Sure, he drove… and paid… but it was my idea, so I’m still saying that I “took” him there.
The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato is a traveling exhibition by The Detroit Science Center and The Accidental Mummies Touring Company LLC, along with Manuel Hernandez/Firma Culturato. The exhibition will begin touring nationally after its initial stint in Detroit. It features 36 accidental mummies from the Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato. While there is an entire museum in Mexico that is dedicated to their care, this is the first time that any of the mummies have ever been seen outside of Mexico. The exhibition opened in Detroit in October of 2009 and will begin touring before the end of 2010 until 2012.
After all of that hype, I was not disappointed.
I love mummies. I have loved mummies for as long as I can remember. As I kid, I had giant (taller than me, at the time) cardboard books about Egyptian mummies, books about the bog mummies, sarcophagus pencil cases, mummy activity books, King Tut masks, huge inflatable mummies, and I even made a canopic jar in art class (I was a weird kid but my parents supported my interests). So when the Guanajuato mummies came to town, I was ready!
I was told not to take pictures inside the exhibition, so being the respectful museum professional that I am, I urge you to go to http://accidentalmummies.com/photo-gallery.php and see the exhibition photos. They're better than what I would get with my camera anyway.
My dad has been to lots of museums with me and has seen the great and the not-so-great exhibitions, but we were both floored by the first gallery and found the rest of the exhibition equally as impressive and enjoyable.
I was impressed by several things:
1.) The respect with which the mummies were displayed. It's a tough thing to display deceased human beings. It even sounds weird as I'm typing it... "display". But the Science Center did a nice job with it. They weren't on rotating platforms or set up to look like they were playing poker with each other. The displays were simple, informational, and still engrossing.
2.) The design of the exhibition. The first room, made to look like the cemetery in which they were found, was simply fantastic. Being the nerd that I am, I thought to myself, "I bet the exhibits department had a ball fabricating this!" The second room was the more simple, respectful display, and the third was made to look like a research lab-- complete with CT scanner and video of research methods and forensic facial reconstruction. That was my dad's favorite part.
3.) The interpretive texts. Each panel was in English and Spanish and they were all well written. They provided information that was easy to understand, and served as a valuable reference while we were in the exhibition. Dad and I even went back to a few text panels in previous galleries to double check our facts. It is unusual for me read every text panel in an exhibition, but it's also unusual for every text panel to be informative and useful.
I was also less-than-impressed with some others:
1.) Inventive histories. This was a tricky one for me, and I'm still trying to decide what I think. While the text panels about how accidental mummification occurs, Mexican history, etc., were very well done, I had an issue with some of the "stories" inside the cases with the mummies. Many of the stories seemed to be fabricated with the intent of tying these mummies in with some middle school social studies. A lame attempt to comply with the GLCEs and HSCEs. I saw right through it. These stories said things like, "This is a mummy of a woman who died in 1850. Women often played music for Spanish settlers around that time. This woman many have played music for Spanish settlers." Really? I mean... really? This poor woman may have been the most talented chef in town and lived her entire life without touching a musical instrument... but because she is a woman, and the Science Center is desperate to hit those Social Studies GLCEs, suddenly she played guitar for Spanish settlers. That irked me a little bit.
2.) Dumb parents. This is not the Science Center's fault, but when Dad and I were reaching the end of the exhibition, I suddenly heard a blood curdling scream from the entrance. It was clearly a terrified child, discovering a mummy. These accidental mummies became mummified because the cement of the mausoleum wicked the moisture out of their bodies. When bodies dry out like this, the mouth often opens. Thus, almost every mummy looked like it was screaming. To a kid, that could be pretty intense. I've already touched on my lifelong affection for mummies... but I'm not sure how I would have reacted to a "screaming" mummy when I was young. It's tough to say. I mean, I really liked mummies. Anyway, perhaps the visitor services rep should have advised this parent that this exhibition is not for children, but I think it's really the parent's decision-- and this parent made the wrong one.
However, those two minor issues did not noticeably detract from my overall enjoyment of the exhibition.
When I was taking my first undergrad course in museum studies (Introduction to Museum Work), my advisor (and professor), Lynn Fauver told us, "Taking this course will ruin any museum visit you have from now on." He seemed to think that knowing about museums would suck the enjoyment out of the visit. I have now come to disagree. I really liked Lynn. He was a great and fair advisor, an enthralling lecturer and he was incredibly knowledgeable about the museum field. But in this respect, I think he's full of it.
The more I learn about museum work, the more I am able to enjoy a museum visit on multiple levels. I am excited to see the exhibition itself, but I am also excited to see how it was produced and what choices the museum staff made. It's gotten to the point where I just want to know everything I can about how and why museums do what they do. I am able to walk into an exhibition like The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato and be awestruck by the mummies-- imagining their stories, thinking about the science of mummification, looking at their clothing, etc.-- while also checking the temperature and RH inside the cases, looking at the mounting hardware, lighting, layout, interpretive texts, and so on.
I am honestly and truly interested in all aspects of an exhibition like that. I may be alone on this, but knowing there is 44% RH inside of the mummy's case does not ruin the magic for me. (Sidebar: Some mummies were displayed laying on their backs, while others were mounted upright. Those laying down had 23-26 RH in the case, while the upright ones had 44-46 RH in their cases. My theory is that those who were laying down were so fragile that not only could they not be mounted in an upright position, but that they also needed drier conditions. Thoughts?)
So, if you like sausage and you respect the law, you shouldn't watch either one being made. Instead, spend your day at a museum. You'll like that better, I promise.
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