The Penn Museum provides information about its collections to the public via an online database that draws upon the Museum's EMu collections management system. As a work in progress, the Museum continuously strives to improve both the quantity and quality of the data contained within the online database.
Currently, the online database contains more than 379,499 object records representing 1,141,045 objects (or components of objects) with 259,376 images illustrating 84,360 object records.
Publication of the Museum's collections data is rooted in an ideal of open access. Core details about Museum objects are available for the majority of the Museum's digitized object records. Note, however, that not all records included herein have been reviewed for completeness or accuracy. That process is ongoing and the Museum would welcome your assistance in drawing our attention to any particularly egregious omissions or inaccuracies. Some object records and/or details are not available for public access due to issues of cultural sensitivity or based on other considerations. If you have any questions or concerns about the objects or object information that you discover in this database, please email digitalmedia@pennmuseum.org and cite the relevant object number(s).
Please contact us before publishing object information taken from this website as not all records have been reviewed for accuracy.
Images may not be used for print publication or commercial purposes without written approval from the Penn Museum. To request licensing of an image for print publication or commercial use, or to request publication-quality photography of an object, please email photos@pennmuseum.org.
Website users may link to, embed, or download these files for use motivated by private interest only. You are free to copy and adapt the images as long as you credit the Museum: "Object [insert object number(s)]. Courtesy of the Penn Museum." and in no way suggest an endorsement of you or your use of the image or content.
Penn Museum's EMu collections management system and this online database have been made possible by grants from the Philadelphia Cultural Management Initiative and the William Penn Foundation, and support from the Kowalski Family Fund for Digital Initiatives and A. Bruce and Margaret Mainwaring.