Museum Studies Fieldwork Seminar (Prof. Scott)

Faculty Advisor: Monique Scott

Field Site: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Field Supervisor: Katy Blanchard

Fieldwork Description:

As the final component of my Museum Studies minor, I worked as an intern in the Near East section of the Penn Museum with Katy Blanchard, the Keeper of the Collection. As part of my responsibilities with Katy, I worked with another intern, Sean, and in conjunction with a third intern, Mira, to help  the collection’s significant holdings of material from Beth Shean. The larger goals of this project were threefold; our work with the collection helped make the basement in which they are housed a safer environment (for both the collections and the staff who work there), as the objects had not been rehoused since likely the 1930’s, to help prepare for an upcoming refreshing of the Museum’s Canaan and Israel gallery, and to help provide data for the continuation of the project in future years. In addition, the project gave each of us the chance to try our hand at collections management and object photography. Although our work was cut short, we were able to rehouse and photograph a significant percentage of the overall collection, contributing to both the basement environment and the Museum’s online catalog.

Final Presentation:

Please click here to access a PowerPoint version of the presentation with additional notes.