S. J. Wolfe

S.J. Wolfe is senior cataloguer and serials specialist at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Massachusetts where she has worked since 1982. She has studied Egyptian religion and culture for over 60 years, turning her research specifically on the historical aspects of the mummies as artifacts in American museums. She is the author of many articles and lectures, as well as the definitive study Mummies in Nineteenth Century America: Ancient Egyptians as Artifacts, and is the Director of the EMINA (Egyptian mummies in North America) project and online database and the curator of the online exhibition of Mummymania in America (mummymania.omeka.net).

Mummies

Philadelphia’s fascination with Egyptian mummies began modestly, but by the end of the nineteenth century the city held some of the largest collections of mummies in the United States. Although some mummies had only a transient stay in Philadelphia or were lost to the ravages of time, many remained in museums to teach later generations ...