A mummy believed to be an Egyptian princess for more than four decades, only to later be revealed as papier-mâché and old newspapers posing as a mummy, is back on display at the Two Mississippi Museums in what has become a Halloween tradition.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History announced Friday that the “Dummy Mummy” has returned to public display and will remain at the museums in Jackson through Nov. 1.
“An infamous, undead legend is back on display for a limited time at the Two Mississippi Museums,” MDAH announced. “The Dummy Mummy, enclosed in her cloth-lined, black wooden coffin, will haunt the halls of the museum this Halloween season.”
In 1923, MDAH acquired a collection of thousands of artifacts from James Sessions Butler. Among those artifacts were Native American tools, pottery, and a mummy believed to be an Egyptian princess.
After being displayed at the Mississippi State Capitol through the 1950s, the Dummy Mummy was relegated to a storage room when the Old Capitol was restored and opened as a state history museum.
In 1969, medical student Gentry Yeatman took a keen interest in examining the mummy. He was granted permission to X-ray it, revealing that it was no mummy at all but instead a joke that had been running for decades.
“Yeatman’s X-rays presented peculiar findings: Mississippi’s Egyptian princess was not royalty. In fact, she was made of papier-mâché, old newspapers, and as former MDAH Director Charlotte Capers reported, ‘a heart full of nails,’” the announcement continued.
The Two Mississippi Museums, which include the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, are open Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The museums are located at 222 North State St. in Jackson.
