Mummy Exhibited "Along The West Branch", 1829

 
In the spring of 1829, and Egyptian Mummy was being exhibited in homes along the West Branch.  It was shown in homes in Williamsport, Muncy, and Milton.  (Likely others as well) Admission was 12.5 cents - roughly $5 in today's equivalent.

"There is nothing upon which the living eye can rest, more impressive and interesting than the preserved immortal remains of human beings who were inhabitants of the earth more than 3000 years ago.  Such are Egyptian Mummies, embalmed, bandaged, encased and preserved in excavated recesses of everlasting rocks.""

Brought to the Country by Captain Turner from Trieste, "at which point it had been received from Thebes".  It was a female mummy.

"An Egyptian Mummy is exhibiting in the towns on the West Branch -it was at Milton on Saturday last. This Mummy, the remains of a female, was obtained at Thebes, an ancient city of Upper Egypt; and more than three thousand years have elapsed, since it was the residence of an immortal spirit, since it was animated by a living principle, and acted its part on the great theatre of life. -Bloomsburg Reg."

Exhibit Sites:

Milton 

Home of P. Vanderbalt Williamsport

Home of R. W. Dunlap, in Muncy

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This is a subject I definitely want to come back to later!  For now, I am in a rush and just want to put the notes I have in one place, quickly, before I lose them.

Book Review
Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts
By S.J. Wolfe and Robert Singerman

https://ajaonline.org/book-review/1184/

The first intact mummy to arrive in Philadelphia was Padihershef, a Theban mummy presented to the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1823 and later sent on a tour of the East Coast.

https://mummymania.omeka.net/exhibits/show/collectors--showmen-and-prophe/the-largest-exhibition-of-mumm