University of Pennsylvania Finding Aids

The Montroville W. Dickeson Collection is a record of Dickeson's expedition to the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys to investigate the origins and archaeology of the North American mound builders. Interested in collecting from an early age, Dickeson left his medical residency and traveled in the South from 1837 to 1844 pioneering in the use of trenches in excavation and strata and cross-sections in description. The collection consists of catalogues, maps, drawings, renderings, photographs, cross-section drawings, and advertising material. Dickeson displayed his collection on his return to Philadelphia and commissioned the Mississippi Panorama painted by John J. Egan, an itinerant Irish artist. Dickeson's collection and the panorama were displayed at his own museum, in subscription lectures, and at the Centennial Exhibition in 1876 in Philadelphia. Dickeson engaged in ceaseless self promotion but mostly published in local venues and in serialized format. His advanced archaeological techniques and the catalogues of artifacts from Southern sites no longer in existence, though praised, are not well known.