Egyptian Mummies at the Boston Museum

Shortly after he acquired the mummies from the Peregrine, Kimball moved his museum operations to Boston, opening the Boston Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts on 14 June, 1841. It had a grand staircase and was filled with wonderful items of art and natural curiosities.

Several broadsides were printed for the attractions at the Museum, highlighting the inclusion of mummies among the exhibitions.

The verso of one of the broadside advertisements has a rhyming catalog on it.

A catalogue from the Museum for 1842 lists only two mummies, a male and a female, in cabinet  88. The next two cabinets show off the coffins.

In 1893, Kimball’s family donated parts of the museum collections to various other museums in the city. The Peregrine mummies most likely went to the Peabody Museum at Harvard or else possibly made their way to the Smithsonian museum in Washington, D.C.