And using two cadavers from the local insane asylum, he succeeded. Two mummies, in glass-topped wooden coffins, are displayed in the Philippi Museum bathroom. You can see them for a dollar a peek. When Hamrick died, the mummies toured Europe with P.T. Barnum. After they became passe on the circus circuit, they returned to Philippi, got lost for a few decades, were found in a barn, then were stored under the bed of a local citizen.
Mummies soak up some rays in Philippi, West Virginia.
A man secured some kind of a mixture that would get the green mold off them and also the hairs that were growing on them. Today, air wick disks in the coffins help stave off the aromas of time. During our visit, appreciative retirees up from Florida are shown the mummies by their friends who live nearby. Despite the acclaim showered on the town by its most permanent residents, the mayor of Philippi has never visited the museum. And though he promised to be here to meet us, he never showed.