"WILKOMMEN" TO PER-SESHEN
CREDITS
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The mummy project is currently my most active endeavor, both in doing research and in presenting the fruits of my labors. 
I have signed a contract with McFarland Publishing Co. to publish the mummy book, working title is "Egyptian Mummies in Victorian America." The manuscript is due to them 31 Jan. 2009, but hopefully I will be done much sooner than that.
The mummy database at this moment, has 1249 entries in it  (representing at least 550 individuals) and is growing.
We are hoping to mount this on Jim Deem's "Mummytombs" website within the next year.
 And I am consulting on a collaborative critical history of "mummy literature" from the 17th century through 1900
 "The Mummy Speaks" with Jasmine Day and Robert Singerman,
David Rawson and others.
I hope also to finish this year (with Robert Singerman)
 the bibliography of paper mills and papermaking
 which is now over 700 pages but finally winding down!
I continue to work on a microhistory of two ship captains,
Larkin Turner and Larkin Thorndike Lee,
each of whom brought a mummy to America in 1824.
Part of the microhistory is the historically accurate
 recreation of a 19th century ship captain's house in 1:12 scale, based on estate inventories and wills.
For pictures of the Captain Ober Larken house,
or my other miniatures projects, please click on the link to the Miniatures page.

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AAS

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NEADY CATS

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MummyTombs

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Associations

Archaeological Institute of America

American Library Association (RBMS division and Association of College and Research Libraries)

American Mensa, Ltd.

American Research Center in Egypt--Boston Chapter.

Association for the Study of Travel in the Ancient Near East

Chief Librarian, Republic of Boon Island

Historic New England

Intertel

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

National Rifle Association

New England Historical Association

Northeast Popular Culture Association

Smithsonian Associate

Society for Creative Anachronism

Society for Historic Preservation

Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publication

Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities

Tower Hill Botanic Garden

      Worcester Area Cooperating Libraries

      Worcester Art Museum

      Worcester Historical Museum

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RECENT PAPERS, INTERVIEWS AND PUBLICATIONS

2008--"Admission Twenty-Five Cents--Children Half-Price; Exhibiting Egyptian Mummies in Nineteenth Century America",  in Life on the Street and Commons, 1600 to the Present  (Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife Annual Proceedings 2005), pp. 124-141.

2008—Mummies, Mummies Everywhere; Or, Just Call Me Indiana Wolfe”—lecture and powerpoint presentation for the Wheeler Family Association, 17 August 2008.

2008—Mummies, Mummies Everywhere; Or, Just Call Me Indiana Wolfe”—lecture and powerpoint presentation at the American Antiquarian Society, 25 July 2008.

2007—“Heritage Expert Analyzes Exhibition of Tutankhamun’s Mummy.”—interview with Joyce Zhu, 11 Nov. 2007 in Shanghai Evening Post.

2007—“What Shall We Do Today, My Dear? Popular Entertainment in Victorian America.”--article in The Readex Report 2:4 (Winter 2007)

2007—Mummy Mania in 19th Century New England: Putting the Middlebury Mummy in Context.”—lecture and PowerPoint presentation at Henry Sheldon Museum, Middlebury, Vt., 27 Oct. 2007.

2007—“Mummy-Mania!”—talk , PowerPoint presentation and activities for children at Henry Sheldon Museum,. Middlebury, Vt., 27 Oct. 2007.

2007—“Curry Chicken Peanut Soup”—honorable mention in the 2007 recipe contest, The Old Farmer’s almanac … 2008 , p. 172.

2007—“Mummymania in Victorian America.”—lecture and PowerPoint presentation given 20 June 2007 before Prof. David’s Rawson’s  American History survey class at Anna Maria College, Paxton, Mass.

2007—“The Great Mummy Mystery and the Paper Industry.”—paper read at the Washburn Humanities Seminar, Norlands, Livermore, Me., 16 June 2007.

2007—“Wood’s Museum Connection to the Niagara Falls Mummy.”—in Reader’s Forum, KMT 18:2 (Summer 2007), 6-7.

2007—“Blaming the Mummies; Miasma and Pestilence in Late Nineteenth-Century New England Papermaking towns.”—Paper and PowerPoint presentation as part of the panel “DISEASE IN HISTORY--Law, Health and the City” at the New England Historical Association Conference, Southern New Hampshire University, 5 May, 2007.

2007—“Searching Virginia History at the American Antiquarian Society.”—Poster and PowerPoint demonstration at the Second Virginia Forum, State Library of Virginia, 13 April 2007.

2006—"And it May Be Viewed By the Most Delicate Female; A Short History of theEgyptian Mummy in Victorian America.”—Lecture and PowerPoint presentation at Albertus Magnus College, 17 November 2006.

2006—“Yoga for Improved Function and Outlook On Life.”—short article in “Therapies That Work” section,  Newsletter (Fibromyalgia Network) Fall, 2006.

2006—“Rags to Riches.”—interview and magazine article, in “North by East” section, DownEast, October 2006.

2006—“Jackasses, Dogs and Dead Chickens: Vignettes of the Civil War Revealed in Ephemera.”—article in The Readex Report, Sept. (Fall) 2006.

2006—“What Do Ancient Egyptians and Maine Papermaking Have in Common.”—interview on Maine Public Radio, 19 July 2006.

2006—“Mummy Wrappings Used by Papermills.”—interview and newspaper story with Keith Edwards, Morning Sentinel  (Augusta, Me.),  19 July 2006.

2006—“Unwrapping History.”—interview and newspapers story with Keith Edwards, Kennebec Journal (Augusta, Me.),  19 July 2006.

2006--"I. Augustus Stanwood Had a Papermill in Maine; The Enduring Story of Mummy Paper."--Talk and Power-Point presentation for the Kennebec Historical Society, at Christ Church, Gardiner, Maine, 19 July 2006.

2006--"This Way To the Mummies"--Talk and lecture on Egyptial burial practices given before cub scout troops, 17 March, 2006.

 

For a list of papers, presentations, projects and exhibitions before 2006, please contact me and I will send you a copy of my very long vita.

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Volunteer Activities

My husband and I volunteer at NEADY Cats/Cats in Need (Princeton, Mass.), where we do socialization of abandoned, newborn and feral cats in a no-kill shelter environment. Two of our current furry cat children were NEADY kittens. To see pictures of our four-footed kits, please click on the Katzengesicht page. To learn more about NEADY Cats, please click on the NEADY Cats link.

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perseshen@earthlink.net