Mummies on the Move Again
Combs bought the mummies and papyrus in May of 1856. By August he had sold two of them to Wyman’s St. Louis Museum which placed the following advertisement in the Daily Missouri Democrat of 2 August 1856.
"A combination of exhibitions! Third story, Wyman’s Hall, (opposite the courthouse): This establishment is now open for exhibition, under the management, and for the benefit of Mr. J.P. Bates, practical naturalist, and contains FIRST—the finest and most unique collection of birds, quadrupeds, reptiles, fish and other illustrations of natural history in the west, and unrivalled for its choice and rare specimens, (about 2,000 in number), and the style and beauty displayed in their preparation and arrangement.
SECOND—the greatest geological wonder in the world, the cetacean saurian ophidian monster, Zeuglodon Macrospondylus, of Muller, discovered by Dr. Koch, in Alabama, a complete skeleton 96 feet in length, and set in natural position.
THIRD—two mummies from the catacombs of Egypt, which have been unrolled, presenting a full view of the records enclosed, and of the bodies, which are in a remarkable state of preservation.
FOURTH—Vance’s great collection of panoramic views of towns, cities, and places of note in California—about 200 in number, and exhibited to thousands of persons in New York, at a charge of 25 cents.
FIFTH—a fine collection of minerals, fossils, shells, choice paintings and curiosities.
Admission fee to the whole 25 cents—and refunded if satisfaction is not given. Open every day (Sunday’s excepted) from 9 AM, to 6 PM, and on Tuesday and Saturday evenings from 7 to 10 PM. Contributions solicited and carefully preserved. Taxidermal work executed as usual."
On 3 July 1863 a startling notice appeared in the Daily Missouri Democrat
"The St. Louis Museum will positively close on Saturday the11th inst. And it is being moved to Chicago.”
Once in Chicago the museum prospered under several different owners, and when Col. Joseph Wood took it over, he added to it the Globe theater. The mummies and papyri were a part of the collection and Mormon faithful came to view them. Then, tragedy struck.
"Late last night, when we were all in bed, Mrs. O'Leary hung a lantern in the shed ..." and her cow went down in history.
The great Chicago Fire consumed Wood's Museum and his Globe theater in a matter of ninety minutes. Everything in the museum, including the two mummies and the papyri, were lost. Wood purportedly erected a sign in the ruins that stated "Col. Wood’s Museum, Standing Room Only."
After this he declared he was bankrupt and left Chicago for Philadelphia where he opened “Col. Wood’s Museum Gallery of Fine Arts and Temple of Wonders” at Arch and Ninth Streets, on the premises of the minstrel house of Carencro’s & Dewey, in 1872. He had several mummies at that museum until he sold it in the late 1870's to the Niagara Falls Museum.