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Japanese Kanban
Directions to stop #17
Continue, turning right, into the Japanese Art gallery. Head to the far end of the gallery where you will see a carved wooden face against the back wall.
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The Mahabharata
Directions to stop #18
Turn around and exit the Japanese Art gallery through doors on your left. You’ll pass through the Phillips Library gallery and straight onto the South Asian Art gallery. Pass the gold sculpture and look for the long, horizontal painting at the top of the right hand wall.
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Moon Bed
Directions to stop #19
Exit the South Asian Art gallery, heading through the smaller gallery of art from India and back into the Garden Atrium. Take a left to find the elevator and take it to Level 3 to discover works in our Fashion and Design gallery. We will meet by the extravagant and finely carved moon bed.
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Iris and Carl Apfel
Directions to stop #20
Head to the center of the Fashion and Design gallery to a section dedicated to the fashion icon Iris Apfel and her husband Carl.
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Shoe Case
Directions to stop #21
Head deeper into the Fashion and Design gallery to find a display case of shoes from around the globe and across time.
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PEM in an Hour is a cross-departmental production of the Peabody Essex Museum. It is produced by Dinah Cardin and edited and mixed by Erika Sutter. Photos are by Kathy Tarantola, with web design by Caroline Herr. The tour is generously supported by the George S. Parker Fund.
For more on PEM’s remarkable collection, stop by our shop to get the essential PEM Guide. For more behind-the-scenes stories about PEM’s collection, our rotating exhibitions, the artists we feature and the people who work here, listen to our award-winning podcast, the PEMcast. Don’t miss our award-winning Salem Witch Trials Walk, an audio tour that takes you inside the museum with our curators and outside to key sites in downtown Salem. And explore Salem’s unique architecture with PEM Walks, featuring experts who unlock the stories of PEM’s historic house collection.
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Welcome
Welcome. I’m Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, PEM’s Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Executive Director and CEO. Through this one-hour collection highlights audio tour, we’ll explore the museum together, finding objects that inspire wonder, provoke questions and perhaps even challenge how we see the world and our place in it. A couple of housekeeping notes: Keep an eye out for the PEM in an Hour stickers that let you know you’re in the right spot. There are 21 objects that we’ll encounter together, and I encourage you to set your pace. When you hear the chime, you’ll know it’s time to go click to the next slide using the arrows on the side of each image. Let’s begin right here in the Atrium.
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Atrium
Look up. You're standing in our Atrium, designed by the acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie and filled with natural light. Its slightly inclined entrance area was really once a street in Salem. The different roof lines invoke the city's rich architectural history.
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Will Wilson (Diné) Photographs
Directions to stop #3
We will start with the gallery to your left, here on the Ground Level, in an exhibition featuring our Native American and American collection. It’s called On This Ground: Being and Belonging in America. Meet there at the black and white photographs near the entrance.
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Examination of a Witch
Directions to stop #4
Now, we’ll meet a little further in this exhibition at a different section. Walk through the gallery and curve to the right. Pass a series of paintings. Look to your left for a sign that says “Salem Witch Trials.”
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A Pair of Chairs
Directions to stop #5
Keep moving through the gallery, past a bust of George Washington. Go around the corner and look left to two beautiful chairs.
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Yin Yu Tang
Directions to stop #6
We will now have you continue through this gallery to the exit. Go straight through the Atrium. As you walk through, look out the big windows on your left at the white building just outside. This is Yin Yu Tang, a 16-bedroom home built for the Huang family in China's Huizhou region more than 200 years ago. You can get tickets at the information desk.
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Mr. Nobody
Directions to stop #7
Walk through the doorway at the end of the Atrium that says “Galleries” overhead. Head towards the Indigenous mask, and on your right you'll find a small blue and white porcelain figurine.
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Michael Lin Stairwell
Directions to stop #8
As you pass through this gallery and into the Garden Atrium, look to your left to find a painted spiral stairwell.
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Korean Guardian Figures
Directions to stop #9
Now, you're standing in PEM’s Garden Atrium. Go down the ramp on your left and stop just before the doors to the garden. We’ll meet there at the Korean guardian figures.
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Rush Figurehead
Directions to stop #10
Turn to your right to find the door to our Maritime gallery. Just inside you’ll find the Rush Figurehead.
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Punch Bowl
Directions to stop #11
Now, go towards the very end of the Maritime gallery. You’ll pass ship portraits and a giant model of the Queen Elizabeth. Keep going to a section called “Captain Collectors.” Look under the portrait of Captain James Cook to find a punch bowl that dates back to the founding of the museum.
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Backyard Birds
Directions to stop #12
Exit the Maritime gallery and cross the Garden Atrium. Follow signs for the Art & Nature Center, where you’ll find the “Backyard Birds” case.
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Kū
Directions to stop #13
Now, head back to the Garden Atrium and take the stairs or elevator (located near the Korean Guardian Figures) up to Level 2. We’ll meet at the top on the stair landing, where you’ll see a large wooden figure.
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Strathallan Wallpaper
Directions to stop #14
Continue through the glass doors at the top of the Level 2 stair landing to enter the Asian Export Art gallery, where you will find an elaborate installation of hand-painted Chinese wallpaper.
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Porcelain Case
Directions to stop #15
Head through the Asian Export Art gallery to find a wall of porcelain dishes, sculptures and figurines at the far end.
Exit the Asian Export Art gallery and cross the Garden Atrium landing and through the opaque glass doors. Turn right and you'll walk into Anila Quayyum Agha’s captivating installation of light and shadow.
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Leatherback Turtle
Directions to stop #16
Exit the Agha room, and you'll enter East Hall. Look up. Above you is an exhibition called Salem Stories.