The Museum Bulletin
Originally published from 1930–1958, the Museum Bulletin includes articles which may not reflect the current views and values of the Penn Museum.
The editor has now determined ... to issue The University Museum Bulletin, published monthly from November to May, which will include short accounts of the current excavations, descriptions of recent acquisitions to the collections, and the activities of the Museum that are of general interest.
Cyprus Expedition
The ancient city kingdom of Kourion, on the south coast of Cyprus, has been the focus of archaeological investigation for nearly 150 years. Its location and natural resources attracted the earliest settlers to the island, and its prominence has continued into modern times. Kourion, where several sites belonging to different periods, from Neolithic to Roman times, formed one extensive settlement. B. H. Hill excavated the Bronze and Iron Age cemetery at Lapithos in 1931, beginning a focus on the Classical sites of Cyprus that continued for 20 years at the Penn Museum.
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Piedras Negras Expedition
The ancient city of Piedras Negras, deep in the jungle of the Petén district of Guatemala, was the Museum’s first large-scale excavation of a Maya ruin. It is known for its elaborately carved and well-preserved monuments, many of which were on display in the Penn Museum for years. The work, directed by J. Alden Mason and Linton Satterthwaite, lasted from 1931 to 1939.
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14 Eyes in a Museum Storeroom
The Storeroom Show was a 1952 exhibition at the Museum, curated by a selection of non-anthropologists. The Museum invited a director, a collector, a painter, a sculptor, a designer, a producer of ballet and a cartoonist to select, without suggestion, anything they considered of artistic merit or otherwise of interest. To the anthropologist, accustomed to evaluate materials on non-aesthetic grounds, the reasons for selection were novel, often even startling.
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Warp and Woof
Warp and Woof was a 1949 exhibit of historic and contemporary textiles, with a double aim: to spread before the visitor the almost miraculous products of the primitive loom, and to suggest how infinite are the decorative possibilities to be discovered in ancient and primitive design. Side by side with the rich fabrics of the past were placed newly-created textiles based on objects in the Museum.
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The Egyptian Collections
From the very beginning the Museum had subscribed to the British excavations in Egypt, and some of our outstanding pieces, especially those dating from the beginnings of Egyptian history, are the results of these subscriptions. Later the Museum was able to send out its own expeditions and thus the bulk of the collection was very considerably increased.
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