There’s a new addition on the HUP Pavilion’s ground floor: an installation of objects from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology – commonly known as the Penn Museum – showing some of the ways humans around the world have addressed healing, nourishment, and protection from illness from the ancient past to the present.
Horus on the Crocodiles Stela: Ancient Egyptians believed magic spells on the stela, a vertical tablet, could help cure a scorpion or snake bite.
The exhibit includes a Mesopotamian medical letter tablet from more than 2,000 years ago with a physician’s report on an outbreak of skin lesions and coughing in a prominent household; amulets carried by ancient Egyptians for protection against illness; and, to symbolize nourishment, a clay pot made in Papua New Guinea in the 1990s to store sago flour, a staple in the area. This exhibit will be on view for several months, after which pieces will be rotated for other objects from the museum. The materials selected came from many of the museum’s extensive collections. Admission to the museum at 33rd and South streets, next to the Pavilion, is free to Penn Medicine staff as well as patients and their families.
“Art has always been an important component of the Pavilion design to foster a holistic healing environment and respite for staff, visitors, and patients,” said Pavilion Transition Manager Lauren Valentino, MHA. “Whether it be from Maya Lin’s ”Decoding the Tree of Life” sculpture or the vibrant “Field and Sky” mural from Odili Donald Odita, the Pavilion features art to further promote and inspire themes of wellness, hope, and healing, especially at times of stress or uncertainty. The Pavilion installation with the Penn Museum is a special display that we encourage staff, patients, and families to visit, as well enjoy free admission to explore the Penn Museum’s renowned collections.”
The Penn Museum, founded in 1887, has conducted more than 300 excavations and anthropological research projects around the world and houses more than a million artifacts and archaeological finds from Africa, Asia, the Americas, and the Mediterranean.
An artisan in Papua New Guinea made this clay pot to store sago flour for sago pudding, a staple in the area.
“We hold this incredible collection and we really want as many people as possible to be able to see these things and learn from them,” said Jess Bicknell, the museum’s head of exhibitions. “You can go right out of the Pavilion, go up the Discovery Walkway, go down the stairs and are at one of our entrances.”
Jessie Reich, MSN, director of Patient Experience and Magnet programs, said the Pavilion exhibit gives her a sense of pride in her profession.
“Even though the equipment and technology has changed through the years, the notion of taking care of other people hasn’t,” Reich said. “It’s a feeling of connection with people who have been doing it for centuries. The sentiment of alleviating suffering of other people is something that transcends time.”