — Tepe Gawra, Iraq, 1930–1938
1022 E. A. Speiser, Charles Bache — Tell Billa, Iraq, 1931–1933
1023 E. A. Speiser, Charles Bache — Khafaje and Kara Tepe, Iraq, 1937–1938
1024 Francis Steele, Carleton S. Coon — Nippur, Iraq, 1949–1951
1025 Theresa H. Carter — Tell al-Rimah, Iraq, 1964–1966
1140 Jeanny V. Canby – Ur-Nammu Stela, c. 2001
Iran
1026 Erich F. Schmidt — Tepe Hissar (Damghan), Iran, 1931–1932
1027 Frederick R. Wulsin — Tureng Tepe, Iran, 1931
1028 Erich F. Schmidt — Rayy (Rhages), Iran, 1934–1937
1029 Erich F. Schmidt — Luristan Valley, Iran, 1934–1938
Erich F. Schmidt — Aerial Survey, Iran, 1935–1937
Erich F. Schmidt — Persepolis, Iran, 1937–1939
Robert H. Dyson — Hasanlu, Iran, 1955–1977
Robert H. Dyson — Tepe Hissar, Iran, 1976–1977
1030 Robert H. Dyson — Dinkha Tepe, 1966–1968
1141 Carleton S. Coon – 1949-1955
Syria-Palestine
1031 Clarence S. Fisher, Alan Rowe, Gerald M. Fitzgerald — Beth Shean, Palestine (Israel), 1921–1933
Vincenzo Petrullo — Colombia and Venezuela, 1934–1935
J. Alden Mason — Peru, 1952
1127 Alfred Kidder II — Bolivia, 1954–1955
1128 Berkeley R. Lewis — Venezuela, 1958
Karen M. Chavez — Peru, 1965–1967
Frank E. Johnston — Peru, 1966
1129 Solomon Katz — Point Barrow, Alaska, 1969–1972
1130 Wilton Krogman
Elizabeth K. Ralph
Henry N. Michael
1131 Maxwell Sommerville Collection
1136 Stewart Culin Game Collection
The Museum's Visual Collections include motion picture films, filmed expeditions, photographs, territorial surveys, drawings and artwork, as well as three dimensional objects.
*Not museum expeditions
Our photo archives include over 750,000 images. In addition to images of museum objects and photographs from Penn-sponsored expeditions, the photographic archives include major collections by Maison Bonfils, William Henry Jackson, John K. Hillers, Edward S. Curtis, Giorgio Sommer, Desire Charnay, Fratelli Alinari, Lehnert & Landrock, Jessie Tarbox Beals, and other important figures in the history of photography.
Thanks to the generosity of the Internet Archive , nearly all of the archives' collection of films is available online. Film collections include the documentary footage of Watson Kintner and his travels to Guatemala, Guyana, Ecuador, Morocco, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Australia, Iran, and Ethiopia, all filmed with a 16mm camera from 1933-1969. We also hold a few episodes of the well-loved television show "What in the World?", a museum-sponsored game show in which a panel of experts was asked to identify the culture, place and use of an obscure object taken from the museum's storerooms.
While we encourage the use and re-use of our films for creative purposes, please note that the museum archives holds copyright to this content. To protect your interests, please be sure to contact the archives so that we can grant permission for the re-use of these films. Photography/film rights and permissions.