One tough cowboy

Sylvester is an amazing mummy. He stands in a display case at Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe in Seattle, Washington, which is half museum and half gift shop. We worked on him in the store surrounded by tourists and visitors. His state of preservation is truly remarkable. Other experts who have seen pictures of Sylvester thought he was a fake, just as we initially did.

He seemed too heavy, about 55kg, to be real; he was too shiny, and he appeared to be wet. In the display case, there was residue under his feet. Such factors suggest that he is not completely dry. But the first x-ray revealed dense internal organs, so this was no fake.

When we had Sylvester's skin and hair analysed, we expected to find some kind of varnish on the surface. We thought that this might explain why he was so shiny. There was none. What was there in abundance was arsenic.

Arsenic was once used to halt the natural process of decomposition which destroys human bodies, leaving only a skeleton. Generally speaking, bacteria in the gut begin the decomposition process. Later, they spread to the chest and pelvic cavities. Also, externally, insects may lay their eggs on, in or near natural body openings such as the nose, eyes and mouth. Arsenic helps avert decomposition by killing bacteria and insects.

The interesting thing about Sylvester is that he is not dry, and the arsenic used continues to keep decomposition at bay. In the United States, arsenic was used near the end of the civil war of the 1860s, preserving officers killed in action for the trip home and a proper funeral. The use of arsenic faded in the early 1900s because it was too poisonous.

Who put Sylvester into the arsenic one day in the late 19th century is unknown but the motive was to preserve him for fairground display, to make a buck. Maybe a showman did it, maybe a business man who sold bodies to sideshows.

Sylvester is called a cowboy because that is the story that was concocted to bring people in to see him. The tale was that he was a bad man who was shot dead in the desert and supposedly dried in the sands near Gila Bend, Arizona.

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Sylvester, mummy at Ye Olde Curiosity Shop in Seattle, WA

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