Isabella: Afternoon in the Archives

The Penn Museum has the most beautiful archival space that i have ever seen. Underneath the black iron spiral staircases, the long, ever-evolving history of the Penn Museum was revealed to us. After listening to Alex's incredible wealth of institutional knowledge, I feel like I'm overflowing with energy and inspiration for my individual research project.

When I begin to dive into the archival materials myself, I intend to track the evolution of the Penn Museum's African exhibitions since the creation of the museum. How did different generations represent the same objects? How did the collections themselves change in response to the institutional demands of new directors and new trends? How can exhibitions of the past inspire positive change for a current exhibit that is riddled with Disney-fied gimmicks and misrepresentations?

Speaking of misrepresentation, I was blown away about the story Alex and Monique shared about the Baltimore man (must get his name as soon as I find the article!) who pretended to be an African prince in order to improve the opportunities given to him in a society that systematically bars Black Americans. I thought it was brilliant the way he used white assumptions of "Africanness" and exoticism to subvert the system and to create a successful life for himself. And now, as his picture is mounted on the wall as an example of a "traditional African man" he continues to dupe white audience. To refer to the title of the exhibit, he is what people "imagine as Africa" but what one imagines reflects little truth. In my research, I want to find more stories similar to this one and explore how modern individuals relate to (or even construct) ancient African identities. 

Finally, I want to play around with the idea of creating an oral history project to add to the museum archives. I was impressed with the oral histories included in the Native American exhibit. In it, people of Native American descent described how objects were meaningful to them. It seemed more powerful than labels. Rather than have the objects be defined by the institution, it was people who's heritage was connected to those objects who were providing the definitions. I will ask the archivist department if there is already oral histories for previous African exhibits and try to dig into the possibility of incorporating them. 

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