Anticipation builds for the Samurai box unveiling!

Join us at the Yale Peabody Museum in New Haven on Saturday, November 7th, for a very unusual event! Experts from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History and The Barnum Museum are partnering to present a unique public program in which the contents of a samurai box owned by The Barnum are revealed for the first time. The box was transferred from another museum to The Barnum in 2003, but it has never been opened due to concerns about the potentially fragile contents, which are at least 150 years old and possibly much older.

The Peabody Museum's current exhibition, Samurai and the Culture of Japan's Great Peace, offers the perfect venue for this event, and the box is currently displayed in the exhibition. Beginning at 1 pm, docents will be available in the gallery to talk about the samurai artifacts on display, and at 2 pm the unveiling of The Barnum's box and its contents will take place in the adjacent Great Hall.

You will see and hear from a team of experts, including curators and a conservator, as they carefully remove the artifacts from the samurai box and examine them for clues to determine their approximate age and origin, as well as the status or occupation of the owner. Afterwards you will have the opportunity to see the artifacts up close and ask questions. Firelight Media Group, LLC, of Monroe, will be filming the event.

Join us for this exciting moment of discovery!

The program is free with admission to the museum. (Members of The Barnum Museum and Yale Peabody Museum are admitted free.) Please note that seating will be extremely limited due to the Great Hall's configuration, and some people will have to stand. Free parking is available in the north lot adjacent to the Peabody Museum at 170 Whitney Avenue. The parking lot entrance is located on Whitney Avenue directly opposite the intersection with Humphrey Street. For additional information, visit http://peabody.yale.edu/visit/directions-parking

Questions? Contact The Barnum Museum at (203) 331-1104 ext. 100 (Mon. - Fri.) or send email to info@barnum-museum.org.

Generous funding to help support this program has been provided by Connecticut Humanities.