Bushey Museum stages curriculum friendly exhibition on Egypt

Bucks Free Press (Melanie Dakin)

WATCHING my son repeatedly pull a fake mummy's brain out through its nose I marvelled at how hands-on Bushey Museum has become. As well as making a cartouche (an Egyptian name tag in hieroglyphs), my boy went on to remove the vital organs from the mummy and stuff them less than ceremoniously into the waiting coptic jars. He could also read about Egyptian life and do colourings while I walked around the display of art created by Myrtle Broome, who lived from 1907 in Bushey. A contemporary of Bertha Herkomer, the cousin of Sir Hubert, Myrtle gained a London University Certificate in Egyptology, studying under Flinders Petrie. From 1929 to 1935, she spent six months of every year at the temple of Seti I at Abydos in Egypt, recording the painted scenes and relief decoration. The work that she and the Egyptologist Amice Calverley carried out was published in four volumes by the Egyptian Exploration Society. On display are the first two volumes and a selection of more informal Egyptian pictures.

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