My introduction to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology coincided with my first trip to Philadelphia twenty years ago. I was working on an exhibit with a local designer; after a week’s long effort of hard work, we rewarded ourselves with a visit to the Museum. I still remember my initial impression: the grandeur of the Museum’s architectural expression and the splendor of its archival treasures on display struck me in much the same way as did Keats’s first looking into Chapman’s Homer—”Then felt I like some watcher of the skies/When a new planet swims into his ken.” I saw something I had not seen before.
To now find myself Deputy Director of this Museum is, at once, a gift and a trust. That I would have stewardship of this Museum, along with Dr. Jeremy Sabloff, Dr. Harold Dibble, and our colleagues, at this juncture in its history is a responsibility both to a long line of predecessors and to those who will follow in the further development of this unique institution.
With the opening of the Mainwaring wing and the projected work that will be done over the next several years to improve the physical environment of the older buildings, my task will be to take the Museum to a new stage of growth and public access. My rediscovery of the Museum, its collections and ongoing research, has also been marked by my introduction to a group of dedicated professionals who share in the trust we have been given. It is my distinct pleasure to be part of the team that will bring the Museum into a new era of accomplishment.
Gerald Margolis
Deputy Director for Operations