If you’re looking for an American city overflowing with history, you would certainly do well to investigate Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. But if you wanted to move past the typical places Philadelphia is famous for — the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and so on — you should check out the Penn Museum, also known as the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, a place chock-full of exhibits about the past and present in Pennsylvania, as well as the Americas in general, and even examining worlds distant in time and place, such as the gold of ancient Troy.
Presently, this winter, there are a number of interesting materials on display. Start with the exhibit, Fulfilling a Prophecy, which explores the past and present of the Lenape in Pennsylvania. It discusses how most people are under the impression that all but a few elderly Lenape people had quit the state by the 19th Century; however, the truth is that many stayed secretly, and that some Lenape and Europeans married and had children in the 1700s, continuing their traditions in hiding, only now, some two hundred years, coming forward to tell the story. The exhibit contains photographs and dolls, jewelry, ancient masks, and other art forms from the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania.
Over in the Americas collection, amongst 300,000 objects, you may see a waterproof parka made from the throat lining of sea lions from 1905, or a Pomo basket made of quail feather, beads, shells and plant fiber, from the same year. The Americas collection at the Penn Museum are amongst the largest, with collections that range from North and South America, in an attempt to document the history of human habitation in this region.
Other exhibits include His Golden Touch: The Gordion Drawings of Piet de Jong from the Gordion site in central Turkey; the Goodlands: Young Photographers Inspiring Hope in North Philadelphia; and Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya. It need not take a lot of money to see these exhibits; just make a reservation at a Philadelphia cheap hotel and come investigate the less traditional side of the city.
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