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Researching Museum Objects Like a Pro

Have you ever walked by an object in a museum and wanted to know more about it? Not sure how to get started when a professor assigns you to write an object biography? Read these tips from the head of the Penn Museum Library, Deb Stewart.

A photograph of three ancient Egyptian objects in an exhibition case (from left to right): statue of an Egyptian god, statue of an owl, and statue of an Egyptian goddess)

You can find lots of information about famous artworks by well-known artists online and in libraries like the Fisher Fine Arts Library. But what do you do when the artist is unknown or the artwork untitled? Or what if the object is one of the archaeological or ethnographic artifacts at the Penn Museum? Here are some of my essential tips and tricks for finding reliable information about museum objects.

Read the object label

When you see an object on display in a museum, it is typically accompanied by a label that contains a host of information. This usually includes, at a minimum:

  • the title of the work, if there is one, or a short description that stands in for a title (examples: Bead Necklace, Hippopotamus Figurine)
  • the artists, if known
  • the date or the time period in which the object is thought to have been created
  • the object's place of origin, if it is known and/or interesting
  • materials that were used for its creation
  • an inventory number (sometimes called an object number or accession number), a unique identifier assigned to the object for the museum’s record keeping.

The inventory number, in particular, is key to finding more records and existing scholarship. Making note of the other information can be helpful as you investigate an object’s broader cultural context.

Check the online collections database

Many museum websites provide access to publicly visible records in the museum’s collections management database, including records for individual objects. This is where having the object number starts to come in handy!

Within the Penn Museum’s online collections database, you can search by Keyword, but I like to choose Advanced Search and enter an object’s inventory number into the "Object Number / Field Number / Film ID" box to find a specific object record efficiently.

Online records usually include photographs and more information about the object than shown on the display label. Within the object record, pay attention to:

  • Credit Line: how and when the museum acquired the object. This information might include the name of a donor, a previous owner who sold the object to the museum, or a museum-sponsored expedition that found the object. This is an important clue for tracing the provenance (history of ownership) of an object.
  • Provenience: where an archaeological artifact was discovered or excavated.
  • Exhibitions: current and past exhibitions where the object was displayed, sometimes including loans of the object to other museums’ special exhibitions.
  • Bibliography: books, journal articles, and other publications where the object or a photo of the object was featured. An empty or short "Bibliography" section does not mean that there is no information published about an object; it usually means that museum staff have not had time to research extensively and build a more comprehensive bibliography.
  • Other numbers: other inventory numbers that an object has been assigned during its known history. For example, when an archaeological artifact is collected and analyzed, it is assigned a number in an archaeological dig’s records; later, when it formally enters a museum's collections (a process called accessioning), it is assigned a different number in the museum’s inventory system. When you look through older documents and publications, knowing the previous inventory numbers might prove useful.

Peruse the museum’s publications

Many museums publish books and periodicals for educational and promotional purposes. Although not always peer-reviewed, they are written by subject experts and are reliable sources for student assignments. If you're not sure if a particular publication is a good source, you can always check with your instructor!

  • Collections catalogues are aimed at researchers rather than the average museum visitor. They document objects within a curatorial section or multiple sections, including objects not on display. Each entry includes information from the museum’s official object record, an analysis of the object written by an expert, and important bibliography. 
  • Museum guide books tell visitors about the galleries and objects on display. These slim books are written for a general audience, but researchers will find helpful information in the introductory essays, images, short entries about individual objects, and recommended bibliography. Even the preface can be worth a look for useful tidbits about the history of the collection and individuals involved with the museum.
  • Special exhibit catalogues contain informative essays written by renowned experts and a comprehensive catalogue of the objects on display for a particular special exhibit, including objects that are on loan from other museums. Often published as beautifully illustrated, coffee-table-style books, they appeal to both specialists and museum visitors.
  • Museums sometimes publish scholarly books about special subjects in addition to books for children or for general adult audiences.
  • Museum periodicals can take the form of scholarly journals, bulletins, glossy magazines, and/or newsletters. They include articles about objects or museum projects, but they are also great sources of information about the history of a museum, its annual budgets, its Board members, donors, staff, volunteers, and new acquisitions.

Many museum publications are not available online but only in print. If you cannot find online versions through the museum’s website, search for the name of the museum, the exhibit, or the specific publication in the Penn Libraries’ catalog. If you are having difficulties, consult with the expert staff at the Penn Museum Library or Fisher Fine Arts Library.

My advice is not to restrict your research to the page where your object is cited, but look through the entire publication, especially accompanying essays. Even the preface might provide invaluable background information!

Search the full text of thousands of online books, journals, and databases

The Penn Libraries has thousands of ebooks, journals, documents, digitized newspapers, and online databases available for full-text searching, which means you can read and search all of their text using keywords. Tools like Articles+ or Google Scholar can search many of these online resources all at once.

In books and articles, scholars often cite a museum object by its inventory number and holding institution, so try searching Articles+ or Google Scholar for this information. Use quotation marks to indicate when you want to search a phrase, such as “University of Pennsylvania” or the “National Museum of African American History and Culture.” A full-text search for the inventory number will potentially find references to the object within a scholar’s prose, captions to their illustrations, footnotes, or appendices.

Are you researching an object that has been assigned different inventory numbers or an institution that goes by various names? Try Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT to search for variations. Examples:

  • L-16-382 OR E-1-124 OR “stela 14”
  • “University of Pennsylvania” OR “University Museum” OR “Penn Museum”

If you are not finding many references to the object that interests you, broaden your search by investigating:

  • people associated with the object, including the names inscribed on the object or past owners.
  • similar types of objects (examples: sculpture, coins, jewelry) from the same geographic region, time period, or culture.
  • unique materials and methods used in the creation of the object

Remember: this kind of information often appears in the object's label or in the collection database.

Additional resources

  • Watch this blog for a future post with expert advice on researching an Object’s provenance and provenience.

Author

Deborah Stewart

Head, Penn Museum Library

Date

August 12, 2026

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