Penn Museum Reflection

Improved Essays
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology is one of the oldest and larges university museums in the country. The Museum has dedicated many years to expeditions through nearly every continent, and obtaining a sizeable collection with approximately one million artifacts. With this great collection, Penn Museum’s mission statement is simple: “The Penn Museum transforms understanding of the human experience.” To support their mission statement this institution has put into place for “pillars.” These pillars include research, teaching, collections stewardship, and public engagement, to foster further knowledge, exploration, and care of the collection. Due to the large scope and breadth of the collection, the Penn Museum …show more content…
I arrived at the museum around noon and decided to first use this time as a museum visitor, assuming the average visitor would first eat lunch. During this time I viewed several of the major exhibits such as the China Gallery in the massive rotunda, Iraq’s Ancient Past: Rediscovering Ur’s Royal Cemetery, and two of their special exhibitions, Beneath the Surface: Life, Death and Gold in Ancient Panama and Native American Voices: The People – Here and Now. These exhibitions feature several interactive materials, which I thought would be very popular, and decided to focus my attention on Native American …show more content…
I was not saddened or over excited, just enlightened. I enjoyed the exhibition for the most part, and especially the interaction with the technology. Within the small gallery space there were nine interactive media to play around with, to learn about issues and cultures of the Natives, and to form thought provoking options. One thing I would change is the placement of the column-like touchscreens. Positioned at the front and rear of the gallery, whenever I would use them, I felt like I was blocking the entrance or disrupting other visitors. Positioned in a more central location in the gallery, and closer together, I think better use and reaction from the media, and even maybe discussions between

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Stax Museum Reflection

    • 2301 Words
    • 10 Pages

    I don’t know how the wonderful music history of Memphis pass me by but somehow It did! I have always heard that Memphis is known for its music history, especially the blues, but I never investigated the theory for myself. The instructor at the college challenged me to write a paper about the history of the Stax Museum in a reflection paper and I am really glad she did. It influenced me to finally take the time to view the history of Memphis firsthand starting with the Stax Museum. The research, museum, and the informative information my teacher taught in class helped me to learn the original name of the company, showed me the good and bad experiences with the company, taught me the meaning of music terms in the music company and lead me to…

    • 2301 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Students from Ajou university visited to the Native American Museum on Thursday. Coordinated as part of the summer JHU-SAIS, the speaker from Native American Museum spoke with students about Native American. The speaker focused on all-round of Native American. At first, the speaker showed about flags of Native Americans. She explained some of flags like what is the stars in flag meaning.…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Suzan Shown Harjo’s article “We Are People, Not Property” argues for the respect of deceased Indians in museums, from the archaeologists finding them, and the language they used to house their ancestors. Harjo gives a list of laws that in which she helps fight for. However, there has been a rollback on how Indians are and now she is back to help the issue get resolve again due to archaeologists not wanting to classify Indians properly. The main purpose is to get people to understand the problems they are going through and help them fix it by advocating for the laws of the deceased Indians. Harjo uses pathos, logos, and ethos to ensure the meaning of her article gets across to the readers and help understand how much their ancestors mean to…

    • 1002 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Last October I participated in the Dartmouth Native Fly-In Program and while I was visiting I made a trip to the third floor of the Dartmouth library. I remember this experience quite well because out of all the wonderful memories I made on that trip, this was the one experience that had the greatest impact on me. I remember walking into the library where old, frail books lined the walls with dark, mahogany bookcases stretching high. There were antique lamps on the desks that let off just enough light for one person to study under and floors that creaked loud enough to draw attention to my friends and I. We finally reached the center of the library where I saw a bronze Native American sculpture that I recognized from a museum I have visited many times here in Oklahoma.…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The American Revolution is when the British taxed the colonists and that started a rebellion. yes, we know that, but we don’t necessarily think of how the Indians affected the revolution or the part they played. We celebrate and look up to icons like George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, and are reminded of freedom and leadership in the revolution. But we exclude the group of people who took an important role in founding this nation and changing the revolution. Ever since the building of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia.…

