King Charles I of England, who was beheaded in 1648, reportedly became an accidental mummy while buried in St. George's Chapel in Windsor. In 1813, to make sure that Charles was indeed buried there, his coffin was opened. Sir Henry Halford, who was present at the examination, described what he saw when the decapitated head was removed:

"The complexion of the skin was dark and discolored. The forehead and temples had lost little or nothing of their muscular substance; the cartilage of the nose was gone; but the left eye, in the first moment of exposure, was open and full, though it vanished almost immediately: and the pointed beard, so characteristic of this period of the reign of King Charles, was perfect. [The head] was quite wet, and gave a greenish-red tinge to paper and to linen which touched it. The back part of the scalp . . . had a remarkably fresh appearance. The hair was thick . . . and in appearance nearly black. . . . On the back part of the head it was not more than an inch in length and had probably been cut so short for the convenience of the executioner, or perhaps . . . to furnish memorials of the unhappy king."

 

Pope John XXIII

The body of Pope John XXIII, who is credited with modernizing the Roman Catholic Church during his reign from 1958 to 1963, was not embalmed at the time of his death; instead, as the body of the Pope lay in state, it was treated with formalin. Then the body was buried in a grotto under St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

In accordance with church tradition, Pope John's body was later exhumed in preparation for moving him to a new tomb that will be more convenient and accessible to pilgrims. When the coffin was opened, the dignitaries in attendance observed the mummy of Pope John XXIII.

"None of the body had decomposed," according to Cardinal Virgilio Noe, who was the high priest of St. Peter's Basilica. "It was as if he died yesterday.... He looked tranquil. His mouth was slightly open but he was certainly tranquil. The serenity he had in life, he took with him to his death and he still had it 38 years later.... We were able to see once again the contours of a face that we all loved, the contours that not even death could erase, the same contours present in the death mask that was made."

According to Reuters, "Vatican officials have been careful not to attribute the preservation of the body directly to a miracle."

Before being placed in its new tomb, the body was "treated" by experts, though no information about the "treatment" was provided. 

 

Vladimir Lenin

Mummified by a secret technique shortly after his death in 1924, Vladimir Lenin's body has remained on display in a mausoleum on Red Square in Moscow.  Although his body has to be occasionally washed with a special liquid, the tell-tale signs of decomposition are setting in: only his face and hands are still visible to the public; the rest of the body is covered with a black cloth (a tell-tale sign that the body has decayed).  Even then, his fingertips have turned black and blue. (From the Associated Press, 1/21/99)

 

Mata Hari

The mummified head of famous spy Mata Hari is missing from its home at the Museum of Anatomy in Paris, according to a recent inventory of the museum's holdings. Hari, convicted of spying for Germany in 1917, was executed that year. She faced a firing squad, refusing a blindfold. She also was said to have blown a kiss to the squad members before they fired. Sometime afterward, her head was removed from her body and taken to the Paris museum which houses the heads and brains of many other known criminals, among other items. Roger Saban, the museum's curator, believes that an admirer or collector somehow walked off with the famous head. 

 

Books about Famous Mummies

No one book has been written just about mummies of famous people, but a number of books have a good assortment. These include Christine Quigley's Modern Mummies. Suitable for ages 14-adult. 

Also worth a read is Heather Pringle's The Mummy Congress which includes a stunning chapter about Lenin's mummification (as well as other Communist attempts at mummification). Other stories are short but worthy accounts of the mummification of John Paul Jones, Jeremy Bentham, and Enrico Caruso among others.

Lenin's Embalmers by Ilya Zbarsky and Samuel Hutchinson gives the fascinating and gory details about the mummification of Lenin's body.

Harvey Rachlin has written two books that include some information about famous mummies. In Lucy's Bones, Sacred Stones, and Einstein's Brain, Rachlin discusses 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), and (yes) Einstein's brain. In Jumbo's Hide, Elvis's Ride, and the Tooth of Buddha, Rachlin tackles 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), 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.). 

And perhaps the most infamous mummy of all is profiled in Mark Svenvold's Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw.