Restored Mummy Goes Home to Mass General

A 2600 year-old resident of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) returned home last week after a two-and-half-year absence for a facelift.

Padihershef, the resident Egyptian mummy at MGH since 1823, has spent the last few years as a celebrity guest at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum in Springfield as part of an exhibit celebrating the common man in ancient Egypt.

While away from home, Padihershef underwent restorations to his wrappings and face.

"He's a new mummy," said Martin S. Bander, Hospital Archivist. "He's in the same sort of pristine condition that he was probably in centuries ago."

Nicknamed Padi, the mummy has many friends around the hospital, and people are excited to have him back, Bander said. Hospital workers had begun to doubt that Padi was destined to come home due to his long absence, Bander said. "With his return everybody has collectively sighed in relief."

"It's happy to have him back so he can keep an eye on things around here," said Dr. Robert M. Neer '57, associate professor of medicine.

Padi is thought to be the first Egyptian mummy to come to the United States with its complete burial set. He arrived at MGH in 1823 as the gift of a Dutch merchant, Jacob Van Lennep, an MGH spokesman said.

While on the road, the mummy was subjected to extensive cleaning procedures which involved steaming and rewrapping his linens, removing mold fromhis exposed face, and fumigating to get rid ofinsect infestations, said Emil Schnorr, the ChiefConservator at the Smith Museum who did therestorations.

Schnorr also did a complete dental job on Padito put the shine back into his teeth, andreattached his head, which had become loosened.

Schnor attributed Padi's youthful condition tothe good shape he was in even before therestorations.

"He's one of the best preserved [mummies] Iever looked at," he said. "Sometimes mummies lookgruesome, and he looked fine. He definitely lookedlike a human being."

The Smith Museum performed the expensiverestorations at no charge to MGH in exchange forthe loan of the mummy to the exhibition, Bandersaid.

At the Smith Museum, Padi was also reunitedwith his outer coffin, which was lost in the late19th century. The coffin ultimately turned up atthe Smith Museum where researchers recentlydiscovered that it belonged to the MGH mummy.

During the the first four weeks of the exhibit,more than 20,000 fans visited Padi, whomresearchers have determined was a stone cutter inthe sixth century B.C. Although the number ofvisitors slacked off slightly later on during theexhibit, museum officials remained surprised atthe enthusiastic public response, Schnorr said.

"I think people were just fascinated by seeingsomething which was [so old] and could still berecognized as [a human being]," Schnorr said.

Padi made the return trip to MGH last Tuesdayprotected by a bubble apparatus designed totransport nuclear war victims.

"It's sort of a strange dichotomy--an ancientman being transported in a twenty-first centurydevice," said another MGH employee.

The mummy currently stands in the Ether Dome atMGH as a symbol of Egyptian medicine. From thatlocation, he has witnessed many medicalmilestones, including the first publicdemonstration of anaesthesia in 1846