By: Michael Condiff

Now Available: Browse the Penn Museum object collection geographically, via an interactive map. Choose from over 1,100 locations around the world, which provide access to more than 92% of the Penn Museum’s collections online. Since we launched the online collections in 2011, there was always the intention of providing a way to browse the collection […]

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By: Michael Condiff

The Digital Penn Museum has officially launched and is the culmination of multiple projects over what amounts to, after some reflection, almost the entirety of my seven years at 3260 South Street. None of these projects were full-time endeavors but steady, incremental progress over time allowed for it all to come together as a fantastic […]

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By: Michael Condiff

I’m like the Museum in a sense that I’m a collector of things. I tend to be most interested in coins, which is why one of my favorite galleries at the museum is the Greece Gallery. There’s something interesting about currency and commerce; who and how many people held the currency, what was it used […]

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By: Michael Condiff

I’ve been a fan of TED Talks for a while and somewhat recently I watched Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are. One of the things that struck me in the talk was the expression of power she refers to as “Pride”. The pride expression as Amy Cuddy describes it is “arms up […]

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By: Michael Condiff

Sometime in 2009, before I came to the museum, there was a major migration in both server, platform and URL of the Museums’ website.  These were necessary and progressive moves in the ever changing technological landscape, however, it was not without cost.  In the same way time and earth might cover  over the traces of […]

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By: Michael Condiff

Was beer critical in the development of civilization, agriculture, mathematics, bookkeeping, writing and language? Did beer help build the pyramids? Was beer used to treat certain afflictions and was it unknowingly used as an ancient antibiotic? Was beer safer to consume than water in the middle ages? Find out the answers to all these questions […]

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By: Michael Condiff

In December 2011 we launched the Penn Museum Collections Website which gave the world access to more than 665,000 objects. It was the culmination of a massive effort from museum collections staff, I.T. staff, the Registrars Office and upper Management to get the data migrated from one collections management system to another and have it […]

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By: Michael Condiff

Every day I walk though the  Archaeologists & Travelers in Ottoman Lands to get to my office and I’m reminded of a rather funny commercial for Snapple. There’s a striking resemblance between the explorer who exclaims, “We Found Better Stuff!” and Osman Hamdi Bey who is a key subject in our Archaeologists & Travelers in […]

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By: Michael Condiff

Over the past couple of months the I.T. department had received several inquires about not being able to find specific content on our website. After getting some time to test the Search Functionality myself I had to concur that what had been implemented at the launch of the website two years ago was not going […]

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By: Michael Condiff

A lot of the materials in computers and monitors are very harmful to the environment if not disposed of properly. Over time computer equipment becomes antiquated and or broken and it is the job of the I.T. department to follow Penn policy and recycle this e-waste. As Penn Museum has transitioned from the large CRT […]

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