NIAGARA FALLS TO ATLANTA

• The Egyptian Gallery contains a most interesting collection of Egyptian Antiquities and Casts of the principal curios ever discovered in that country. The Mummies are the only ones of Royal Personages exhibited in America. One of the three is the only perfect specimen in the world.

Brochures for the now-defunct Niagara Falls Museum touted not just its Egyptian collection, but also "The most interesting collection of deformities in the world. Some of the most wonderful Freaks of Nature you will ever have the opportunity of viewing, Etc." The museum, founded in 1827 by Canadian natural history enthusiast Thomas Barnett, was first housed in an old brewery. As it grew, it added to its holdings a shell and coral collection made by Harvard biologist Louis Agassiz, a humpback whale skeleton, a 77-foot diameter slab of a redwood tree trunk displayed at the 1901 Pan American Exposition, a saddle used by Wild Bill Hicock, a five-legged pig and two-headed calf, and barrels used by daredevils who braved the falls.

Most of the mummies and coffins were purchased in Egypt by a Montreal physician named James Douglas, who then sold them to Sidney Bamett, the museum founder's son, who acquired Egyptian objects to appeal to the public's growing interest in the land of the pharaohs. Douglas recorded in his 1860 journal that he dealt with Mustafa Aga Ayat. The consular agent for Britain, Belgium, and Russia, Ayat was a key figure in the antiquities trade at Luxor in the mid-nineteenth century Taking advantage of his diplomatic immunity, he acted as a go-between for wealthy tourists and tomb robbers like the Rassul brothers, whose illicit discoveries included a cache of royal mummies at Deir el-Bahri near the Valley of the Kings.

Over the years, the museum changed hands and locations, its last home being the Spriella Corset Factory. But the introduction of casino gambling brought prosperity to Niagara Falls, and the property's increasing value led the museum's owner to sell it.

Emory's acquisition of the collection was made possible by public support from the Georgia community. In the fall of 1998, Canadian businessman Bill Jamieson, who had purchased the museum's collections, announced he was selling the Egyptian antiquities for $2 million. No Canadian museum stepped forward to purchase them, and that November we went to inspect them. We were amazed by the collection's extent and quality, and Anthony Hirschel, director of the Carlos Museum, and the board of trustees backed its acquisition. With a deadline of seven weeks to raise the money, we received a $250,000 grant early on from the Forward Arts Foundation, an Atlanta-based organization that supports the arts in Georgia. But we were running out of time and had to appeal to the public with the help of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Eventually more than 300 people contributed-from school children, to Atlantans who pitched in $10, to a museum docent who passed the hat among friends and netted $15,000. In March 1999, the sale was completed and two months later, the collection traveled to its new home.