Ancient Marvels, Timeless Fascination:
The Penn Museum’s Egyptian Program in London
“Never stop learning” is an unofficial motto at Penn, and in 2013 Penn Alumni launched a new program, Penn to You, designed to bring Penn alumni, parents, and friends together for an evening of intellectual and social engagement, featuring conversation, presentations, and panel discussion with select faculty. On October 10, 2017, in the first Penn to You event featuring an arts and culture center rather than one of Penn’s 12 schools, more than 200 alumni, parents, and friends in and around London learned about the Museum’s exceptional Egyptian collections at the historic Westminster Hall.
This event featured the Museum’s Williams Director Julian Siggers and Curator-in-Charge of the Egyptian Section David Silverman, and was moderated by Penn President Amy Gutmann. After hearing how these extraordinary collections are used in teaching, research, and public engagement, as well as Penn’s ongoing discoveries in Egyptian excavations and plans for the new Egyptian Galleries, audience members posed excellent questions and enjoyed a reception with Drs. Siggers and Silverman.
Tlingit “Barbecuing Raven” Hat Repatriated
In compliance with the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Tlingit “Barbecuing Raven” clan hat, approved for repatriation in 2009, was transferred in August to Mr. Harold Jacobs, Cultural Preservation Specialist of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, on behalf of the L’ooknax. ádi Clan of Sitka. Collected in 1918 by Tlingit Curator Louis Shotridge, the hat holds a story of Raven, an omnipotent ancestor in Tlingit cosmology. Clan members of all ages saw the hat in person for the first time on October 21, 2017 at the funeral for a recently deceased family member. The hat was exhibited for many years at the Penn Museum and can be seen online at the Louis Shotridge Digital Archive: https://www.penn.museum/collections/shotridge/.
Distinguished Guest Visits CAAM’s Ceramics Lab
It is not every day that an actor who dresses up as a Terracotta Warrior walks into the Ceramics Lab to learn about petrography and to look at Chinese ceramic samples under the microscope. It happened on September 27, 2017, when the Warrior toured the Penn Museum’s China Gallery to promote The Franklin Institute’s new exhibition, Terracotta Warriors of the First Emperor, for which the Museum and the Franklin Institute are offering a joint ticketing promotion.
Museum Tours Available in Nine Languages
Make the most of your trips to the PennMuseum by adding on guided tours of our Galleries. Expert Graduate Scholars provide fresh, insider’s perspectives gained from their personal studies of ancient world cultures. These captivating one-hour tours are currently available in English, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Nepali, Hindi, French, Italian, and Dutch. To book a group or private tour, please contact Amanda Grady, Group Sales Manager at 215.746.8183 or grouptickets@pennmuseum.org.
Penn Alumni Travel Explores National Parks West
Lucy Fowler Williams, Associate Curator and Sabloff Senior Keeper, American Section (third row from top, second from left), hosted a Penn Alumni Tour to Glacier, Waterton, and Banff National Parks in July 2017. Forty-two guests experienced the incredible natural beauty of the Canadian Rockies, visited the Blackfeet Reservation, Head Smashed in Buffalo Jump archaeological site, and heard lectures about the Museum’s Blackfeet collections and Northern Plains tribal nations. Photo by Janell Wiseley.