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What’s That? The Rittenhouse Orrery
John Pollack standing in front of Rittenhouse Orrery

Penn Libraries curator John Pollack with the Rittenhouse Orrery.

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What’s That? The Rittenhouse Orrery

The Rittenhouse Orrery is a nearly intact 18th-century mechanical model of the solar system, demonstrating the motions of the planets and their satellites around the sun, built by astronomer David Rittenhouse.
Internship offers pathway to careers in the museum field
Ethan Nemeth at a table talking with another person.

Rising third-year Ethan Nemeth (left) was an intern at the Penn Museum through the Summer Humanities Internship Program. He worked at several public events, including the Garden Jams concerts in July. 

(Image: by Emmanuel Beatty for the Penn Museum)

Internship offers pathway to careers in the museum field

Rising third-year Ethan Nemeth (left), one of 17 paid interns at the Penn Museum this summer, works on the team that manages public programs. The ancient history major says the experience has helped him understand career options in the museum field.
Q&A with David Eisenhower on Biden’s decision to bow out
President Joe Biden walks down the Air Force One staircase at sunset.

President Joe Biden exits Air Force One at sunset, May 1, 2022, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Biden dropped out of the 2024 race for the White House on July 21, ending his bid for reelection following a disastrous debate with Donald Trump that raised doubts about his fitness for office just four months before the election.

(Image: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Q&A with David Eisenhower on Biden’s decision to bow out

Eisenhower, professor at the Annenberg School and grandson of the former president, offers his take on Biden’s announcement, Vice President Harris’ next step, and the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Kristen de Groot

Where scientific nationalism meets tradition
A group of Penn students looking at Japanese artifacts being presented in a museum.

(On homepage) At Uji, a city south of Kyoto that’s famous for tea, Penn students learn from a matcha master.

(Image: John Kehayias)

Where scientific nationalism meets tradition

In May, John Kehayias led a Penn Global Seminar to Japan, exploring ideas of wartime-era scientific nationalism while cultivating cross-cultural exchange.
Exploring the 1918 pandemic’s impact on Philadelphia’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods
Matthew Breier reads city directory.

Matthew Breier, a rising third-year student in the College of Arts and Sciences, spent a lot of time going through Philadelphia’s 1918 city directory this summer. Through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program, he is helping professor David Barnes understand the impact of the 1918 influenza pandemic on the city’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods.

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Exploring the 1918 pandemic’s impact on Philadelphia’s Black and immigrant neighborhoods

Rising third-year Matthew Breier has been conducting research with public health historian David Barnes through the Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program.
Redlining and rentals
An aerial view of the Park Forest housing development outside of Chicago in the 1950s.

Aerial view of a Park Forest neighborhood in 1952 that captures the neat rows of homes that characterized the post-World War II housing boom in the planned community.

(Image: Owen Kent via the Chicago Historical Society)

Redlining and rentals

Historian Brent Cebul in the School of Arts & Sciences is working on a new digital mapping project looking at the impact of Federal Housing Administration policies on the availability of affordable rental housing post-World War II. 

Kristen de Groot