Manchester University Press

Unburied - Hannah Priest

The macabre tale of an eighteenth-century woman immortalised in folklore as the ?Manchester Mummy?. In 1835, the Manchester Natural History Society opened the doors of its museum. Taking pride of place in its collection were three mummies: one was Egyptian, one was Peruvian and one was a woman from Cheetham Hill. This is the first time the true story of Hannah Beswick, the so-called ?Manchester Mummy?, has been told. Over the years, explanations for the Manchester Mummy have ranged from the chilling ? Hannah?s fear of being buried alive ? to the downright bizarre ? the legend of her buried gold ? but the truth is more complex.Exploring this fascinating episode from museum history, Unburied sheds light on the Victorian turn to the macabre and changing attitudes to the display of human remains. It debunks the legends and asks what Hannah Beswick can tell us about death and dying, mummies and museums.

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