Vol. 47 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Mystery at Acámbaro, Mexico: Did Dinosaurs Coexist with Humans?: From the Archives
Beginning in 1950 stories of a large collection of strange ancient figurines surfaced in the American and Mexican press. Waldemar […]
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Vol. 48 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Tutankhamun Treasures: The First Tut Show Came to the Museum: From the Archives
As the exhibition Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs travels around the United States before opening at Philadelphia’s […]
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Vol. 51 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Now a Major Motion Picture: Penn Museum’s Film Collection is Online: From the Archives
The pervasiveness of moving images in human communication today is indisputable. Film and video fill our theater, television, and computer screens. […]
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Vol. 51 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati and Darien Sutton
The Present Meets the Past: Edith and Sasha Siemel: From the Archives
People we had known only from old photographs and letters suddenly came to life with Edith Siemel’s visit to the […]
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Vol. 52 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Pennsylvania Declaration: From the Archives
Forty years have passed since Penn Museum Director Froelich Rainey presented the famous Pennsylvania Declaration, giving our Museum the distinction […]
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Vol. 53 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Jim Thompson, the Thai Silk King: From the Archive
Younger generations may not know Jim Thompson (1906-1967?), but in the 1950s and 1960s he was famous throughout the world […]
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Vol. 53 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Looking Back – Minturnae
The city of Minturnae, 50 miles from Naples, was built by the Romans in 295 BC as a fortified commercial […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Excavation of the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan: From the Archives
The ancient Maya city of Copan is a jewel of a ruin, a beautifully proportioned city situated in a verdant […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Looking Back
Alfred P. Maudslay (1850–1931) was a British explorer credited with the first systematic excavations of Maya ruins. Between 1881 and 1894 […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Furness in Borneo and East Asia
William Henry Furness III, scion of a notable Philadelphia family that included architect Frank Furness and Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Importance of Conservation at the Museum
In the early years, restoration or reconstruction work was carried out by curators and their assistants, whether it was baking […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Eccentric Maxwell Sommerville
Maxwell Sommerville (1829–1904) was one of the most colorful characters associated with the early days of the Museum. The first […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Accidental Mayanist: Tatiana Proskouriakoff
Of all the brilliant minds that have lit up the firmament of ancient Maya studies, there is none that arouses […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
William Farabee, Martyr to Science
William Curtis Farabee (1865–1925) is one of the great forgotten American explorers and anthropologists. He obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Moroccan Pottery in the African Collection
Talcott Williams, one of the early officers of the Museum, was an editor of the Philadelphia Press for 30 years. […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Big Game at the Museum
Natural history specimens collected by Arthur Donaldson Smith were on display in 1898 in the University Library, now the Fine […]
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By: Alessandro Pezzati, Jane Hickman and Alexandra Fleischman
A Brief History of the Penn Museum
The founding of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology was part of the great wave of institution-building […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
An Angu Funeral in New Guinea
Born in 1919, Ward Goodenough is a world-renowned linguist and anthropologist, who has studied the connection between language and culture […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Museum
His frail body sheltered the spirit of a courteous gentleman of high culture and lovable and gentle character. There are […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
George Byron Gordon and the Chinese Collection
George Byron Gordon (1870–1927) was born of Scottish-English ancestry on Prince Edward Island, Canada. After obtaining his Ph.D. at Harvard, […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Nippur and Hamdi Bey
The 1889–1900 excavations at Nippur in Mesopotamia led to the founding of the Penn Museum. They were immortalized on canvas […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Purchase, Theft, and Recovery of the Crystal Ball
The Chinese crystal sphere, on display in the Harrison Rotunda, has been an iconic object in the Museum since 1927, […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
John Cotter, Archaeologist of Philadelphia
Though based in Philadelphia, the Penn Museum has often neglected the American past to search for places more distant in […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Controversial Carleton Coon
Carleton S. Coon (1904–1981) was a Curator and Professor at the University of Pennsylvania until his retirement in 1963. He […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Schmidt at Tepe Hissar
In 1931 Museum archaeologists were the first Americans to excavate in Persia (Iran), at the site of Tepe Hissar, under […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Replicas of Famous Monuments of the Past
