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Welcome to the Penn Museum blog. First launched in January 2009, the Museum blog now has over 800 posts covering a range of topics in the categories of Museum, Collection, Exhibitions, Research, and By Location. Here you’ll hear directly from our staff and Penn students about their work, research, experiences, and discoveries. To explore the Museum's other digital content, visit The Digital Penn Museum.


Archives Photo of the Week: Happy Holidays From The Archives

By: Eric Schnittke

This week’s image really makes you feel the cold that December and January bring. This photograph features Eskimo children playing in the snow at 50 degrees below zero in Point Barrow, Alaska, 1917-1919.  Point Barrow is the northernmost point in the United States. The image was taken by William Van Valin, who led an expedition […]

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Syrian Archaeology

By: Katy Blanchard

We are all familiar with the images of the Buddhas of the Bamiyan region of Afghanistan as well as the heartbreaking image of the looting inside in the Baghdad Museum in 2003. All political statements aside, Syria has joined this list of destruction and devastation in the midst of its own civil war. Friday’s UNESCO […]

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Archives Photo of the Week: Hi!

By: Eric Schnittke

This week’s image is an illustration by Alfred Bendiner, a Philadelphia cartoonist. He received his Bachelor and Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. Later in his career, Bendiner served as an artist-architect for the Museum’s archaeological expeditions to Tepe Gawra and Khafajeh in Iraq in 1936 and to Tikal in Guatemala in 1960. His […]

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Archives Photo of the Week: Rain

By: Eric Schnittke

It’s a rainy day in Philadelphia, so an umbrella and rain gear are a must today. This week’s photo features a farmer who is ready for the rain. The image is a studio portrait of a Japanese man wearing a palm-fiber rain coat, with a hoe over his shoulder and a bunch of daikons (white […]

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