Mummies in History and Geography

In the nineteenth century, most people learned about Ancient Egypt and mummies from articles in popular magazines. This drawing is from The New Monthly Family Magazine.The illustration is a collection of mummies and coffins from the British Museum, which at the time had the largest collection in the world.

These articles were meant  to be read by both adults and children in order to educate them in history, geography, literature and other things in the world around them.

This illustration is from the 16 August 1834 issue of The Family Magazine, or General Abstract of Useful Knowledge, and was part of an article on the value of the materials used in mummification, and a description of the processes and costs involved in such. It also included references to Joseph in the Bible and how when he died, he was embalmed and buried as a mummy. The juxtaposition of Biblical history and ancient history was a common one in the description of mummies and mummification. Both Joseph and Pharaoh's daughter who found Moses in the bulrushes were common links, with many a showman touting his mummy as that very same royal princess.

This illustration was used in the October 1838 issue of The Youth's Magazine, and the accompanying article by "Mummius" mentions recent mummy unwrappings in Europe and includes a copy of Horace Smith's “Address to the mummy at Belzoni’s exhibition, London” which became an almost ubiquitous piece of poetry for mummy exhibitions throughout the United States. A portion of Belzoni's own discoveries in the Theban catacombs is added, wherein he describes the fragile bodies and coffins as crushing like bandboxes under his weight as he explores the tombs.

Here, in Dwight's Magazine or "American penny magazine and family newspaper" of 27 June, 1846  the illustration that appeared in other magazines has been redrawn and reoriented to fit the page. This article describes mummification, and mentions the Biblical links. It also directs the adult reader to Giovanni Belzoni's Belzoni's Travels: Narrative of the Operations and Recent Discoveries in Egypt and Nubia, and the younger reader to Charles Rollin's The ancient history of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes & Persians, Macedonians, and Grecians for more information. There are also brief descriptions of Egyptian sculpture (which seems to the author to not be very notable or interesting).

This brightly colored first page of the June 1867 Child at Home, a religious and educational magazine for young people, is one of a very few mummy cases depicted in color in Amerian magazines up to this time. This magazine was printed in two different editions, one is color printed, and the other is black and white.

This mummy dos not match any so far depicted in America.