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.
By: Alyssa Kaminski
The fierce Chopper pictured above is linked to the Ababua people of Africa. Carved into the ivory handle is a deep, wide groove that wraps around the center. The blade is made from iron with three circular cut outs in a row. Beside those cut outs, on each side, are three prong shaped iron […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Gabrielle Niu
This embroidered pile cloth is made by the Bushongo in Zaire, Africa. The design includes squares of angular lines which, create different patterns. Similar patterns are arranged diagonally from each other and are bordered by a brown cloth, on three sides. Embroidery is a technique used to decorate fabric and often involves using needle and […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Gabrielle Niu
This crescent shaped box comes from the Kasai District of the Belgian Congo (Central Africa). The box is made from carved wood and features many geometric patterns on the sides and top of the box. For example, the rim features horizontally set diamond shapes with a line across the center of each one. Additionally, the […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Gabrielle Niu
This wooden vessel, made by the Bushongo in Zaire, has a flat base and a bulbous mid-section. The handle has a carved oval shape and pointed ends which, protrude from the handle. The body of the vessel is ornamentally carved with small diamond shapes. The pattern formed by the diamond shapes is often referred to […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Ashley Harper
This sculpture displays a woman seated on stool with child. It is made of wood and iron. A child appears bent across the woman’s body, head and feet as well as resting in her arms. The woman’s stool is supported by eight figures, most likely her ancestors, around a central column. She is, perhaps the Mother […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Amy Ellsworth
This figure from Gabon is made of wood covered with metal sheets represents a human face and would serve as a reliquary guardian figure. Read more about the depiction of European people in Yoruba sculpture in Expedition magazine article The Pink People by David Crownover. Penn Museum Object #29-12-236. View this object and more like it […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Amy Ellsworth
Back in January 2012, local hip hop artists visited the African, Egyptian, and Imagine Africa galleries at the Penn Museum to draw musical (and lyrical) inspiration from the African art and artifacts. The artists, selected by local hip hop radio DJ, Zachariah Hardin aka T.H.E., include godHead The General, Magnum O, Darian The Great, KNomadz, […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Tom Stanley
Ambassadors from several African and Caribbean countries joined with Philadelphia area regional business leaders Friday, November 11, 2011, when the Penn Museum was host to a business roundtable discussion presented by the African and Caribbean Business Council (ACBC). The program ran throughout the morning, concluding with an African-style luncheon in the Museum’s Lower Egyptian Gallery, […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Tom Stanley
Penn Museum held its first Imagine Africa Community Night, sponsored by Councilwoman Jannie L. Blackwell—and more than 500 people came out to dance, drum, listen to spoken word poetry, tour the Museum’s new Imagine Africa gallery project and visit throughout the galleries. In addition to the live entertainment and workshops, the night featured a craft […]
Read the Blog Post
By: Gabrielle Niu
Ostrich eggshells have had a long history in the art and commerce of Africa. Back in 1987, David Conwell from Penn’s Classical Archaeology department published an article in the Penn Museum Expedition Journal about the implications about Libyan trade drawn from analysis of ostrich eggshell fragments. Conwell suggests that the shell fragments give us a […]
Read the Blog Post
