Tag: The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Praxis Course: Museum Studies Praxis Seminar

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Monique Scott

Community Partner(s): University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology/ Penn Museum

Field Supervisor: Katherine Blanchard

Praxis Poster:

HART_PearleBromley-compressed

 

Further Context:
For my Museum Studies Praxis Internship this semester, I worked as a collections management intern at the Penn Museum beneath Near Eastern Section Keeper Katherine Blanchard. As to how I secured my placement at the museum, I had initially cold-emailed Katy in June of last year. With a brief email exchange, we zoomed together several times over the summer discussing my interests and academic background, at which point she confirmed that I  would be interning with her in the fall.

Throughout the semester, my praxis work focused on one main project, in which I was tasked with acquisitioning material from the site of Gibeon—or el Jib. The site itself is just Northwest of Jerusalem in the Palestinian Territories, more specifically in the West Bank. The city is over 5,000 years old, with initial settlement dating back to the Early Bronze Age (c. 3300–2000 BCE), and is most famous for its presence in the Old Testament with it being the location where Joshua made a peace treaty with its inhabitants. Its excavation was led by archaeologist James B. Pritchard through the University of Pennsylvania, with over five field seasons between 1956 and 1962. The majority of objects maintained by the museum from Gibeon originate from tomb groups, and are primarily ceramics, including oil lamps, jugs, bowls, as well as small finds such as human and animal figurines, metal jewelry, knives, and other miscellaneous pieces.

As to my role in acquisitioning this collection, I would typically process a group of objects, one shelf—or drawer—at a time. In order to acquisition an object group, I engaged in several steps including confirming the museum and registration numbers of the artifacts, taking them to be photographed in either the shot-on or shot-down photography studio, sending the digital photographs to my supervisors to be edited and uploaded to the website for publication, and then finally rehousing and reorganizing the artifacts back on the shelf/drawer from where they originated.

Ultimately, I was able to process and upload over 2,000+ object photos, which are publicly accessible on the Penn Museum’s Digital Collections Website for the first time since their excavation. I learned a lot from this internship, not only how to acquisition collection material, but how to properly engage as a steward of a collection. While these artifacts may be housed within the walls of the Penn Museum, they are not inherently owned by the museum, but rather maintained by its wonderful staff. Objects like those excavated at Gibeon hold great cultural value for the ancient heritages they represent, and in properly maintaining them, not only are they kept safe and accessible, but are given the respect they deserve as pieces of an ancient past—emblematic of contemporary cultures in Palestine today.

Praxis Course: Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar

Semester: Spring 2026

Faculty Advisor/Professor: Monique Scott

Community Partner(s): The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Field Supervisor: Katherine Blanchard

Praxis Poster:

HART_TessRivera

 

Further Context:

This semester, I interned at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology with the Near Eastern collection. I worked under the keeper of the collection, Katherine (Katy) Blanchard, and alongside another Museum Studies Praxis student. Katy introduced me to the biblical site of Gibeon, which is located in current day El Jib, just outside of Jerusalem, Palestine. The site was excavated by the Penn Museum in conjunction with the Church Divinity School of the Pacific from 1956 to 1962. Finds from the excavations include pottery, jewelry, and small metal objects. I worked over the course of the semester on documenting the artifacts from this site, making them accessible to the public in the museum’s online collection website. Each day at the museum looked mostly the same. I would first check in with Katy in the basement’s storage rooms about how much I could ideally accomplish that day and whether we
had any additional meetings to attend between projects. I would then head over to the many shelves where the Gibeon objects lived, and I would take a shelf of artifacts into the next room to be inventoried. I made note of each field number and accession number, as well as any abnormalities such as pencil markings or incorrect information listed in the museum’s system.
Once the objects were inventoried, I transferred them to one of two camera setups with a gray backdrop, depending on whether the images needed to be taken from above or from a standing tripod. I photographed each object from all angles before rehousing the objects into fresh bags to be put back on their shelf. This process was repeated multiple times each day. Today, images of over 900 objects have been made available on the collection website. Objects from this site had never previously been photographed or otherwise documented outside of the names and numbers listed in the museum’s computer system. It was an extremely rewarding experience to be able to give these objects a new life. In addition to learning how to handle and photograph artifacts, I was able to gain a new perspective on what
museum work entails. There are so many museum career paths other than curation, and it was wonderful to be able to explore these other paths via hands-on participation. I look forward to utilizing the skills from this Praxis internship in my future museum career.