    • 477 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Nelson-Atkins Museum

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages

    My visit to the Nelson-Atkins museum was unlike any of my other visits to museums. First of all, I had a solid purpose for going and found myself paying much more attention to the intricacies of pieces I was viewing. Secondly, due to its sheer size, this museum had a wide variety of art from many different cultures and time periods, giving each hallway and room a different feel. Lastly, I felt much more educated about what I was viewing, when compared to previous experiences. I waited until the 8th of July to drive to Kansas City and thus had read most of content that would be covered over the semester.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jefferson concludes that the presumptions place on the American Indian were not the only problem museums faced. Academic presumptions also existed and continue to exist. Presumptions at an academic level can filter down and effect how the public interprets this fragile piece of…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Brilliant Essays

    Puvungna Research Paper

    • 1307 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Puvungna On September 19, 2015 I joined the class on the trip to Puvungna, which is also known as the “Gathering Place” for Native Americans. I have known that Puvungna was located on campus but I have never gone to look around. The site is located right along Earl Warren Drive on campus and behind the Japanese Garden which was populated by the Tongva tribe.…

    • 1307 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Brilliant Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I have always had a passion for history and storytelling since I was a child and decided in seventh grade world history class that I wanted to be an archaeologist, discovering ancient cultures and uncovering their secrets. I maintained this plan, arriving at Boston University as an archaeology major but after several semesters of study realized that it wasn’t the exact path for me. I began to grow my appreciation of museums, admiring how they could ignite wonder, curiosity, and learning in myself and others. I realized this was where I felt most at home. Therefore, I decided to change my major to art history, while retaining an archaeology minor, and explore history through the lens of artist’s interpretations and ideas.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This week’s theme is Ethnic and Tribal Museum. Amy Lonetree’s “Missed Opportunities: Reflection on the NMAI”, she mentions how colonization and museums for the Native Americans experience go hand in hand because it kept Native Americans frozen in a certain time period. “We do not want to make National Museum of the American Indian into an Indian Holocaust Museum… You have to go beyond the story of the tragedy and the travesty of the past 500 years.” (p.637) Their narrative within exhibits should include stories before colonization. The Native American culture has been able to survive assimilation and should be presented in a way that brings pride to their heritage.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are those that walk the line between supporting art repatriation and denying art repatriation. Director of the Dallas Museum of Art, Maxwell Anderson, is one of those people. Anderson believes that efforts should be taken to return these stolen artifacts to their country of origin and he has even enforced the art repatriation campaign within the Dallas Museum of Art. Though he shows great support for the movement he does have his limits. He believes that after a certain, unspecified, amount of time the artifacts become apart of the heritage of the museums in which they are currently housed and therefore, only that museum has an origin claim to those pieces.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mexican Visit

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I come from a small country. A country that has faced different stages in its short life. My family and I often visit the west part of my country, Honduras, an area where the ancient Mayan civilization was established in the early V century AD. It’s probably a short three-hour drive, it’s nothing a snooze on the car ride can’t take. As a child, I was easily impressed when observing the whole region: buildings and locals were very different in comparison to the city I came from.…

    • 825 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I went with another anthropology major and the whole time we talked about the techniques that were used in order to facilitate the actual exhibit and how much we actually learned from being in the exhibit for about thirty minutes to an hour. It created discussion after exiting the museum as well because we talked about why the ceremonial mound had not been dug up yet and if it is a good decision to let all that history still lay there untouched. I feel like the main message to take away from the exhibit was to learn about the creation of the Terra Cotta Warriors and to showcase their findings. It gives people who come to the exhibit knew knowledge of a time that is barely known about. It also gives a discussion topic as to why the ceremonial mound had not been excavated on yet.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The topic of archaeology programs in museums and the role that popular culture plays in the public’s misconceptions is not easily covered in a limited timeframe nor a single document. The author considers this thesis a possible introduction to a much larger study. There is always more that can be learned, more comparisons made, and new programs evaluated. With an unlimited timeframe, the ability and funds to travel, and perhaps surveying assistance, more programs and museum educators could be surveyed for comparison. A deeper analysis of the “Anthropologists in the Making” summer camp could also be done, looking at the camp throughout multiple years.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Museum Reflection Paper

    • 1054 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When I went to the Smithsonian Human Origins Exhibit, it made me realize how much more I am informed about human evolution compared to most of the people at the exhibit. One thing was I saw on one the displays that Neanderthals were classified as part of the Homo sapiens lineage, which is not true. During our lecture you already told us that Neanderthals are not part of the lineage. Neanderthals are consider more like sisters than one of us. Also one of the speakers was saying how Homo heidelbergensis were 99.9% closely related to us, which is also false.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays