Mummies at the museum trigger more ideas

The museum is only small but it has lots to see including a small aquarium with very unusual freshwater fish including species from Madagascar - more photos for my website!
In keeping with the South American theme there was also a really strange green knifefish (related to the electric eel apparantly) from the Amazon and piranhas.
The main part of the museum includes displays from different parts of the world - so I was in my element. I will have to go back to study the fabulous Oceania section in more depth as it had very interesting pieces from Australia and Papua New Guinea on show. Among the other displays was one on South America and one on Africa which were fascinating. The displays are very cleverly set out with a mixture of artefacts and taxidermy. One item which got my story-head whirling was a flying fish from PNG which was given to the museum after being found on a boat that landed at Liverpool Docks.
The Egyptian exhibition was very good too and I was fascinated by the animal mummies - which again could turn up in a story or book one day. I would like to do a Dr Midas book set in Egypt but I think it would be really difficult to write an original story set there.

The Peruvian mummy bundle
The highlight of my trip was the Peruvian mummy and a mummy bundle in a very small space called the Up Close Gallery. They had used tinted glass so the mummy couldn't be seen from outside. Not everyone is comfortable with real human remains being on display but the museum have clearly done their best to be sensitive. The mummy itself was preserved at the time with a resin which was transported across the ocean 7,000 miles from Papua New Guinea, incredible.
A second mummy is inside the bundle - thick wrappings with a 'fake head' on top. The displays include x-rays of the skeleton inside.
Finally one of the exhibits that had the biggest impact on me was this photograph of the previous museum in Bolton, The Chadwick which was demolished after World War II.

I have spent some time drawing the different levels inside the museum where Dr Midas works, planning the location of the many exhibitions - even the location of stairs to make sure my story is accurate when characters are moving from room to room.
In the first book I explain the museum has a glass frontage and in my head was modern looking - but I was so taken with this image that I think the frontage could be on a not disimilar older building. I think I'm going to have to have a lot at my descriptions again - lol.

* The Peruvian Mummies Unravelled exhibition runs from Saturday May 3 to Saturday August 2.
Bolton Museum and Archives service is open Monday to Saturday 09:00am to 5:00pm and is closed Sundays and Bank Holidays. Admission is free.
http://www.boltonmuseums.org.uk/