Welcome to the Matson Museum of Anthropology at Penn State University.
Museum Hours
The museum is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Friday. (During the Fall/Spring semesters). The museum will be closed from May 5 through May 16, 2008, reopening on May 19th and will stay open through August 8, 2008. During this time, the hours will be Tuesday through Friday, 11 am - 4 pm.
Location
Museum exhibits are housed in the Carpenter Building in the northwest corner of Penn State’s University Park campus between the Nittany Lion Shrine, the Nittany Lion Inn, and the Nittany Parking Deck. To reach the museum, take the elevator to the second floor.
Contact Information
Phone:
814-865-3853 or 814-865-2033
Mail:
Dr. Claire McHale Milner
Matson Museum of Anthropology
409 Carpenter Bldg.
Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA 16803
Welcome to the Matson Museum of Anthropology!
The museum is an outreach facility of the Department of Anthropology and the College of the Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University. We welcome all visitors to the Matson Museum to learn about the field of anthropology through displays of unique and irreplaceable 
anthropological specimens from around the world.
The Matson Museum is located on the second floor of the Carpenter Building, which is located in the northwest corner of the Penn State University Park Campus, near the Nittany Lion Shrine. Parking is available at the Nittany Parking Terrace next to the Carpenter Building. The museum is open Monday through Thursday 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM, and 9 AM to 3:00 PM Friday. Hours vary during the summer sessions. Admission is free. Our museum shop sells baskets, jewelry, toys, and other crafts from around the world. Guided tours are available when scheduled in advance.
Museum Mission
The mission of the Matson Museum of Anthropology is to support the teaching, research and outreach activities of the Department of Anthropology and the College of the Liberal Arts at The Pennsylvania State University. Our goal is to educate students about the
rich diversity of contemporary and ancient human cultures, the history of human evolution, and scientific explanations for human cultural and biological variability.
The Museum promotes the appreciation for human cultural and biological diversity among the public through its exhibit program and educational tours. The Museum displays archaeological objects from Mesopotamia and Mexico to Pennsylvania, and items used by contemporary cultures from Latin America to Afghanistan. There are exhibits that explore human evolution with replicas of our ancestor’s bones and depict what can be learned from human skeletal remains found in archaeological sites or crime scenes.
In addition, the Museum serves as a repository for the curation of archaeological, ethnological, and human biological specimens at Penn State. The Museum maintains teaching exhibits and collections for use in undergraduate and graduate courses. Museum personnel assist instructors in devising active learning approaches to enhance anthropology classes. They also supervise graduate and undergraduate students in museum exhibition, collections management, and research projects.
Museum History
Anthropological collections held by the Department of Anthropology were first put on display in the mid-1960s. 
The location of the museum shifted several times on campus until 1987 when the museum was moved into its present location in Carpenter Building. In honor of Dr. Frederick Matson, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Anthropology, the museum was renamed the Matson Museum of Anthropology in 1991. The museum benefits from the expertise of the anthropology faculty whose offices are in the same building, while the department enjoys the use of exhibits, collections, and seminar rooms.
