University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
In the 1880s, before the first brick was laid for its own building, the University of Pennsylvania Museum organized America's first archaeological expedition to the ancient Near East—to Nippur, a promising but far-flung Mesopotamian site then within the vast Ottoman Empire, now located in Iraq to the south of Baghdad.
It was a time of great opportunities and great adventurers. Archaeologists and Travelers in Ottoman Lands, a new exhibition opening Sunday, September 26, 2010 and running through February 6, 2011 at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, takes a look at the accomplishments, struggles, and fortunes of three adventurers whose lives intersected at Nippur: Osman Hamdi Bey, archaeologist, museum director, and internationally renowned Turkish painter; John Henry Haynes, American archaeologist and photographer; and Hermann Vollrath Hilprecht, a German archaeologist, Assyriologist, and professor at Penn. The year 2010 marks the centennial of the deaths of Hamdi Bey and Haynes, and the demise of Hilprecht's career due to scandal.
The exhibition opens with an afternoon celebration on September 26—"Turkish Delight!"—featuring curator talks, Turkish music, dance, crafts, and family activities, from 1 to 4 pm.