150th birthday is all wrapped up
This year Maidstone Museum is celebrating 150 years since it
opened and to mark the occasion the museum will be highlighting
some of its most popular exhibits.
The first object of the week is the mummy,
which is nearly 3,000 years old.
The mummy, called Ta-Kesh, is known as the
lady of the house. She was brought to England in the 1820s and was
bought at a Customs House sale by Sir William Geary of Hadlow, who
presented it to a local philosophical society in about 1835. She
has been displayed in the St Faith’s Street museum since 1855.
The Egyptians frequently used both an outer
and inner coffin. The outer one disappeared before the mummy came
to the museum. The lower half of the inner coffin is displayed at
the museum. It is made of wood, covered with a thin layer of linen
on which a white ground bears the decoration in yellow, red and
blue/green.
The Ancient Egyptians used mummification
because they thought the preservation of the body was essential for
the happiness of the dead in their after lives. The brain and
internal organs, although not the heart, were removed and placed in
jars. The body was then dehydrated and finally, after treatment, it
was wrapped in bandages to restore its living shape.
The mummy will be one of the highlights for
the birthday celebrations. Alongside this the Kaleidoscope
exhibition will mark the occasion and showcase the history and
collections in the museum.
The exhibition explores the historical, weird,
interesting and rare objects, telling the stories of the collectors
and museum benefactors along the way. The 150 objects are taken
from the three core collections; Human History, Natural History and
Fine and Applied Art.
Keeper at Maidstone Museum, Giles Guthrie
said: “When I walk through the museum I see parents with their
children saying ‘I used to come and see this when I was little.’
It’s the continuity which goes back through the museum’s history.
The museum has changed but the memories are constant.”
