Thomas Pettigrew

Who was Thomas Pettigrew?

Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, sometimes known as "Mummy" Pettigrew, was a surgeon and antiquarian who became an expert on Ancient Egyptian mummies. He became well known in London social circles for his private parties in which he unrolled and autopsied mummies for the entertainment of his guests.

Born in London in 1791, Thomas Pettigrew took medical studies, first as assistant to his father, who was a naval surgeon, and later as an apprentice at the Borough Hospitals. He had a distinguished medical career, becoming surgeon to the Duke of Kent and the Duke of Sussex. Pettigrew played an active role in intellectual Georgian and Victorian society, corresponding regularly with many well known surgeons, physicians, scientists, writers and artists, such as John Coakley Lettsom, Astley Cooper, Michael Faraday, George Cruikshank and Charles Dickens.

From the 1830s on, Pettigrew increasingly focused on private practice and his antiquarian interests. He developed an interest in Egyptian mummies, and in 1834 published History of Egyptian Mummies, which has been described as "the historic cornerstone of the study in English".