The "Other" Museum

Nestled on University of Penn's exspansive campus is the The Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology. The museum serves as the first exploring the field of anthropology and the first where people studied other human beings' cultures. The field of anthropology grew out of 1893 world's fair in Chicago where "others" (third world) were put on display for the first world country to see. The University of Penn Museum today is a wonder to behold today, it is full of technological advancements and lots of interactive exhibits so people can fully immerse themselves in what anthropology has to teach them. At first glance, the museum seems completely fair and unbiased but after investigating for a while the organizational hierarchy started to peek through. In the African and Native American exhibits there was so much technology but that felt as if it was not teaching you much at all. Those parts of the museum seemed to be for a younger audience and were more about opinions rather than facts. (i.e. the white boards where serious questions about Africa were answered with statements like "BLAK PPL RULE! and cartoons). This is presumably because on the first floor the museum owners are more concerned with "WOWing" instead of educating the masses. On the flip side of that were the European and Asian and Egypt (which the museum posted in small font on some obscure door somewhere. "Egypt is a part of Africa")  exhibits which were impressive and were cohesive in their organization. Conn does touch on this in his essay, "The symbolism in the design of the museum was not subtle: from the entrance landing, one rose to find the civilizations of the Near East and the Mediterranean;\ conversely, the visitor went downstairs to find Native Americans from all parts of the New World" (pg.89) This is presumably because in the early 19th century, the average American's perception of the Native American race was far from favorable.

The Penn Museum is crucial because this is one of the first museum where you can see how skewed the organization of the museum is. Based on social Darwinism that was prevalent, the founders of the anthropology museum tried to place themselves above the "other" cultures around them. Anthropology was created essentially to find the linkages between the "savages" and civilized and explain all their differences.
"By using an evolutionary model to explain human cultural development, the Philadelphians who founded the University Museum tried to conceive of an anthropology that linked the savage and the civilized in
the s ame intellectual construct." (pg.91) Analyzing the museum is tough because it is hard to put oneself into a 19th century mindset and really experience what the visitors were experiencing because all of the artifacts and knowledge are very basic ideas with which most people were taught from a young age. This may be why in the museum more of the exhibits are beginning to be geared towards younger middle schoolers. The museum overall is a nice one to visit because it has a wealth of information inside of it, despite the way its presented. Also, the museum is a nice insight into the mind of the average 19th century person trying to figure out the world around them, which is commendable, even if it was backwards right?