Photographs by Corrado Serra.

“On a special, limited tour from the collections of The Field Museum in Chicago — and presented for the first time on the East Coast — Mummies showcases the ritually preserved remains of 18 individuals from ancient Egypt and pre-Columbian Peru, many on view for the first time since the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Visitors can discover how modern imaging techniques have transformed the study of mummification by letting researchers peer inside centuries-old mummies without damaging them. Digital touchscreens allow visitors to virtually peer into Peruvian mummy bundles as well as animal mummies buried as offerings to Egyptian gods, while visitors can handle 3D-printed figurines of burial goods that were encased within mummy wrappings for millennia and only recently revealed.” — American Museum of Natural History

“Mummies have long been fascinating, and now the intersection of these ancient relics and cutting-edge technology is revealing new and intriguing secrets,” said Ellen V. Futter, President of the American Museum of Natural History. “For generations, the Museum has studied and presented the diverse cultures of humanity, past and present, to help us better understand one another and ourselves. Today, when such understanding is more important than ever, Mummies invites us all to consider both what may be distinct among cultures and what is universal in the human condition.”

The exhibition is co-curated at the American Museum of Natural History by David Hurst Thomas, Curator of North American Archaeology in the Division of Anthropology, and John J. Flynn, Frick Curator of Fossil Mammals in the Division of Paleontology.