Victorians Had Unwrapping Parties
The Victorians really had what can only be described as a lack of tact. How else would you explain their unwrapping parties, which now seem to be in very poor taste? At such a party, the host would buy a mummy, freshly imported from an Egyptian tomb by some excavation or other. Then they would invite all of their guests for an evening of the most popular entertainment around. They would all unwrap it together for some truly ghoulish fun. The audience would be clapping and cheering as each strip of linen came away. The people of the time did not know, or perhaps did not care, how much damage would be done to the mummy as it came into contact with the open air for the first time. These irreplaceable artefacts were thus damaged and even completely destroyed. Imagine having a party to open a grave and dig up a skeleton – it’s beyond thinking about in modern times.