Museum of Us
Anthropology collections spanning two million objects, including painted Egyptian coffins funded by a subscription-driven excavation society.
This guide to the Museum of Us in San Diego traces a painted wooden coffin back to Ellen Browning Scripps, who never set foot in Egypt but bankrolled the cash-strapped Egypt Exploration Society's digs at Amarna, Abydos, and Armant through the 1920s and 1930s as a subscriber, later serving as the society's honorary secretary for California. You'll hear how those subscription-funded excavations divided their finds among universities, the British Museum, and this hilltop museum built for a world's fair. Look closely at the case in front of you and consider the distance the coffin traveled to get there.
Audio guides are written and narrated by AI.