A new book, The Mystery of the Albany Mummies (Albany Institute of History & Art, 2018), tells the story of how two ancient Egyptian mummies ended-up at an Albany museum.
In 1909, two mummies, one dating from the 21st Dynasty and the other from the Ptolemaic Period, were purchased from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo by Albany businessman Samuel Brown for the Albany Institute of History & Art. They have been on continuous exhibition since.
The story of their discovery in the tombs at Deir el-Bahri and their subsequent purchase by Brown, transport by steamship from Cairo to New York City, and steamboat travel to Albany was covered extensively by local newspapers. Continue reading