Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Mummy

Today marks the end of an era for our local museum. And it's a sad day for the legions of local school children who have visited and loved the Mummy for over 60 years. You see, today the mummy goes home.How well I remember visiting the mummy myself. As children, my sisters and I often swam at the nearby pool, and afterwards would prowl the cool galleries of the museum. It was free and even then (I couldn't have been more than 8) I was drawn to the artwork, furniture, dishes, clothing, and yes, the Mummy.

It seems the Fine Arts Museum has decided they want Iret-net-Hor-irw back, so today at 10:30am the crew will arrive and load him up and take him first to a hospital for a full scan, and ultimately back to San Franciso where he will appear in a new display at the Legion of Honor (opening Halloween 2009) called Very Postmortem: Mummies and Medicine.

I procrastinated all summer and missed my chance to see him, so yesterday I pulled some strings and got us a private visit. It reminded me of the scene in the first Harry Potter movie where Dudley Dursley is watching the python and suddenly the glass is gone! Because they had already removed the glass and we did indeed get an up close and personal look (plus an informative explanation from the Museum Director) at the Mummy.


I think Teen2 was suitably impressed.

4 comments:

travelbug said...

Wonderful.......I'm jealous. I remember the mummy probably best of all the things we saw at "our" museum. And the mummified cat and the mummified hand, of course. But I also liked the rooms set up in styles past and the Indian artifacts, and.....well, the entire museum! Good for you for getting a last visit!

Hugs!

Blondie's Journal said...

I feel bad for you that a bit of your history is leaving with the mummy, but so glad you got that last visit. How interesting this is! Happily, everything else in the museum stays (I hope!)

BTW, finally got the wisteria training up the trellis that I nailed onto the sides of the porch. Those little tendril wanted to climb in the worse way!! They were stangling my hosta flowers!!

xoxo
Jane

Stickhorsecowgirls said...

We had a mummy in our local museum, as well. It was the highlight of the tour, but we always approached it with a little trepidation and awe! Sorry you are losing yours. I think ours is still there, but I vow to go check. C.

Spot said...

by her mummy's powers of influence course