Welcome to the Matson Museum!
The Matson Museum of Anthropology asks the question: WHO ARE WE? The Museum’s galleries seek to address this question by sharing the global human experience with the broader Penn State community. Our biological history, ancestral creativity, and contemporary diversity are all on display.
The Matson Museum is now closed to the public. Stay tuned! The new Matson Museum will reopen in the Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building in 2025. Our home is the Department of Anthropology in the College of the Liberal Arts.
The Matson Museum acknowledges that colonialism is built into anthropological collections. We work with Native American Tribes and Nations as well as other Indigenous groups and governments to document and repatriate cultural items when appropriate. Learn more about the Collections.
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Student Spotlight
Examining the DeForest collection of folk pottery from around the world has allowed me to appreciate the art of the common people as well as the influence women had on the fields of art and anthropology during the early 1900s through the objects on view.
