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Padihershef |
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In response to the popular demand, I am posting here a few of the photographs that I took when my wife and I visited "her" mummy at Massachusetts General Hospital in January 2002. Padihershef -- a stone-cutter from Thebes, who died about 2500 years ago -- was probably the first mummy imported into the United States for the purposes of commercial exhibition. In this case, he toured the country to help raise funds for the health care expenses of indigents at the hospital. Now he normally resides in the hospital's famed Ether Dome, but for all of 2003 he will be the centerpiece of an exhibit on Ancient Egypt at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield. |
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This is our friend in his usual display case at MGH - a glass case now opened to allow the conservator to examine him, and allow me a clear shot at him photographically.
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A close-up of his unwrapped head, the only part of his body uncovered by Dr. John Warren (then MGH's head surgeon) when Padihershef arrived in America in 1823.
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The "mummy lady" (S.J. Wolfe) and her mummy, January 10, 2002.
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Consulting about Padihershef's condition in the Ether Dome: (l-r) Jeff Mifflin, MGH's archivist; Michelle Marcella, MGH's public-relations ooficer; Mimi Leveque, mummy conservator; S.J. Wolfe, mummy historian.
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The carved face of Padihershef's inner coffin, displayed in an adjacent, matching case.
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A fuller view of the face of the inner coffin in its display case. |
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If you would like to see Padihershef in person, the exhibit at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art museum continues until January 7, 2004. Click here to go to their website. |
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If you would like to see more about my wife's work on "Mummy Mania in Victorian America" - among other things - you can click here to go to her website. |
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01/10/03 - D. A. Rawson |
