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Penn Museum's Current Exhibitions |
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Aerial perspective of the evolving museum master plan, 1921, Wilson Eyre. Photo: Architectural Archives, University of |
Penn in the World: Twelve Decades at the University of Pennsylvania Museum May 8 - Sept 28, 2008 Penn Museum has built its reputation across the decades and throughout the world as a sponsor of groundbreaking fieldwork and a center for research and education. This exhibition, organized by an interdisciplinary Halpern-Rogath Curatorial Seminar of undergraduate and graduate students, brings together material from the Museum’s own archives and collections, the University archives, and the Architectural Archives to tell the still-evolving story of a grand building and the unique, international institution that it was designed to house. Using historic photographs, original documents, architectural drawings, and a selection of artifacts from some of the Museum’s most renowned historic expeditions, “Penn in the World” weaves together diverse narratives of the Museum’s long history. 2nd floor Dietrich Gallery. |
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Surviving: The Body of Evidence Penn Museum takes an up close and personal look at the scientific study of evolution with this challenging new traveling exhibition that puts you—and your fellow humans—at the center of the inquiry, on a journey of self-discovery. Surviving, an interactive, multimedia exhibition supported in large part by a grant from the National Science Foundation, begins with the premise that you—and your fellow humans-—are survivors. Your body holds the evidence. The process of evolution and its outcomes have had a profound impact on every aspect of your daily lives. And the process continues. From Fit for Life, a multimedia introduction to inherited human strengths and capabilities, to an examination of Our Place in the Natural World, the exhibition considers you, the human being, in a wider context. In Finding Your Human Ancestors, you’ll be able to touch and examine more than 100 casts of fossil bones from the primate and human evolutionary record—evidence that scientists use to better understand our ancient past. In Witnessing Evolution, some of the world’s most brilliant scientists and revolutionary thinkers put voice to their breakthrough theories in dramatic reenactments. |
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Then, find out more about the particulars--why your back may ache, your son’s wisdom teeth are impacted, or your sister had trouble giving birth. Take stock in the imperfect, but remarkable, human being that you are today, in We are not Perfect, but We are OK. Where do you, and your species, go from here? Geneticists, evolutionary biologists, nanotechnology engineers, even school children, share what they think in We Keep Evolving—and invite you to make a prediction about our shared evolutionary future. In addition to support from the National Science Foundation, Surviving: The Body of Evidence is made possible by the generous contributions of many individual, corporate, and foundation donors, including A. T. Chadwick Co., Andrea M. Baldeck, M.D. and William M. Hollis, Jr., Ms. Carrie Cox and Mr. Kenneth Cox, duPont Company, Dr. Leslie Hudson, the Virginia and Harvey Kimmel Arts and Education Fund, Diane vS. Levy and Robert M. Levy, Mr. and Mrs. A. Bruce Mainwaring, Mrs. Annete Merle-Smith, P. Agnes, Inc., Park Avenue Charitable Fund, Schering-Plough Corporation, Eric and Alexandra Schoenberg Foundation, the family of Barbara Schoenberg, The Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, The Women’s Committee of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, and Wyeth. Planning for this project was supported by the Heritage Philadelphia Program at the Philadelphia Center for Arts and Heritage, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, and administered by The University of the Arts. |
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Counterpoint:
Anthropology and Photography in New Guinea Anthropology is the study of cultures, and often, the study of cultures very different from our own. How much can we learn about ourselves from the way that we look at “the other”? Counterpoint pairs the vivid color photography of Austin Super, a retired American businessman, world traveler and talented amateur photographer, with commentary by Dr. Stuart Kirsch, a University of Pennsylvania-trained anthropologist who has carried out ethnographic research in Papua New Guinea since 1986. Mr. Super traveled around the island of Papua New Guinea for three weeks in 1988, attending the annual Highlands Show (known in Melanesian Pidgin as a singsing), a regional celebration of cultural identity through costume and dance. Most of the 34 large-scale, full-color photographs in this exhibition were taken at the Highlands Show. Dr. Kirsch’s commentary contextualizes what the viewer sees, explaining some of the complex and varied cultural practices seen in these photographs from Papua New Guinea, a place where more than 700 languages are spoken. Dr. Kirsch also describes some of what the viewer does not see, aspects of the event that were missing from the photographer’s images. 1st floor Merle-Smith Changing Exhibition Gallery. |
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Doll from
Omdurman Eastern Sudan,
Object ID AF3695 |
SPECIAL “One Book, One Philadelphia” DISPLAY: Penn Museum has a collection of artifacts representing diverse cultures of Sudan, collected primarily between 1903 and 1950. A small selection of these daily life objects—including a doll, jewelry, a pipe, and elegantly decorated knives—in one display case, offers a window into several cultures from that region. ONGOING EXHIBITION: Discover the rich cultural diversity of the African continent, through this gallery which features materials from the many regions of Africa. Among the many highlights: a group of Benin bronzes, courtly art of the 15th to 19th centuries, from Nigeria; ritual masks used in community building from many cultures; finely crafted Akan gold weights from Ghana and the Ivory Coast; everyday artifacts, collected in the 1930s, from Sierra Leone; and a finely etched ostrich egg container and zebra bracelets from South Africa.
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Great Lyre from the "King's Grave" |
SPECIAL DISPLAY: The late 1920s excavation of royal tombs at Ur, in southern Iraq, provided one of the most renowned discoveries in the history of archaeology. Extravagant jewelry of gold, lapis-lazuli, and carnelian, cups of gold and silver, and extraordinary objects of art and culture were among the Mesopotamian treasures uncovered by renowned British archaeologist C. Leonard Woolley in a joint expedition by the British Museum and Penn Museum. The remarkable tombs opened the world's eyes to the full glory of ancient Sumerian culture (2600-2500 B.C.) at its zenith. Penn Museum's display--the highlights of a 1990s exhibition which traveled around the country--features several objects, including a bull-headed lyre, one of the oldest musical instruments in the world; the famed, misnamed "Ram-Caught-in-the-Thicket" statuette (it is actually a goat); and the elaborate headdress of the Queen Puabi, as well as excavation photographs and text retelling the story of the famous expedition. Second floor foyer, by the grand staircase. |
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Amarna: Ancient Egypt's Place in the Sun Tutankhamun, ancient Egypt's most famous pharaoh (ca. 1332 to 1322
BCE), grew up in the royal court at Akhetaten (modern Tell el-Amarna).
This royal city, located in a previously uninhabited stretch of
desert, existed only a short time. It hardly survived the death
of its founder, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun’s probable father,
who introduced the belief in a single deity, the disk of the sun,
called the Aten. The Egyptians abandoned both the new religion and
the new city, and Tutankhamun led his people back to the traditional
beliefs. The
exhibition, which opened in 2006, originally scheduled to run through October 2007, has been given a long-term extension, as a complement to the Museum's refurbished Upper and Lower Egyptian galleries. |
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