Mummy expert to give PI talk
Contributed photo
SU WOLFE of Worcester, Mass. will share the history of mummies in America at a special presentation this Friday at 6 p.m. at the Northern Maine Community College library. Included in her talk will be how Maine once made paper out of mummy wrappings. The event is hosted by the Haystack Historical Society.
PRESQUE ISLE — Just in time for Halloween, one of the world’s leading mummy experts will host a special presentation Friday night entitled “Mummies in Maine?”
Hosted by the Haystack Historical Society, Su Wolfe will present an illustrated talk that will give an overview of the history of Egyptian mummies as artifacts in 19th century America, as well as here in Maine.
“The lecture will in essence be an overview of my book and a history of the mummy in America,” said Wolfe. “I will add in what I know about mummies in Maine. A few have been exhibited, but the state is much more famous for having made paper out of the wrappings of mummies from the 1860s or so through 1900.
“Gardiner and Westbrook were the chief locations of this practice, and although it has long been thought to be a myth or urban legend,” she said, “I have found enough documentary evidence to prove it is true. My lecture is full of stories — both funny and gruesome — and every time I have given it I have had rave reviews.”
Wolfe’s free presentation will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26 at the Northern Maine Community College library.
“I am looking forward very much to the talk in Presque Isle,” she said. “I love Maine and have never been that far north.”
Wolfe’s interest in mummies began when she was a child.
“I have been interested in Egyptian mummies since I was about 3 or 4 years old and my grandfather took me to the George Walter Vincent Art Museum in Springfield, Mass. where there was an anthropoid mummy coffin,” she said. “That was back in the 1950s and there were not any books for children about ancient Egypt or mummies, and my grandfather and I poured through old National Geographics and he brought me a few books from the adult library to read.
“I was a very precocious reader, and I devoured them, to say the least. I was finally able to really study Egypt and its culture when I attended college, and then the first King Tutankhamun exhibition came to the U.S. and suddenly there were books everywhere,” Wolfe said. “I read every single one I could get my hands on, and started visiting museums and looking at artifacts. The mummies fascinated me more than anything and gradually my focus narrowed in on them more than anything else.”
Wolfe, author of “Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts,” resides in Worcester, Mass. She has worked at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester as a cataloguer for 30 years and is now a senior cataloguer and serials specialist.
Seating for Friday’s presentation is limited, so participants are encouraged to arrive early.
Wolfe will also be holding a book signing in conjunction with the event, and copies of her book will be available for purchase.
