Middlebury's lost mummy

WCAX-TV

One of the most popular attractions at the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History isn't actually at the museum, but in a cemetery down the road. Museum director Jan Albers says, "It's not a scary story."

The story that ends in that small cemetery on Route 30 begins nearly 4,000 years ago in Egypt, where a two year old boy died and was mummified.

To cut a long story short, the mummy was purchased in the 1880s and was destined to become an exhibit in the museum. It's head was crushed and was therefore deemed unsuitable for display, and was left in storage where it suffered considerable damage. A museum curator, George Mead, appalled at what he found, decided to give the mummy a decent burial, so it was cremated and it now has its own headstone at the local cemetary, with the date 1883BC inscribed into it. Not quite what his parents had in mind! For the complete story see the above page, accompanied by a photograph of the headstone.