“Hen” the Egyptian Mummy at the Cazenovia Public Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
Egyptian mummy mask at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
Far from the Egyptian pyramids and the hot sands of the Sahara Desert, in the back of a small library in Upstate New York, there lies a 2,000 year-old mummy wrapped in linen, wearing a golden mask. For 130 years, it has been on public display, along with other Egyptian artifacts collected by the wealthy businessman Robert James Hubbard, whose museum collection was donated to the library.
For many visitors, who may never have the opportunity to visit the Egyptian collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Museum in London or the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Cairo, it provides the rare chance to get an up-close view of ancient artifacts and bring historical anthropology to life.
Egyptian jewelry artifact at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
In 1894, the mummy known as Hen, a 25 year-old male who likely died of a malignant bone tumor, made the journey from Africa to his new resting place in Hubbard’s library museum in Cazenovia, New York.
During his “Grand Tour” of Cairo, Egypt, Hubbard visited the Sphinx, an Egyptian temple and the pyramids. A couple of days after his visit inside the pyramids, which he said was “dirty” and “slippery” at the time, Hubbard was shopping for mummies.
In his diary, he noted that mummies were being sold in the sales room of the Museum of Boulac for around $20-$30. After purchasing Hen, the man who sold him, unwrapped another mummy, which was less interesting to them but whose skull returned with Hubbard and is also on display.
For more information on Hen the Egyptian Mummy at the Cazenovia Public Library visit: https://cazenoviapubliclibrary.org/
Below are some of the photographs I took of Hen and the other Egyptian artifacts on display. Enjoy!
– Michael Aaron Gallagher
Ancient Egyptian artifacts at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
Golden mummy mask from Egypt with mummy “Hen” in the background at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
Egyptian burial artifact at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.
Egyptian mummy skull at Cazenovia Library. Photo by Michael Aaron Gallagher.