On December 6, 1887, Penn’s trustees resolved to send an archaeological expedition to the site of ancient Babylonia, and decreed that the University would build “suitable accommodations” to house any artifacts that it, and subsequent expeditions, brought back. Nearly 125 years and more than 400 expeditions later, the Penn Museum has broadened its interpretation of that phrase to include the virtual realm. January saw the launch of its Online Collections Database, a public resource containing some 326,000 records representing upwards of 660,000 objects housed in—but often not on permanent display at—the Museum. The “work in progress” includes 51,500 images and varying levels of information on each of the objects, making the database searchable in a variety of ways. A link to the database is featured prominently on the Museum’s home page: www.penn.museum.
