It doesn’t seem fair to call the sprawling space occupying two floors in Gladfelter Hall merely a lab. Yes, there is a large working laboratory almost hidden downstairs, wheare artifacts from the field are cleaned, sorted and labeled and where pottery is reassembled and soil samples are analyzed. But there are also exhibition-grade display cases, a research library, tens of thousands of artifacts for study, and even a photography studio. It is easy to file by the lab, tucked in a corner in Gladfelter, without realizing that behind the double doors lies a space large enough to serve as a repository for cultural resource reports and collections from the National Park Service, and the states of Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The Anthropology Department moved into Gladfelter Hall from College Hall in 1972. During the move, objects and collections begun in 1966 were transported across campus. Lab Administrator Muriel Kirkpatrick was there when the collections arrived at Temple, and she remains today to protect and oversee their care and curation. Now objects from those first collections comingle with acquisitions from faculty field research and other museums that have entrusted their items to the care of the Anthropology Lab.

Most of the approximately 204 collections consist of materials from the Americas and the Pacific. In addition to about 16 ethnographic collections there are scores of archaeological holdings and of great interest to visiting schoolchildren — fascinating reproductions of fossilized skulls and skeletons.

In addition to serving as space to process, store and exhibit collections, the department uses the laboratory to teach and train undergraduate and graduate students. Professors like Gordon Gray visit the lab with classes to show items like tribal weapons and masks. Other students conduct research on objects recovered during excavations in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley. Some objects make it into exhibits shown throughout the university. Three of the lab’s most interesting collections are revealed ahead.

The Kensinger Cashinahua Collection

Professor Gordon Gray is among the most active faculty members to utilize the laboratory’s extensive collection of Cashinahua artifacts, acquired by noted linguistic anthropologist Ken Kensinger. The artifacts, dating to the mid-1960s when Kensinger lived among the tribe, are often what visitors notice first. Gray calls the array of feathers and impressive handmade items and hunting weapons the collection’s sheer wowness.

The Cashinahua are indigenous to southeast Peru and portions of Brazil. Their traditional lifestyle includes hunting and small-scale horticulture, which translate into many cultural items that incorporate local animals and plants. Among them are harpy eagle feathers, monkey teeth and cotton. They are famous for body painting and their use of fur and feathers. Many of their objects are necessary in various tribal rituals.

Pottery: Almshouse and MacIlvane Privy Collections

Faculty member David Orr’s specialty is historic archaeology. If you find clay or ceramic pottery in the lab, it is likely part of a collection he has used in teaching or recovered and worked on himself.

Of particular interest is a collection of chamber pots excavated on the site of a home in the Society Hill section of Philadelphia. CLA archaeology students from Temple have been investigating what was the city’s first almshouse, or home for the poor. Approximately two dozen chamber pots, all from the 1700s, were recovered from what archaeologists believe was the almshouse’s privy. While similar chamber pots are recovered from 18th-century sites quite often, many of the pots in this collection include initials carved on their undersides. While researchers debate the reasons for these findings — were inmates who were ill simply trying to stop the spread of disease? — they are a rare find.

Jessica Rowe, a PhD student working with Dr. Orr, has assembled another collection of items found in another Philadelphia privy. These date to the mid-19th century and were recovered from the MacIlvane home on the 300 block of Walnut Street. Some of the artifacts from this site will be featured in an upcoming exhibition at CLA’s Center for the Humanities at Temple this spring. Ms. Rowe’s exhibit will show how everyday objects are transformed from items of necessity to stylish objects desired in the marketplace.

Philadelphia Commercial Museum Collection

The most recent departmental acquisition is a diverse collection from what was the Philadelphia Commercial Museum. The Museum buildings, later part of the Philadelphia Civic Center, were first built for the National Export Exhibition of 1899. The Museum came to hold items exhibited worldwide in various worldâ’s fairs, including the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis. The total number of artifacts held in this collection was more than 15,500. Pieces the Anthropology Lab received include African and Asian ceramics, trade and export samples, miniature wood carvings, and dioramas.