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In photos: Memories of mummies and antiquities at Marischal College Museum

For a century, Marischal Museum was a true treasure trove of artefacts and antiquities right in the heart of Aberdeen, ranging from Egyptian mummies, whale-bone carvings and surgeons' instruments.

Technician George Hepburn at work cleaning the grime off the mummies' coffins with bread in 1981. Image: DC Thomson
Technician George Hepburn at work cleaning the grime off the mummies' coffins with bread in 1981. Image: DC Thomson

For just over 100 years, Marischal Museum was home to Egyptian mummies and other anthropological artefacts that brought ancient civilisations to the centre of Aberdeen.

While many Aberdonians will remember the famous mummies, other curios included shrunken heads, Chinese war drums, tattooed Maori heads and an 300-year-old Inuit canoe found in the River Don.

Stepping into Marischal Museum was stepping back into the ancient histories of Greece, the Middle East – and the mysterious depths of the ocean.

The museum in Marischal College, with its cache of collectables, opened in 1907.

The interior of Marishal Museum in Marischal College in the mid-20th Century. Image: DC Thomson

The man behind Marischal Museum, and how it came to be

An anthropological museum in Aberdeen was first proposed by Sir William McGregor in 1899.

An illustrious former graduate of the University of Aberdeen, McGregor came from humble beginnings as a crofter’s son in Towie, but went on to be the Governor of Queensland in Australia.

He was educated at a local manse, and went on to study at Aberdeen Grammar School after village schoolmaster and doctor realised his potential.

From there McGregor enrolled at the University of Aberdeen to study medicine, in a career that took him to the Seychelles, Fiji and beyond.

Throughout his travels he collected, or was given items, and the Press and Journal reported how in 1899 he “had gifted a number of specimens” to establish a museum.

1981: Graphic designer Morna Whyte with one of the Egyptian mummies on show at Marischal College. Image: DC Thomson

It was another few years before the museum was opened to the public, displaying priceless pieces gifted or loaned by staff, graduates and friends of the university.

The Marischal Museum mummies – where did they come from?

The mummies in Marischal College were acquired by wealthy Aberdeen man Sir Charles Forbes who travelled to Egypt and India.

When he returned to Scotland in 1811, he brought the mummy of Ta-Kheru and her two coffins with him and donated them to the university museum.

Ta-Kheru was born around 750BC, the daughter of an aristocrat in the city Thebes, Egypt.

When she died in old age, she was mummified and placed in a tomb where she remained for 2500 years.

In the two centuries since arriving in Aberdeen, Ta-Kheru has been part of touring exhibitions around the world, but will be remembered by generations of Aberdeen schoolchildren.

A hidden gem in Aberdeen, the museum was popular with school groups until it closed to the public in 2008.

The space at Marischal College now operates as a collection centre with a conservation laboratory and stores, but a full record of the objects is available online.

Gallery: Marischal Museum over the years

1981: Museum secretary Maud Blair holds a Gambian kora, a travelling poet’s instrument, from the late 19th or early 20th Century. At her side is an Abyssian Acordophone from the early part of this century. Image: DC Thomson
1982: Jim Inglis, kneeling centre, shows a Gregory’s reflecting telescope, made around 1740, to five-year-old Fiona Geddes. Also in the picture is a Matthew Guild Sword which was made in Aberdeen about 1630. The two items were part of an exhibition illustrating the history of Marischal College. Image: DC Thomson
1991: Marischal College museum’s then-assistant curator Neil Curtis with the 1796 Royal Scots Light Cavalry sabre donated to the museum. Image: DC Thomson
1981: Technician George Hepburn at work cleaning the mummies. He was carefully cleaning the coffin walls with bread before the museum opened that summer. Image: DC Thomson
1988: Jennie Hay, museum assistant at Marischal College Museum, pictured with the key to Fedderate Castle, New Deer. Image: DC Thomson
1992: Melissa Low, 11, from Kittybrewster Primary School, tries out a flint pistol on Paul Reynolds, 11, at the launch of an appeal at Aberdeen’s Marischal Museum. The museum hoped to raise £52,000 in sponsorship for a new activity area which would combine the functions of a classroom with a facility for film and musical presentation for children and family groups. Image: DC Thomson
1981: Monster memories… examining a mould of a dinosaur’s footprint are, from left, Marischal College museum secretary Maude Blair and students, Alan Evans and Sheila Flett. The footprint was one of the exhibits at the Treasures of the Earth exhibition. Image: DC Thomson
1983: Susan McPetrie found the Anthropological Exhibition hard work when she tried out an old saddle quern for grinding corn. Image: DC Thomson
1981: Senior technician at Aberdeen University’s Anthropological Museum, Marischal College, George McDonald, shows a whale ivory breast ornament to Helen Geddes. The ornament was one of the rarest pieces in a visiting Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition. The ivory ornament was probably worn round the neck of a priest, and was collected by William MacGregor, an explorer from Donside, in the 1870s. Image: DC Thomson
1990: Mr Inglis shows details of a lamp from the museum’s Encyclopaedia of the North-east exhibition. Left to right, they are Neil Gray, 12,, his sister Lois, 4, and brother Philip, 10. Image: DC Thomson
1992: Steven Taylor and Lynn Muir, both 11, get to grips with spears in front of a 19th century Indian chief from Canada’s Tsimshiam tribe. Image: DC Thomson
1992: Exploring the wonders of Aberdeen’s Marischal College Museum were Louise Mitchell, 8, and Claire Tewnyn, 8, of Auchterellon Primary School, Ellon. Image: DC Thomson
1989: Marischal Museum then-assistant Neil Curtis preparing a cloth kit of Army surgeon’s instruments for The Red Bandage of Courage. In 1889 a group of students and staff got together in Marischal College, and founded a voluntary Army medical unit. The fortunes of the Royal Army Medical Corps (Volunteers) in Aberdeen was traced in a fascinating exhibition in the Marischal Museum. Image: DC Thomson

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