Curiosities: In
the 1800s and 1900s strange mummies were often displayed in carnival
sideshows or back parlors of funeral homes. And sometimes they found
their way into museums as "curiosities" for people to gawk at.
Here are three such mummies
Elmer
McCurdy: A
minor wild west outlaw who
demonstrates how
a mummy can become big business.
Franklin
Expedition:
Frozen mummies help solve the
mystery of a tragic search for a Northwest Passage
Frozen
WW2 Airman:
A World War II airman
whose preserved and frozen body was found in a California glacier
Iranian
Salt Mummies: So
far, four mummified bodies have been found in a salt mine...and studies
are underway to discover more about them
Ishi:
What happened
to man known as the 'last of his tribe"
Juanita:
Juanita (also known as
"The Ice Maiden") was Discovered on the top of Mount Ampato near
Arequipa, Peru, in 1995, the Ice Maiden was an Incan sacrifice. Is she being
sacrificed again to feed the public's curiosity?
Lemon Grove
Girl: Stolen
from her burial cave near Chihuahua, Mexico, this girl is
displayed at the Museum of Man. Read her tragic story.
John
Wilkes Booth:
The assassin
of Abraham Lincoln was reportedly turned into a mummy, some thirty
years after Lincoln's death and exhibited in the backroom of an
Enid, Oklahoma funeral parlor and many carnival sideshows. Is this
the whole story?
North American
Iceman: Three
Canadian sheep hunters discovered the mummified body of what scientists first
thought was an ancient man. Was this man similar to Ötzi the Iceman? Yes--and
no.
Ötzi
the Iceman: The
5,300-year-old archaeological sensation
Plaster
Casts of Pompeii:
Hollow spaces within the hardened volcanic debris at Pompeii revealed the forms
of many deceased Romans. Read about their heartbreaking fates when Vesuvius
erupted in AD 79.
