The Niagara Falls Museum

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Niagara Falls Museum was opened by Thomas Barnett of Birmingham, England, who moved to Canada in the early 1820s and opened the museum in 1827.

It is Canada's oldest museum and is notable for housing the mummy of Pharaoh Ramesses I until the body, was carefully studied, and finally returned to Egypt in October 2003. According to current theory, his mummy was stolen by the Abu-Rassul family of grave robbers and brought to North America around 1860 by Dr. James Douglas. It was then placed in what was then known as the "Niagara Museum and Daredevil Hall of Fame." Ramesses I remained there, his identity unknown, next to other curiosities and so-called freaks of nature for more than 130 years. When the owner of the museum decided to sell his property, Canadian businessman William Jamieson purchased the contents of the museum. In 1999, Jamieson sold the Egypitian artifacts in the collection, including the various mummies, to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia for US $2 million. Present technology has not yet conclusively determined it to be Ramesses I, but researchers at Emory University used CT scans, X-rays, skull measurements and radio-carbon dating tests as strong evidence of its identity.