Mummies in the 1830's

A somewhat left-field subject for the 'jar, I know. But here it is: The presence of Egyptian mummies in popular entertainment goes all the way back to the 1830's and before, says W.T. Lhamon in his introduction to the Daddy Rice play, VIRGINIA MUMMY (collected in his book, Jump Jim Crow.) There were 'doctors' who used to go around unwrapping them in public, a process that wasn't quite as easy as it might seem, requiring 'levers' in one report.

And below is an 1835 apothecary receipt from New Market, Virginia, for various supplies and medications, including 1 oz Mummy...  Medicinal mummy dust, supposedly from pulverized Egyptian mummies, was thought to be a medical tonic, revitalizer, and useful against contusions. From this site.



Lhamon suggests that Rice took advantage of the new Western obsession with Mummies in the creation of his 1835 Virginia Mummy play. He describes the plot as follows:

A scientist, Dr. Galen, bans a young souldier, Captain Rifle, from courting the scientist's ward. When Rifle sees Galen's newspaper advertisement for a mummy, the soldier hires a voluble black hotel waiter, Ginger Blue, to hold his tongue and dress as a decoy. Rifle masquerades as the mummy's Egyptian owner: in that way they penetrate the household so that Rifle can court young Lucy, the ward. Rifle and Lucy immediately cavort offstage, leaving Ginger Blue centred on stage with his multiple masks and disguises to adopt, adapt, and shuck as necessary. The differences between VIRGINIA MUMMY and [the play from which it was adapted], then, stemmed from Virginia Blue's blackness: his sly assessments of leverage, nimble defences, and winning aggressions.



We're also told that this was a popular and longlasting play, and that it was picked up by other performers, the most notable being the famous British Shakespearean actor Ira Aldridge (above.) Perhaps then this odd notion of the black man bound like a mummy in white society was a resonant one for Aldridge. Or for his white audiences anyway.