Penn State Museums Bring Education To Life
20 April, 2000
University Park, Pa. -- Who built the first hand-cranked ice cream freezer? How do you measure radioactivity in minerals? What materials did early Native Americans use to build their homes? There's no need to phone a friend to find these answers. From quiz-show trivia to hard analysis, Penn State's museums offer their hands-on answers to many thousands of visitors each year.
Between the end of classes, April 28, and commencement weekend, May 13 to 14, thousands of parents and friends travel to Penn State for the annual out migration of students back to their home towns. While students pack, parents and friends enjoy the beautiful campus landscape and visit Penn State’s museums.
Five major museums at University Park house significant research and educational collections in the fields of agriculture, anthropology, entomology, earth and mineral sciences, and the fine arts.
According to Joyce Robinson, associate curator of the Palmer Museum of Art, these museums have had a profound impact on the community.
"As we grow our outreach grows to the students and the wider community," Robinson said. "The Palmer is not only the academic art museum of Penn State but one of central Pennsylvania's principle cultural institutions for the area between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia," she added.
Like the Palmer, all Penn State museums provide educational resources for Penn State faculty and students, local and regional elementary and high school teachers and students, community members, hobbyists, and researchers around the world.
The Earth and Mineral Sciences Museum and Art Gallery displays more than 22,000 rocks, minerals, and fossils featuring push-button displays of dozens of the electrical, optical, and physical properties of minerals and other materials. The museum is also home to the nation's most extensive collection of paintings and sculpture reflecting the impact of mining and related industries over the past century and a half. Museum exhibits are available for research or teaching and an on-line virtual gallery brings gallery paintings representing miners, glass blowers, coal stacks and the beauty of other industrial art to viewers worldwide. URL: http://www.ems.psu.edu/Museum/
Student groups of all ages marvel at the live displays of giant cockroaches, tarantulas, scorpions, mantids, and wax moths in the Frost Entomological Museum. One of the major regional collections in the United States, the museum holds over 500,000 preserved insect specimens and an extensive microscopic slide collection dedicated to the research, education and preservation of insect biodiversity. URL: http://www.ento.psu.edu/home/frost/index.html
Current exhibits in the recently renovated Matson Museum of Anthropology include a full-scale model of a home in early Mesoamerica, reproductions of painted murals from southern Mexico, and stone carved statuary of the Inuit peoples of Arctic Canada and Greenland. Annual museum events include Children's Day activities conducted by graduate students and an archaeology summer camp for junior high school students. URL: http://anth.la.psu.edu/matsonmuseum/index1.html
Playing on a long tradition of lion sculpture and the Penn State mascot, the entrance of the Palmer Museum of Art is guarded by two giant lion paws ready to pounce. Inside the museum, seven galleries present selections from a 4,000-work permanent collection. The collection represents thirty-five centuries of international artistic creation including delicate Phoenician glass from the fifth century B.C., stone sculptures from India, masks from sub-Saharan Africa, contemporary photography, and watercolors by John Singer Sargent, Arthur Dove, John Marin, and Edward Hopper. Placing a strong emphasis on education and outreach, the museum offers workshops for families, teachers and University students, as well as gallery talks, lectures, and travelling exhibitions. URL: http://www.psu.edu/dept/palmermuseum/
The Pasto Agricultural Museum in Rock Springs is a tribute to everyday ingenuity of farmers and rural homemakers. The museum collection includes a 3,000 year-old clay sickle used for grain harvesting, early lamps made of animal fat and rushes, a charcoal-heated clothes iron and a dog-powered treadmill used to churn butter and wash clothes. Many items have been restored to working order, so visitors can turn cranks and pull levers, making the museum a popular attraction at Penn State's annual Ag Progress Days event. URL: http://pasto.cas.psu.edu.