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Elin Danien, Penn Museum

Elin Danien (CGS ’82, G’89, GR’98), former staff member and volunteer at the Penn Museum and founder of the Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship Program, died February 19. She was 89.

Dr. Danien was born in New York City and began her college career later in life, graduating from Penn with a degree in anthropology in 1982 summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She went on to complete a master’s, and in 1998, a PhD in anthropology focused on the Penn Museum’s collection of Chama pottery.  

Dr. Danien originated the Office of Special Events at the Penn Museum and served as the events coordinator 1981-1989. She began the Museum’s annual Maya Weekend (1983-2013), an in-depth weekend of exploration featuring Maya scholars, epigraphers and educators. She cofounded their Pre-Columbian Society, a group of amateurs and professionals engaged in the study and understanding of the indigenous peoples of the Americas during the pre-Columbian era and today. Her research formed the core of a 2009 exhibition, Painted Metaphors: Pottery and Politics of the Ancient Maya. She was named the Penn Museum’s Volunteer of the Year in 2015.

In 1986, Dr. Danien founded Bread Upon the Waters, a scholarship program for women over the age of 30, enabling them to complete their undergraduate degrees at Penn on a part-time basis. The fund has supported more than 100 scholars.

In 2001, she was honored with the 2001 Service Award from CGS (Almanac July 17, 2001), and in 2008, she was awarded Penn’s Alumni Award of Merit (Almanac April 15, 2008).

She edited The World of Philip and Alexander, A Symposium on Greek Life and Times (1990) and with Robert Sharer, edited New Theories on the Ancient Maya, a collection of papers presented at the 1987 Maya Weekend conference (1992).She authored Guide to the Mesoamerican Gallery at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2002), edited Maya Folktales from the Alta Verapaz (2005) and contributed to The Maya Vase Conservation Project (Lynn Grant, 2006).

Donations in her memory may be made to Bread Upon the Waters Scholarship Program at www.sas.upenn.edu/gifts/bread or by check made out to the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania with “in memory of Elin Danien” on the memo line and mailed to: Laura Weber, SAS Advancement Office, 3600 Market Street, Suite 300, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

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