In 1962 the University Museum of the University of Pennsylvania observed its seventy-fifth anniversary. During those seventy-five years the sciences of anthropology, archaeology, and ethnology—the studies of man, his antiquity, and his cultures—grew into major areas of study and research.
Paralleling this growth of the study of man, in fact an integral part of it, has been the growth of the University Museum. Men in Search of Man tells the story of the University Museum by telling the stories of the men who were responsible for the success of the institution. The scientific contributions are recorded in hundreds of journals and periodicals; this is the story of the men who made those contributions.
The University Museum was a direct outgrowth of a Babylonian expedition to Nip pur, a prebiblical city-state in Mesopotamia. The artifacts brought back from this expedition, and subsequent ones, formed the nucleus of the museum's famous collection. The expedition to Nippur was only the beginning, however, of a series of expeditions to such far-flung places as Ur of the Chaldees; Tikal, Guatemala; and Meydum, Egypt. These archaeological feats, and many others, firmly established the University Museum as an important force in archaeological discovery and exploitation.
Percy C. Madeira, Jr. has told the story of the University Museum with the knowledge and insight that could come only from having been intimately associated with the institution for more than thirty years. Serving successively as Vice-President, President, and Chairman of the Board, Madeira was instrumental in the growth and expansion of the University Museum and its facilities and services. Along with the story of the museum, the author has told some of the classic anecdotes relative to the museum and its staff.
Illustrated with many photographs of the expeditions, as well as of the collections, Men in Search of Man contains several supplements listing additional information pertinent to the history of the museum.
