Penn Museum's Great Voyages: Travels, Triumphs, and Tragedies Lecture Series

Gilgamesh, the first explorer?
(Source: The Chaldean Account of Genesis, 1876)

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, commonly called Penn Museum, is hosting a monthly lecture series through June 2014 titled Great Voyages: Travels, Triumphs, and Tragedies.  The series will feature a range of topics by experts in several fields.  The upcoming lectures are:

November 6
Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, Associate Professor, History, Bryn Mawr College
Ferdinand Magellan and the First Circumnavigation of the Globe, 1519–1522

December 4
Paul Cobb, Professor, Islamic History, University of Pennsylvania
Traveler's Tips from the 14th Century: The Detours of Ibn Battuta

January 8
Steve Tinney, Associate Curator-in-Charge, Penn Museum Babylonian Section
Gilgamesh: Journeys to the End of the World

February 5
Robert Ballard, Director of the Center for Ocean Exploration at the Graduate school of Oceanography at URI, and President of Ocean Exploration Trust
Lost History Beneath the Sea from Titanic to the Iron Age

March 5
Clark Erickson, Curator-in-Charge, Penn Museum American Section
Thor Heyerdahl and Kon Tiki: A Grand Experiment in Archaeology

April 2
Peter Struck, Associate Professor, Classical Studies, University of Pennsylvania
The Odyssey, Nostalgia, and the Lost Home

May 7
Brian Rose, Curator-in-Charge, Penn Museum Mediterranean Section
Searching for the Golden Fleece with Jason and the Argonauts

June 4
Michael Weisberg, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Pennsylvania
Darwin's Beagle Voyage

Check out Penn Museum's website for further details.

• Great Voyages: Travels, Triumphs, and Tragedies at Penn Museum
• "Voyages and volcanoes star in Museum series," Penn Current, by Maria Zankey
• University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

Osher Map Library Presents "To the Ends of the Earth and Back"

Mercator's view of the North Pole.
Gerardus Mercator, Septentrionalium Terrarum descriptio, 1623.

The Osher Map Library at the University of Southern Maine in Portland, Maine, is now hosting an exhibit titled: "To the Ends of the Earth... and Back: Selections from the Jay I. Kislak Polar Collection," highlighting the centuries old quest to understand, map, and explore the Earth's polar regions.

"To the Ends of the Earth" showcases more than eighty maps, charts, photographs, and other artifacts, from the Jay I. Kislak Polar Collection.  The exhibit is on view through February 27, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., Tuesdays to Thursdays (with tours available by appointment).

• "To the Ends of the Earth... and Back: Selections from the Jay I. Kislak Polar Collection" at the Osher Map Library
• "Osher Map Library Exhibition Looks at Polar Exploration," University of Southern Maine
• "Osher show puts polar exploration on the map," Portland Press Herald by Bob Keyes