University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, commonly branded as Penn Museum, is a research institution and museum situated on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Established in 1887, it holds over 1.3 million artifacts and features one of the most comprehensive collections of Middle and Near Eastern art in the world. The institution is dedicated to understanding cultural diversity and exploring human history, combining extensive exhibitions with active global archaeological and anthropological research.

Penn Museum was founded in 1887 by Provost William Pepper, who persuaded the university trustees to erect a fireproof building to house artifacts recovered from an expedition to the ancient site of Nippur in modern day Iraq, then part of the Ottoman Empire. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, North American and European museums regularly sponsored excavations in the Mediterranean and Near East, sharing ownership of discoveries with host countries. Penn Museum acquired the vast majority of its collections through this practice, ensuring that most objects have a known archaeological context, which increases their research value. The museum has conducted more than 300 expeditions worldwide. In response to the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent university budget cuts, the museum administration terminated 18 research specialist positions and closed the Museum Applied Science Center for Archaeology (MASCA) in 2009. Director Richard Hodges later appointed eleven of the affected individuals as associate curators or research project managers, and the museum maintained its commitment to research with over 50 active projects engaging nearly 200 scholars across five continents.

The museum's vast holdings are divided into two main divisions: archaeology, comprising artifacts recovered from excavations, and ethnology, featuring objects and descriptions collected from living populations. It also maintains a substantial collection of skeletal material not on public display. The gallery spaces span three floors and encompass materials from the ancient Mediterranean world, Egypt, the Near East, Mesopotamia, East Asia, and Mesoamerica, alongside artifacts from the indigenous peoples of Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. The excavations and collections provide vital resources for university student research, and the museum hosts the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Since 1958, the institution has published Expedition magazine three times a year.

The Egyptian collection is among the most significant globally, featuring statues, mummies, reliefs, papyri including some Oxyrhynchus Papyri, and architectural elements. Highlights include a 13-ton granite sphinx of Ramesses II and large columns from the palace of Pharaoh Merenptah, excavated in 1915. The Mesopotamian collection holds material from the Royal Tombs of Ur, co-excavated with the British Museum in Iraq, displaying crowns, statues, and musical instruments. The Mesoamerican collection features artifacts from the Maya site of Tikal in Guatemala, excavated under museum direction between 1956 and 1970, including several stelae. The Chinese collection, displayed beneath the rotunda, includes paintings, sculptures, vases, and a carved Chinese crystal sphere belonging to the Empress Dowager Cixi. The sphere and an Osiris statue were stolen in 1988, but the sphere was traced to a New Jersey home and recovered in 1991 after the statue was spotted in a local antique shop. The European collection covers Etruscan culture from the 8th to the 1st century BC, with excavated material from sites like Narce, Vulci, Musarna, and Orvieto.

The museum is housed in an Arts and Crafts and Eclectic style building, also described as Beaux-Arts, which stands as a landmark on the university campus. Designed by a team of Philadelphia architects who taught at the university, Wilson Eyre, Cope & Stewardson, and Frank Miles Day, the existing original structure represents only one-third of an ambitious plan that would have created one of the largest museum buildings in the United States. The first phase was completed in 1899 to house the Nippur discoveries. The rotunda, featuring the Harrison Auditorium, was completed in 1915 and measures thirty meters in diameter and thirty meters in height, making it one of the largest unsupported masonry domes in the country. Charles Klauder designed the Coxe Memorial Wing, opened in 1926 through a bequest by former board president Eckley Coxe to house the Egyptian collection. The Sharpe Wing and administrative wing followed in 1929. The Academic Wing opened in 1971, and the Mainwaring Collections Storage Wing was added in 2002. The building features multiple courtyards, gardens, a fountain, reflecting pool, glass mosaics, iron gates, and stone statuary. Renovations under British architect David Chipperfield began in 2006.

Penn Museum is located at the intersection of 33rd and South Streets in the University City neighborhood of Philadelphia, United States. It is owned and operated by the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. The museum serves as an educational and research hub, hosting the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World and providing resources for student research. It also engages in international cultural heritage preservation, having coordinated with other institutions under UNESCO to document the loss of Iraqi cultural artifacts and assist in the rebuilding of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad. The museum facility includes a library established in 1900, a museum shop, and ongoing exhibition spaces.