Behind the Exhibit

River of Gold first opened at Penn Museum for a six-week run in April 1988, before traveling to several U.S. sites. The current exhibition, updated and re-designed, is curated by Dr. Pamela Jardine, Research Associate in the American Section. John T. Murray is head of the Museum’s exhibition design team, creating and installing the new design.

Curatorial

Dr. Pamela Hearne Jardine, Exhibition Curator and long affiliated with Penn Museum, is currently a Research Associate in the Museum’s American Section. She was Keeper of the American Collections from 1982 to 1989, Coordinator of Museum Services until 1995, and Assistant Director of the Museum from 1995 until 1998. Over the years, Dr. Jardine organized many exhibits, including “Ancient Nubia, Egypt’s Rival in Africa” and “Treasures from the Royal Tombs of Ur.” She has curated and co-curated several exhibits, including “The Silent Language of Guatemalan Textiles,” the “Pomo Indian Basket Weavers: Their Baskets and the Art Market” and, with Dr. Robert Sharer, an earlier “River of Gold”exhibition at Penn Museum in 1988. She is also co-editor of River of Gold: Precolumbian Treasures from Sitio Conte, published in 1992. Dr. Jardine received her Doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania.

Exhibition Design

John T. Murray, Penn Museum’s Exhibition Designer, has designed and produced all permanent gallery installations, traveling exhibits, and most special exhibits at Penn Museum since 1975. For River of Gold, Mr. Murray and his team worked closely with curator Pam Jardin to update the exhibition that first opened at Penn Museum in 1988. He often serves as a consultant for exhibition designers at other venues and lectures on exhibition design at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts.

Conservation

Lynn Grant joined the University of Pennsylvania Museum's Conservation Laboratory in 1988 as Conservator for loans and traveling exhibits. Prior to that, she had worked as a conservator in Canada, England, and Hong Kong and done on-site field conservation in Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Jordan. Since coming to the Museum she has worked summer field seasons at excavations at Troy, Turkey, from 1990 to 1994, and has participated in the Museum's excavation seasons at Copan, Honduras from 1995 to 2002. She is the author of a recent book on conservation, The Maya Vase Conservation Project, and frequently lectures and consults on archaeological conservation. Ms. Grant holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Studies from Mount Allison University in Canada and a master's in Archaeological Conservation from the Institute of Archaeology, University College London.  

Image caption: Lynn Grant stitches triangular-shaped pieces of hammered gold on to a backing fabric. These were found scattered over the lower body of the female skeleton from Burial 11. Because the original arrangement of the pieces, which may have been sewn on to a skirt, was not preserved they are being stitched down in a random fashion.