In its 125-year history, the Penn Museum has sent out anthropological and archaeological expeditions throughout the world. Between 1895 and 1903, three young men affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania undertook several expeditions to the Far East. Their principal destination was the island of Borneo, to traverse the interior of the island and collect ethnological objects and natural history specimens for the Museum. But the travels of William Henry Furness III, Alfred C. Harrison, Jr., and Hiram M. Hiller did not stop there. In five long trips over seven years they made their way around the world twice and visited at least twenty countries, mainly in East Asia, including India, Japan, China, Burma, Thailand, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and Russia. They made ethnographic studies of the Dayaks in Borneo, the Naga in Assam, India, and the Ainu of Japan. Upon their return they turned over to the Penn Museum their object collections, as well as a set of hand-colored lantern slides from their many travels.
Now there is a chance to view these beautiful hand-painted glass slides at a Lantern Slide Salon presented by the Wagner Free Institute of Science in their famous auditorium, on the evening of October 10, 2013.
The Penn Museum’s portion of the show will include pictures from the travels of Furness, Harrison, and Hiller, as seen at Museum lectures in the 1890s and early 1900s. Please attend.
