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Lucy's
Bones, Sacred Stones, and Einstein's Brain by Harvey
Rachlin
Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's
Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha
by
Harvey Rachlin
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These two books are filled with
fascinating stories about historical objects and artifacts. Of course,
history being the strange thing that it is...some of these stories
pertain to mummies, since people have been preserving all types of
unusual things as mementos (including themselves).
The books contain some
photos, but the key here is the background information on each of the
preserved objects or beings. Rachlin is an excellent author and
researcher; the other chapters (though not about mummies) are equally
fascinating. Highly
recommended.
In Lucy's Bones,
a number of mummies are discussed in separate, well-researched chapters,
including:
- John Paul Jones,
often referred to as the Father of the American Navy (complete with
photos of his mummy),
- philosopher
Jeremy Bentham, (he wanted to be a mummy, and he got his
wish)
- Stonewall
Jackson's Horse (more of a taxidermist's project than a
mummy, Little Sorrel is exhibited at the Virginia Military
Institute),
- Einstein's brain,
(approximately 200 pieces of the brain exist in various locations
around the world, including Lawrence, Kansas, U C at Berkeley, and
Japan, Australia, and Germany
Another chapter tackles the contents of
King Tut's tomb. But the strangest mummy-related chapter is the one that
deals with Napoleon's mummified member (allegedly removed the day after
he died, though there is no proof that this happened) and now residing
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University (New
York).
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Jumbo's Hide
is the recent sequel to Lucy, and it follows the same format. The
mummies it describes are:
- Galileo's middle
finger ("This is the finger with which the illustrious
hand covered the heavens and indicated their immense space. It
pointed to new stars with the marvelous instrument, made of glass,
and revealed them to the senses. And thus it was able to reach what
Titans could never attain" Tommaso Perelli, 18th Century
Italian astronomer. It was cut from Galileo's corpse in 1737 and is
exhibited in Florence, Italy.
- John Adams's
pigtail (Not the president, but the last mutineer of the
H.M.S. Bounty to survive on Pitcairn Island.)
- Jumbo the
Elephant (P. T. Barnum's famous elephant, which managed to
earn some money after Jumbo's demise when he was stuffed and
exhibited.)
- The hoof of Fire
Horse Number Twelve (Exactly what it says: the horse was
racing to a fire in 1890 in Washington, D.C. when the fire engine
was hit by another; the horse's hoof was severed, yet it managed to
keep its pace for a half mile to the fire. It is exhibited at the
National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
- Able the Space Monkey (One
of two rhesus monkeys first sent into space on May 28, 1959, Able
was later preserved. He is now exhibited at the National Air and
Space Museum in Washington, D.C.)
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