Niagara Falls Museum - People Associated With The Museum

People Associated With The Museum

Thomas Barnett was the original founder of the Niagara Falls Museum. He arrived from England in the 1820s and housed his collection of taxidermy and curiotities in a former brewery in Niagara Falls, Ontario before erecting a building at the base of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

Sydney Barnett was the founder's son who purchased and brought back from Egypt some of the mummies the museum is now famous for returning to Dr Hawass of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities. An avid taxidermist like his father, he organized some of the museum's public events including the Wild West themed attractions.

Dr. J. Douglas of Montreal accompanied Sydney Barnett to Egypt.

Saul Davis purchased the museum in 1878 and included in it an art gallery. The museum was then moved to the American side of the Niagara Falls.

The Sherman family sold the museum's collection in 1999 to a Canadian entrepreneur, William Jamieson.

William Jamieson (died July 3, 2011) was the current owner of part of the museum's remaining original collection. Jamieson was a collector and dealer of tribal art with an impressive collection of shrunken heads among other curiosities. Jamieson sold the Egyptian artifacts in the museum's collection, namely the mummies, to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Researchers at Emory University used CT scans, X-rays, skull measurements and radio-carbon dating tests to determine the identity of Ramses I which has yet to be confirmed by Egyptian experts.

It was confirmed to be the mummy of Ramses and the mummy has been moved back to Egypt housed in its own museum, the Mummy had been missing for over 150 years, and 140 years of such time it had been hiding in Niagra Falls Canada unknown to anyone!