What Happened to Capt. Turner's mummy?
Turner’s mummy (once it disappeared from Greenwood’s collection) was certainly, if nothing else, peripatetic, for notices about its exhibition show that it traveled extensively—throughout Connecticut, New York State, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Washington, D.C. Although most of the advertisements carry the information that the mummy had been brought from Trieste by Captain Turner, the name of the exhibitor is not mentioned.
An advertisement for Scudder’s Museum in New York in the New-York American for 24 February 1825 advises prospective viewers of the mummy “The exhibition of this wonderful antiquity will positively close on Saturday next.” An article immediately below this one informed readers that
“In order to present better advantages to visitors of this wonderful antiquity, tickets have been left for sale at the principal hotels, bookstores, and public places.”
The mummy was described as having had one of its hands unwrapped, and as this tallies with the description of Turner’s mummy, it is most likely this is the mummy which was on display.
An undated broadside announcement places the mummy in Lyme, Connecticut, probably in 1827, as the Middlesex Gazette of 25 April 1827 noted that a gentleman was now exhibiting a mummy in Middletown, Connecticut, about 35 miles away
6 September 1827 issue of the Rochester Daily Advertiser noted that the mummy was in that town. From there it went to Lambdin’s Museum in Pittsburgh but the exact dates are not known. The Hagerstown Mail of 5 December 1828 published the woodcut of the coffin and informed the citizens of that town and the vicinity:
“An Egyptian mummy will be exhibited at Daniel M. Schnebley’s Tavern, Hagerstown, on Monday and Tuesday Dec. 8th & 9th 1828. N.B. It will be exhibited in Williamsport on Wednesday the 10th, Funkstown on Thursday, the 11th, Boonsboro’ on Friday the 13th, inst. Admittance 12 ½ cents—children half price.”
The Daily National Intelligencer on 15 January 1829 informed the public that mummy was at Gadsby’s Hotel, Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. “for a few days and evenings.” According to the same paper, dated 23 January 1829, the mummy was at the National Hotel. The 19 February 1829 issue of the United States Gazette advised, in an advertisement which had been running since the 13th of that month:
“The ladies and gentlemen of Washington, are respectfully informed, that an Egyptian mummy will be exhibited for a short time on Pennsylvania Avenue, between 9th and 10th Streets.”
The 6 May 1829 issue of The Lycoming Gazette noted:
“The inhabitants of Lycoming County are respectfully informed that an Egyptian mummy is now exhibited at the home of P. Vandervelt, Jr., in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where it will remain until Friday evening next ... It will be exhibited at the house of R.W. Dunlap, in Muncy, in this county, on Saturday and Monday next.”
Admission was 12 ½ cents for everyone.
The 1 January 1830 issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette ran the plate of the coffin with the following notice.
“The proprietor of the Pittsburgh Museum [James R. Lambdin] on Fifth Street, would inform the citizens of this city, that he has added to his collection of curiosities, an Egyptian mummy, which will remain a few days—no additional charge. … The proprietor flatters himself that the eye of the curious will be highly gratified in viewing it.”
The following advertisement appeared in the 8 July 1830 Baltimore Patriot.
"Exhibition of the Egyptian mummy, at the Washington Museum, no. 95 Baltimore Street. At the request of a number of the medical faculty of the city, the proprietor has consented to remain two days longer. These venerable remains of antiquity presents [sic] to the eye of the beholder a striking picture of three thousand years, and is unquestionably the greatest curiosity ever offered to an American public. … Open from 9 A.M. to 10 P.M."
On 26 January 1832 John Scudder, proprietor of the American Museum, Broadway, New York proudly announced in the New York Commercial Advertiser:
“This day added. The Egyptian mummy, recently received from Thebes, In Egypt. It is a great curiosity and well worthy of the attention of every man of science and discernment. This mummy was taken from one of the most remarkable catacombs, and is considered to be very old. It is enclosed in its sarcophagus or coffin, ornamented with numerous hieroglyphics.”
Scudder had previously displayed Turner’s mummy, in February 1824, and was in rivalry with Rubens Peale, who also had a museum and mummy in the city at this time. Scudder knew the value of a dead Egyptian as well as anyone and so he obtained one of his own. Although its provenance has not been determined, it is touted as being “recently arrived from Thebes” (As opposed to the same old one which Peale had been exhibiting since 1826!), it was probably Turner's mummy as no notices of newly arrived ones have been located.
The illustrated plates depicting Scudder's museum were originally made in England and were one of a series which featured American landmarks. Many of the illustrations can be matched up to illustrrations in various publications of the time.