Funny you should ask this question.  We currently have an exhibit up, "Preserving the Past, Planning for the Future."  In a nutshell, the exhibit explains what the museum was like in 1903 when it was founded, important temporary exhibits over the years, and the plans for a new
museum to be built.  However, the main "attraction" to the exhibit is our fake mummy.  For years, the mummy was on exhibit and in the 1960s a local med student decided to do some research on our prized mummy.  Well to the horror of the community, the mummy turned out to be fake.  We
have x-rays of the nails and wood used to hold the mummy together and pieces of the newspaper used for the paper mache.  In the 1970s when the mission was changed to include only objects relating to Mississippi, the mummy was taken off of exhibit.  There was a huge uproar from the
community over the "mummy" going into storage.  This is the first time in years the mummy has been out on exhibit, and people still love that "dummy mummy"--as it is called here in Jackson.
--
Cindy Cable, Registrar
Old Capitol Museum
P.O. Box 571
Jackson, MS 39205-0571
Telephone: 601/359-6930
Facsimile: 601/359-6981
Email: [log in to unmask]


Dayton Labs wrote:

> I would like to pose a question to the group. What is your most unusual
> acquisition? What is the one thing the kids go home and talk about at
> supper? The exhibit that people thirty years later remember? Examples
> from my experience include "The Amputated Leg of General Sickles" at the
> old Army Medical Museum, or the "supposed" 19th Century witch in a lead
> sealed bottle mentioned last autumn on this list. The bizarre, the
> outre, the acquisition with a folk legend attached (Hope Diamond). Tell
> the list! The item need not be on exhibit. Things from the basement like
> Yale's collection of pickled brains. Same goes for works of art! Any
> good stories accompanying them. Likewise strange curatorial experiences.
>
> David Gerrick - Information Services
> Dayton Lab
>
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