Ancient human remains gathering dust in a dark Scranton storage space is no way to treat the dead. But that’s how administrators at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art are mishandling a more than 2,000-year-old Peruvian mummy.
This five-foot-tall teenage cadaver once existed as a live human, walking and talking with family members and others who loved him. Now his corpse rests rigid in a fetal position, locked away like a grim trophy few people remember.
In April 2019 then museum curator Francesca Saldan told Live Science magazine: “The mummy’s journey from Peru to Pennsylvania was both long and strange. In 1923, a Scranton dentist named Dr. G. E. Hill donated the mummy to the museum; Hill had received the mummy from his father, who brought it from Peru when he returned home after working on the railroads.”
“Other than that, we really have no documentation about how he acquired it or where in Peru it actually came from,” Saldan said. “The mummy had been kept in a large display case made of wood and glass since the 1950s,” she said.
When I spoke on April 29 with Everhart Museum CEO Timothy Lennon Holmes, he said he had never seen the mummy. But, he said, “It’s here.”
Holmes said he didn’t know where the human remains were stored.
Curator James Lansing said he, too, had not seen the mummy and did not know where the remains were stored. Two weeks after I started asking questions, though, Holmes said he and Lansing had located the mummy and finally viewed the remains.
“I did view the Peruvian Mummy since we spoke initially and I can confirm that it is indeed safely, securely & respectfully stored here in our archives,” Holmes wrote in a May 12 email.
Peruvian law protects pre-Colombian mummies, considered part of the nation’s cultural patrimony that includes inherited heritage that makes up Peruvian history. Yet, one Peruvian history scholar recently told me that “if the mummy left Peru before 1970, there’s no real mechanism to enforce the law.” Still, no credible museum official would consider archival storage of human remains respectable.
Unlike yesteryear law now guides morality at principled museums and other institutions. In 2022 the late Pope Francis returned three Peruvian mummies the Vatican kept since 1925, two years after the Everhart took possession of their mummy. Current Pope Leo XIV holds dual citizenship in Peru and the United States and would likely question the degrading way Everhart officials treat sacred Peruvian human remains.
My search for the missing mummy started when I recently thought about seeing Native American human remains in a glass case during a trip to the State Museum of Pennsylvania in Harrisburg when I was 10 years old. State museum officials are still working to repatriate hundreds of human remains to various tribal nations throughout the United States.
I later discovered an online story about the Everhart Museum’s Peruvian mummy and contacted curator James Lansing. I wanted to make sure my hometown museum had properly returned the mummy they had received under questionable circumstances. In the past, grave robbers, grifters and carnival barkers trafficked in Peruvian mummies, putting them on display at disrespectful exhibitions. Peruvian government officials have made it clear for years that they will do everything in their power to prevent illegal trafficking and continue repatriating Peruvian human remains back to Peru.
On April 30 Holmes wrote in an email, “As I mentioned, there was an attempt to repatriate the remains some time ago but the effort was unsuccessful. None of the folks who were directly involved with that effort work here now so we’re trying to find more details.”
Holmes said nobody in the Peruvian government wanted the mummy’s remains.
On May 5 Holmes wrote, “I still haven’t seen a copy of the letter from the Peruvian authorities, but from what I understand – it does exist. I’ll let you know when we track it down.”
Holmes didn’t say when museum officials tried to repatriate the mummy back to Peru. Holmes said Lansing would check with other museums to see how they repatriate human remains.
When I asked to view the mummy Holmes said no. When I asked again he again refused.
“I spoke with the Everhart Board last week and they confirmed that nobody is allowed into our archives to view it,” Holmes wrote in a subsequent email.
“Where are the human remains stored?” I asked Holmes in a later email. “Under what conditions are they stored? What action do you plan to take, if any, to better care for these sacred human remains and try to repatriate them to caring people in Peru? Are the Peruvian human remains you say are in the possession of museum staff insured? If so, by whom? If not, why not?”
On April 12 Holmes turned down my request to view the human remains.
“The Peruvian Mummy is in our possession and has been since 1923. It is not the policy of the museum to allow members of the general public to view any of our stored collection.”
I wasn’t asking as a member of the general public but as a longtime member of the press. In the past, though, members of the general public have viewed the Peruvian mummy when the museum put the remains on display, pairing them with the National Collegiate Athletic Association college basketball tournament played in March.
In 2019, then museum Executive Director Aurore Giguet issued a press release announcing that “the Everhart Museum will be bringing its Peruvian mummy out of storage” to “Experience March Madness at the Everhart Museum—with a Mummy!”
The press release said, “Starting March 9, and for a short time only, the Everhart Museum will be bringing its Peruvian mummy out of storage as part of the exhibition Preserved: Traditions of the Andes… very little is known about the mummy although it has been identified as belonging to the Paracas culture one of the oldest cultures of South America dating back to 800 – 100 B.C. The mummy was last on view in the 1990s.”
On May 11 I sent Giguet an email at her current job at an Oregon college asking when she last saw the mummy. I told her about my communication with Holmes and followed up with a telephone message to her office. Giguet failed to respond to my questions.
The Everhart Museum also shared access to the mummy in 2019 when Geisinger Community Medical Center officials in Scranton studied the remains. A Geisinger press release that included photographs of the mummy said they were using modern technology to “bring life” to the mummy. Holmes failed to respond to my request for photographs the museum’s March Madness press release said were available to the press.
Everhart Museum Board of Trustees Chair-Elect Alex Molfetas said he also never saw the Peruvian mummy but heard stories about the mummy or a “shrunken head or something.” Although Holmes wrote in an email he spoke to board members who rejected my request to view the mummy’s remains, Molfetas said he could “not recall” Holmes asking him about my request.
Realtor and Everhart Board of Trustees First Vice Chair Joyce Lomma said she saw the mummy years ago but doesn’t “remember what it looks like.” Having served as a trustee for many years Lomma said she recently stepped away from duties at the museum because of health issues although she remains a trustee. She said she “can’t answer” any questions about whether the museum should possess a Peruvian mummy and suggested I call Scranton attorney Caroline Munley.
I had already forwarded my email thread with Holmes to attorney Munley whose name appears on the museum website as the Board of Trustees Chair. Munley failed to respond. I also left a telephone message with a staffer at Munley’s law office. Munley again failed to respond to my questions, including whether she or members of her law firm represent the museum in any way.
I also sent an email to former Everhart Board Chair and Lackawanna County Solicitor Donald Frederickson Jr.
“Have you seen the human remains?” I wrote. “My understanding is that possession of a Peruvian mummy without Peruvian government authorization and proper documentation is illegal. The Everhart Museum apparently has no such documentation. Do you believe possession of this Peruvian mummy is against state, federal or international law?”
Frederickson failed to respond to my email.
Even if past Everhart administrators tried and failed to repatriate the Peruvian mummy and Peruvian authorities refused to accept the human remains, nobody with authority or conscience followed up by doing what was right. Nobody tried to locate a suitable burial ground and arrange a simple ceremony to reverentially re-inter the remains. Nobody said a prayer or offered a blessing the way Pope Francis did in Rome when he solemnly repatriated the Vatican mummies.
Nobody.
Because, in Scranton, experiencing March Madness with a mummy at the Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art meant more than respecting the timeless legacy of the dead.
