Guide to the North American Ethnographic Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

By (author) Lucy Fowler Williams

Book cover: Guide to the North American Ethnographic Collection at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Extent: 112 pages

Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Museum

Subjects: American Studies, Anthropology

Language: English

Paperback (Published)

(April 2003)

ISBN: 9781931707336

5.98 x 8.98 inches

Price: $14.95

In stock

Hardback (Published)

(May 2003)

ISBN: 9781931707329

5.98 x 8.98 inches

Price: $29.95

In stock

The University Museum’s ethnographic holdings include 40,000 objects. This guide explores the collections’ strength, linking objects to history within diverse cultural contexts and emphasizing their multiple meanings. It offers insights into archival resources, exhibitions, research, repatriation, and contemporary collections.


Totaling approximately 40,000 objects, the University Museum’s ethnographic holdings represent native peoples from ten North American culture areas-the Arctic, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, California, Plateau, Great Basin, Southwest, Great Plains, Northeast, and the Southeast. This guide highlights the strength of the collections and demonstrates how objects are tied to history and people living within different cultural and social contexts. It also underscores that objects have different multiple meanings. Some objects illustrate intertribal relations; others best reflect collecting attitudes at the turn of the century when much of the Museum’s collections was acquired. Visitors and off-site readers will learn about such related archival resources as documentation and photographs, past and present Museum exhibitions, current research, repatriation, and contemporary collections development.

  • By (author) Lucy Fowler Williams