After hiding in plain sight for 50 years, a ‘new’ museum opens in Philadelphia

In a corner of Temple University’s campus, a hidden trove of artifacts has gathered dust for almost 50 years, rarely seen by anyone outside of the anthropology department. Since 2017, the space has quietly undergone renovations with the goal of putting these storied objects — from a 2.2-million-years-old Oldowan stone tool to a nearly 5-feet-tall Japanese vase dating to the 1890s — on display for the wider public.

The Temple Anthropology Lab and Museum (TALM) officially opened this week.

“The space was languishing and something needed to happen — either it was going to be shut down or someone was going to be having to take care of them,” said Leslie Reeder-Myers, museum director and associate professor of anthropology. She was hired in 2017 to take on the enormous task of transforming a researchers-only repository of some 200 disparate collections into a public-facing museum.

“[Creating a museum] was never the goal,” said Reeder-Myers. “So we’re taking somebody else’s idea for what these collections would be and trying to make something coherent out of that. In some cases, we’re embracing the fact that it’s completely incoherent.”

The overarching through line for the estimated 5 million artifacts lies in their connections to Temple’s and Philadelphia’s history, including collections from the Philadelphia Almshouse and the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, which once operated out of University City’s now-demolished Convention Hall and Civic Center. (There’s even a small section on Native American imagery in sports and business that spotlights Wawa.)

Before TALM’s renovation, which Reeder-Myers estimates cost between $100,000 to $150,000 over eight years, the two-level space used to hold stacks and stacks of storage boxes and a few tables for lab work. Now the lab has mostly relocated to the basement, while the top level packs in several fascinating exhibits designed primarily by students of anthropology and archaeology.

The Practicum in Curation and Collections Management course allows students to gain hands-on experience. This semester alone, students have logged 1,000-plus hours, working on inventory, preservation, curation, and research. Experiential learning was the selling point in convincing the school administration to dedicate funds to the museum.

Bryanna Caraballo, a third-year doctoral student in archaeology, focused on a collection of objects excavated just outside of Trenton for the exhibit “Unearthing the Layers: The Intersection of Race and Class in Timbuctoo, NJ.” Founded in 1826 by enslaved men who escaped from Maryland, Timbuctoo was a safe haven for African Americans decades before abolition, also serving as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Caraballo spent a year analyzing the artifacts — marbles, beer bottles, shoes, pomade, aspirin, a Ford Model T hubcap, and more — restoring some using electrolysis, and connecting with living descendants in present-day Westampton Township.

“It’s really important to tell the story of not only the African American experience through slavery, but that we had these communities before slavery was even abolished,” said Caraballo. “I’m all about the artifacts and what they tell us about people in the past and even the people in the present as [we examine] how they were creating identity in this town during such a harsh period.”

Another exhibit focuses on Melanesia, featuring fire dance masks made of bamboo, bark cloth, and wicker from the Baining people of Papua New Guinea, as well as a shark canoe and a house post — a decorated upright beam that once supported a home’s roof — from the Solomon Islands.

Reeder-Myers believes TALM can attract visitors, class trips, and residents in North Philadelphia. “I hope we can start bringing in people from the neighborhood who don’t have the Penn Museum in their backyard and don’t necessarily have the same kind of access,” she said.

Though much smaller in scale than Penn, TALM provides a behind-the-scenes look at anthropology and archaeology that could spark inspiration in audiences of all ages.

Drawing connections between our histories and the present day is a guiding principle for TALM. Recently the museum welcomed a delegation from the Kaxinawá community, Indigenous people who live in the Amazon on the Peru-Brazil border, to view a collection of 259 items, including feather headdresses, jewelry, textiles, weapons, and pottery.

Their visit led to a particularly special moment when they identified a perfume bottle and pulled out the stopper. After some 60 years in Philadelphia, the artifact still held its aromatic scent.

“This was a hidden treasure for so long, really underappreciated,” said Richard Deeg, dean for the College of Liberal Arts and a political science professor at Temple for over 30 years. “My office is in this building, but until I became dean, I wasn’t even aware this existed… [Anthropology department chair Kimberly D. Williams] and Leslie, they’ve really unleashed the potential of the collections and research, for faculty and especially students, to use approaches of anthropology and archeology to really explore culture and human history.”

📍 Gladfelter Hall, 1115 Polett Walk, Phila., 🕒 Mon-Thurs, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., 🌐 www.tuanthmuseum.com, 💵 Free