The Great Gliddon Unwrappings

There were only a few public mummy unwrappings in the United States after the autopsy and dissection of Lee's mummy in 1824. Both Rubens Peal and John Scudder hhad offered them to the public, (for men ony!). but the results were evidently not published in the newspapers as no record of these has yet come to light.

In fact there were very few mummies in the United States until the ante-bellum period, after the Pasha forbade exports in 1835.

The British and French were holding unwrapping parties as reported from foreign newspapers in the American press, but that sort of thins was not happening "on this side of the pond."

One of the few unwrappings of which there are excellent details are the unwrappings perfomed by George Gliddon, beginning in 1850, which proved that surprises could and would happen.

 

Credits

S.J. Wolfe