Object 22542: The Unlucky Mummy

After seeing yet another re-run of "The Mummy" on the TV, today's post is about the "Unlucky Mummy".

 

The Unlucky Mummy
as featured on the cover of Pearson's magazine in 1909

The Unlucky Mummy's story starts way back in Ancient Egypt but we pick up the thread in the 1860s. At this time an adventurer and explorer, Douglas Murray, bought himself a mummy.

Murray purchased an ancient artefact, the inner coffin lid of a high-ranking female in Egyptian society, suspected to be a Priestess of Amen-Ra. That this artefact had a reputation for bringing ill fortune to whoever owned it, didn't bother Murray in the least. Which perhaps it should because the very next day he accidentally shot his own arm off!

Shortly after this, call it co-incidence, but a string of unfortunate accidents befell three Egyptian porters, all of whom had recently handled the sarcophagus. Enough was enough, and Murray gave away his recent acquisition.

However, it didn't take long for the new owner to experience bad luck. He can't have been fond of his sister because he gifted the mummy to her! The sister, Mrs. Warwick-Hunt sounds a practical sort and she commissioned an occultist to exorcise any malign spirits. But this didn't go to plan when the occultist decreed that the evil was too strong for her, and advised Mrs. Warwick-Hunt, if she valued her health, to move the artefact on.

Mrs. Warwick-Hunt then made the sensible deduction that an august institution such as the British Museum was far too lofty to worry about superstition. She donated the mummy to them.

But the Priestess of Amen-Ra wasn't done with her curses, and on the way to the British Museum, the vehicle carrying the sarcophagus careered off the road and struck a pedestrian. Once at the museum, a laborer broke his leg whilst unloading the artefact…and yet another worker died a short time later under mysterious circumstances…

 

The British Museum

The mummy settled in as "Object 22542" but to the public she became known as "The Unlucky Mummy". Perhaps her reputation preceded her, when a night watchman reported hearing scrabbling noises coming from inside the coffin. A journalist, thinking it would make a good story, took a photo. But he got more than he bargained for when the photograph was developed and showed a human face. The poor man subsequently lost his mind and shot himself.

Time for the Unlucky Mummy to move on again. This time she was sold to an American archaeologist who planned to transport this Egyptian wonder back to his home country. With this in mind he arranged urgent passage on the next available ship…the RMS Titanic.

Unofficial London -Then and Now - Bloomsbury

Bloomsbury Square in Georgian times

After a recent visit to the British Museum, Bloomsbury, I became intrigued by the history of the area. It is perhaps surprising but this affluent part of London was not always so. Prior to the 1620’s Bloomsbury was part of the parish of St-Giles-in-the-Fields – a place notorious for its lack of law and order. In the early 1700’s things got so bad that something had to be done and so the area was redeveloped. A new parish church was commissioned, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor for a cost of £9,700 – the project went a mere £3 over budget!  The improvements were a success and the area continued to expand northwards across marshy fields and farmland. The population expanded form 136 houses in 1624 to 3,000 by the end of the 18^th century.

‘The fields where robberies and murders had been committed, the scene of depravity and wickedness the most hideous for centuries, became…rapidly metamorphosed into splendid squares and spacious streets; receptacles of civil life and polished society.’

The British Museum
November 2013

If the mention of Bloomsbury seems familiar, it might be because it is the home of the British Museum. It was the collection of ephemera by a medical practitioner, Hans Sloane, that formed the back bone of this institution. He was an avid collector of artefacts and on his death in 1753, suitable permanent housing needed to be found to protect his acquisitions. King George II declined to help and so the trustees petitioned Parliament to secure the collection for the nation. This they did with success and combined Sloane's artefacts with the Edward Harley’s library and the Cotton Library, in a building not far from Sloane’s old house.

Bloomsbury Square (number 3 - lower edge of the map)
British Museum - the grey block to the left of Bloomsbury Square

The newly formed British Museum was opened on 15 January 1759 and tickets stated: ‘No money is to be given to the servants’ hinting that some employees fancied themselves as tour guides.

The area around the museum used to be a farm run by two eccentric sisters. As the area was developed the Capper sisters farm disappeared beneath the building of the new University College, whilst the farmhouse stood on Tottenham Court Road – it was used as a storeroom until 1917, when it was demolished and eventually Heal’s built on the same site. Apparently, Bloomsbury Square was established on the site of the Capper's cow field!

The original grid layout of Bloomsbury Square -
originally called Southampton Square, the name was later changed.

Bloomsbury Square was one of London's first designed garden squares. Originally it was known as Southampton Square, created to be in effect a large forecourt for Southampton House standing opposite. But the marriage of the Duke of Bedford to the Duke of Southampton's daughter, saw a name change to Bloomsbury Square. In the early 18th century the garden was merely a rectangular patch of grass with paths cutting across it. In the early 1800's, landscape designer Humphry Repton was commissioned to face-lift the gardens and created oval flower beds in each corner and a perimeter of lime trees. 

Here I'm standing at the centre of Bloomsbury Gardens facing towards
Southampton House.

Prior to the World War II the gardens were enclosed by iron railings and only open to residents. As part of the war effort the railings were melted down for the manufacture of ammunitions, and in the 1950's the gardens officially opened to the public. In the 1970's an underground car park was built beneath the square and a new landscape scheme created which further lost Repton's design.

Statue of Charles James Fox at the corner of Bloomsbury Square
November 2013

The same statue of Charles James Fox in Victorian times

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