Matson Museum of Anthropology

The Matson Museum of Anthropology is Central PA's destination for global culture and the human experience from ancient times to the present. On view in the galleries you will find casts of fossil ancestors that speak to the beginning of human diversity and stories of how scientific anthropologists study our complex bodies.

Exhibits are archaeology - the study of humans in the past - contain objects shaped by peoples' hands that convey important histories from antiquity told by rare fragments that survived over time. Pioneering research by anthropologists at Penn State today also addresses how humans interact with their environment from the Arctic to Africa to Australia, integrating methods from social and natural sciences, anthropologists seek solutions to contemporary problems faced by us here in Happy Valley and by our neighbors near and far.