Mummy Dearest

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries tourists visiting Egypt often returned with souvenir antiquities they had obtained. About 350 such pieces were later donated to or purchased by the College, but because of their uncertain origins, they have rarely been displayed. A few years ago the Hood Museum asked Christine Lilyquist, the recently retired head of Egyptian art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, to study the collection, (in the 1970s Lilyquist curated the hugely popular Met exhibit "Treasures of Tutankhamun.") The result is "Egyptian Antiquities at Dartmouth," an ongoing exhibit now at the Hood. One gem, according to religion professor Susan Ackerman '80, who recently led a tour of the exhibit, is a portion of the burial shroud of a royal wet nurse named Mahu (pictured above).