Did you know Dayton has a mummy in residence?

Daytonian Joseph Morton Howell was born on a farm in 1863. He had a prosperous career in medicine specializing in childhood diseases. His interest in Egyptology led to Dayton getting its own mummy in 1926. Howell gifted the mummy of Nesiur (pronounced Nessy-ur) to the Dayton Society of Natural History, who displayed Nesiur in the Dayton Museum of Natural History (predecessor of Boonshoft Museum of Discovery).

Nesiur was excavated by famous Egyptologist Herbert Winlock in 1922. She was originally buried in a cemetery west of Thebes. She was 5 foot 1 inches, and died between the ages of 18-22. Her cause of death is unknown and there are no artifacts or jewelry inside her wrappings, suggesting she was a commoner.

Hieroglyphs on her coffin are a prayer that reads “May the King give an offering to Osiris, the great god, lord of Abydos, that he may give provisions and food to Nesiur.”