The British Museum

June 10, 2008

I was randomly browsing a few of the different websites suggested for the project today to avoid the oppressive heat outside.  The John F. Kennedy site seemed too obvious.  I grew up and lived the better half of my adult life in the greater Boston area, in places like West Roxbury, Quincy, and Brighton.  So I moved on to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, which I initially found interesting, but the site was difficult to maneuver, and there didn’t seem to be any easy way to view the artwork up close.  I checked out the NYPL Digital Gallery, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Met and the MFA Boston, all with little or no interest in any of the links within the site.  I decided to try an oversea museum, and found myself on The British Museum website at www.britishmuseum.org which is copyrighted by the Trustees of the British Museum.  The main page entices you to immediately search further with links to explore different exhibitions like “The American Scene” and “China Landscape”.  The tabs at the tops of the page to navigate the site had titles such as “Explore” and “What’s On”.  I found myself interested more than I had been in any of the other sites, and I quickly remembered my sister and brother in law raving about the British Museum after a vacation to England and Ireland.  Admission to the museum is free, which they found of great value since they were flat broke from paying for the trip to get there!  I clicked on the tab labeled “Explore”, and was immediately directed to a new page full of online tours ranging from Babylonian history to Roman Empire artifacts to a link that was labeled “Explore/Families and Children”.  Since I am home today with two young children bored out of their skulls because it’s too hot to play outside, I invited them over to take a look.  The subtitle reads “Journey into the mummy” and has a picture of an Egyptian man’s head made from clay.  As we explored further we learned that his name is Nesperennub whose mummy case has been at the museum for over 100 years and never opened.  We were able to journey into the mummy on the following pages thanks to modern technology like photographic imagery, X-ray, CT scans and forensic sciences.  We continued to learn that Nesperennub was about 40 years old when he died, which is a normal age for Egyptian men of his time to die, and that he most likely died of an illness such as a brain tumour or cancer which left a strange, small hole over his left eye.  A slideshow of images with descriptions below it followed with each click of the mouse over the “Next” icon, I was fascinated by this ancient man and how he was preserved and buried after his death.  The kids lost interest quickly and went to play, while I continued to click away and learn more about my new friend.