- The “Dummy Mummy” is a famous fake “Egyptian princess” mummy in Mississippi acquired by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History in 1923 as part of a large collection.
‘Tis the season for all things spooky. It’s easy to spot the decorated lawns and aisles of candy on store shelves. But hidden away most of the year in a storage room at Mississippi’s Old Capitol Museum in Jackson is an oddity that has fascinated those who have seen it for many decades.
The “Dummy Mummy” is a quirky mix of history, hoax, and folklore.
Mummies Amongst Us
The practice of embalming bodies with preservatives for burial is believed to be an ancient Egyptian practice. Arguably, the most famous mummy was Egypt’s King Tutankhamun, discovered in a pyramid and sent to the United States, where people lined up and paid to see the magnificent sight.
The practice of mummification involved removing the internal organs, treating the body with a special resin, and wrapping it head to toe in linen bandages. Egypt wasn’t the only place where mummification was practiced. People living along the Torres Strait, the Incas of South America, Papua New Guinea, and Australia all used the macabre method of body preservation.
There was a black market for mummies in Europe into the 18th century, and over time, many found their way to the United States where they were displayed as ancient artifacts.
Other mummies in the United States were discovered by accident, such as the one found in the San Pedro Mountains of Carbon County, Wyoming, in 1932. Two prospectors blasted through thick rock to reach a large vein of gold. In doing so, they discovered a small room built into the rocks, and inside they found the mummy of a tiny person.
In Nevada, the Spirit Cave Mummy was discovered by archaeologists Georgia and Sydney Wheeler. It is believed to be the oldest human mummy found in North America.
Perhaps the spookiest of the known mummies in the United States are the two found in the bathroom at the Barbour County Historical Museum in Philippi, West Virginia. Legend has it that farmer Graham Hamrick brought two female cadavers from the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane in 1888. Hamrick was a Dr. Frankenstein of sorts, who enjoyed practicing science on the side. He mummified the bodies, and they can now be viewed in their glass-topped wooden coffins for one dollar.
The Dummy Mummy in Mississippi
The mummy was purchased along with other antiquities from the heirs of Brevoort Butler Jr. of Yazoo City. The mummy was displayed at the Mississippi State Capitol throughout the 1950s. When the building was closed, restored, and reopened as a Mississippi history museum, the mummy went into storage because it was not deemed to be an important piece of Mississippi history. The “Dummy Mummy” is a famous fake “Egyptian princess” mummy in Mississippi acquired by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) in 1923 as part of a large collection.
The mummy was rediscovered in 1969. A student at the University of Mississippi Medical School was allowed to X-ray the mummy for a class project, and the scans revealed the sad truth about the mummy. It was not an authentic Egyptian burial after all. Instead, it was discovered to be made of papier-mache with wooden framing, nails, animal bones, and newspaper fragments, including a German-language paper and an 1898 Milwaukee Journal.
Charlotte Capers, then director of MDAH, later described the mummy as “a very fine fake” that had fooled the public for about 50 years. Despite being a hoax, the ”Dummy Mummy” became a folk legend and a source of amusement for generations of Mississippi children. Regardless of its deception, the mummy remains one of Mississippi’s most famous and beloved artifacts.
Current Display
For the 2026 Halloween season, the Dummy Mummy is on display at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson in a cloth‑lined black wooden coffin, through the end of October, before returning to storage on November 1. Visitors can see it free of charge at the Old Capitol Museum in Jackson during its regular hours.
The “Dummy Mummy” has a dedicated page in the Mississippi Encyclopedia.