Reproductions of famous monuments were an important part of the Museum’s educational mission in its early years, before the increasing […]
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Vol. 54 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
A Telegram of Discovery from Ur
On January 4, 1928, the Museum received a telegram from Leonard Woolley announcing his great find of the tomb of […]
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Vol. 55 / No. 2
By: Gareth Darbyshire and Alessandro Pezzati
From the Archives – The Missing Piece
Organizing collections of records to make them available for research is not straightforward. The ease or difficulty in sorting through […]
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Vol. 55 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Edward Sapir and Tony Tillohash
Although Edward Sapir (1884–1939) is a famous figure in American anthropology and linguistics, his early career at the Penn Museum […]
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Vol. 56 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
From the Archives: The Discovery of the Palace of Merenptah at Memphis
Memphis, Egypt was one of the largest cities of antiquity. According to tradition, it was founded by the mythical king […]
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Vol. 56 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
William L. Potter and Joanne S. Truckel Photograph Collection: New Acquisitions
The Archives is the administrative memory of the Penn Museum, as well as the repository for the scientific records of […]
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Vol. 56 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Art of Archaeology: From the Archives
The 1839 invention of photography was revolutionary, and instantly useful to archaeologists, changing the nature of documenting the past. Yet […]
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Vol. 57 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Jessie Tarbox Beals: From the Archives
In January 1905, photographer Jessie Tarbox Beals stopped at the Penn Museum on a tour of East Coast cities. She […]
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Vol. 57 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Gold Medals & Grand Prizes: World's Fairs and The Penn Museum
The 1876 Centennial International Exposition in Philadelphia—the first world’s fair held in the United States—was an international success and demonstrated […]
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Vol. 57 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Looking Back
“The Historic Fans of the Pope Now at the University of Pennsylvania” Thus was announced to the arrival, on December […]
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Vol. 57 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The First Century of the Harrison Rotunda: From the Archives
The Harrison Rotunda, consisting of the Hall and the Auditorium, turns 100 this year. The iconic dome of the Penn […]
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Vol. 57 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
John Franklin Daniel III: The Director Who Never Was: From the Archives
In December 1948, John Franklin Daniel III and Rodney S. Young surveyed the site of Gordion, one of the fabled […]
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Vol. 58 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Stewart Culin and the Study of Games: From the Archives
Self-trained anthropologist Stewart Culin was eclectic in his interests. A master of exhibition design and a collector of ethnic and […]
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Vol. 58 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Looking Back
George Byron Gordon met Suzanne Rognon Bernardi (later Jeffery) in 1905 while in Alaska for the Penn Museum. Bernardi was […]
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Vol. 58 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Banana Recipes from West Africa,1937: From the Archives
Henry Usher Hall (1876–1944), Curator of the General Ethnology Section from 1915 to 1935, undertook two expeditions for the Penn […]
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Vol. 59 / No. 3
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Early Photographs of China: In the Archives
Photography has been central to archaeological and ethnographic documentation since its invention in 1839. Almost all Penn Museum expeditions took […]
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Vol. 59 / No. 1
By: Alessandro Pezzati
Museum Exhibitions, 1890–1990: From the Archives
Known Worldwide for its pioneering fieldwork, the Penn Museum surprises the visitor with its beautiful building, extensive collections, and impressive […]
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Vol. 59 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Lost Explorer
The Disappearance of Colonel Percy H. Fawcett in the jungles of Mato Grosso*, Brazil in 1925 is still headline news. […]
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By: Alessandro Pezzati
Looking Back
Alfred Bendiner (1899-1964) was a Philadelphia architect and artist best known for his caricatures, which for many years appeared weekly […]
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By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Matto Grosso Expedition: Brazil, 1931
Few expeditions of the Penn Museum have been as colorful as the Matto Grosso Expedition of 1931. Organized by Captain […]
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Vol. 61 / No. 2
By: Alessandro Pezzati
The Last Step in a Long Journey: Moving Monuments From Piedras Negras Into the Penn Museum, 1933; Looking Back
IN 1930, J. Alden Mason, American Section Curator, arranged for an unprecedented loan from the Government of Guatemala of Maya […]
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Vol. 64 / No. 1
By: Gareth Darbyshire and Alessandro Pezzati
Modeling the Past with Chris Ray
Christopher Ray, who for over thirty years created exhibition models for the Penn Museum, died on December 5, 2021. He […]
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