Mummies of the World to debut in Cincy, offers insight to past and present

‘Tis the season for all things Halloween, but it won’t just be Friday when mummies invade the Tri-State. 

Mummies of the World: The Exhibition opens at Cincinnati Museum Center November 26 and will run through April 26. 

“These mummies are borrowed from 10-12 institutions both in the U.S. and in Europe. Unless you’d go to all these places, you’d never have the chance to see them all in one place,” says Heather Gill-Frerking, biological anthropologist and curator of the exhibition. 

Gill-Frerking has studied mummies for about 20 years and has been with the exhibition since it was first developed in Germany. The exhibition contains both human and animal mummies, preserved both through natural and artificial mummification. 

The fact that some of these specimens are people and can tell us a story—even in their death—is a magical thing, Gill-Frerking says. 

There are three mummies, for example, from a crypt in Hungary, and all have tuberculosis, and may have even died from complications of the disease. 

“We know 65 percent of that town in 18th century Hungary had TB, so by studying the strain compared to what exists today, we know it’s getting angrier and has grown multidrug resistant. But by looking at differences, we can see how it transforms over time and maybe come up with treatments,” Gill-Frerking says. “So the fact that 18th century mummies can tell us about medical treatments is a very cool thing.” 

Do Good: 

•    Plan to attend Mummies of the World: The Exhibition. Tickets go on sale today.

•    Consider becoming a member of the museum.

•    Download the Mummies of the World learning guide here if you're an educator, and plan a class field trip.