Seattle tutankhamun exhibit

United States President Richard Nixon , just a few months shy of his abrupt departure from office, traveled to Egypt to negotiate a bilateral agreement with that country's President Anwar Sadat Along with addressing other matters, such as peace in the Middle East, the pact included provision for an American tour of artifacts from the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun ca.

In exchange, the United States would remit a share of retail sales to Egypt to help renovate the Cairo Museum, the home of the Tut trove. The third president involved was Gerald Ford , who succeeded to the office following Nixon's resignation and signed the Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Act in , overcoming a major hurdle to the Tut exhibition -- how to insure priceless treasures from damage and loss. A year later curators from the U. The tour was planned to coincide with America's bicentennial celebration in The U.

Charitable Trust. It is impossible to overstate the phenomenon that was Tut during the run of the exhibition. As Egyptomania goes, perhaps it can only be compared to the excitement that greeted the discovery and unveiling of the young pharaoh's tomb in In the late s, during and immediately after the Treasures exhibit, Tut appeared in movies, documentaries, television series, cartoons, and an unforgettable bit of Americana -- comedian Steve Martin's costumed musical send-up, "King Tut," which premiered on Saturday Night Live on April 22, Leonard Nimoy devoted an episode of his show In Search of While the exhibit did not travel to Hawaii, it did touch down in six U.

In Seattle the show ran from July 15 to November 15, Being fifth of the seven stops on the Tut tour, Seattle was able to learn from the experience of others. All signs pointed to a massive turn-out, estimated at three-quarters of a million visitors over the four-month period. The Seattle Art Museum had the honor of hosting the exhibition, along with the responsibility. Ewen C. Dingwall , who had been the general manager of the Seattle World's Fair, was given the job of heading up the massive operation, with the underwhelming title of "coordinator.

Right away it was clear that SAM had both a challenge and an opportunity. Unlike the other institutions where the exhibit had been mounted, SAM, at that time in its original Volunteer Park location, did not have the space to devote to an adequate showing, nor did it have anything close to sufficient parking.

Rather than developing a cumbersome system of bussing patrons in, the museum opted to go off-site for exhibition space. Many others offered consultation, services, and equipment. As the exhibit toured the nation, a fervor for Ancient Egypt swept through the arts, fashion, interior design, and all things retail.

A whiskey distillery offered a decanter shaped like the Tut death mask. A travel agent invited the public to "Phone us for the lowest 'pharaohs' anywhere" Triumph Travel ad.

The first week of the exhibit was hailed as "Welcome to Tut Week" by the Downtown Seattle Development Association, which organized special festivities at Westlake Mall.

Seattle's glitterati enthusiastically took part. Invitees were informed, "Festive dress -- head dress optional" Invitation. The flag usually went down before noon. The show featured thirty-seven objects used to embalm Tut, along with examples of Egyptian writing, portraiture, and religious items. Not everyone in Chicago fell for Tut.

Best-selling novelist Andrew Greeley lamented in the Chicago Tribune that in the rush to see Tut, people were ignoring masterpieces at the Art Institute. On Monday, August 15, when the last visitor, Keith Feiler, an English teacher from Elmhurst, passed through the exhibition, the staff enlisted his help to reenact an ancient Egyptian ritual.

Using a replica of an ancient Egyptian broom, Feiler helped sweep away the footprints of the 1. The museum had never hosted anything to rival Tut. One month before the exhibition debuted, group tours sold out. The museum also stopped offering memberships, which included access to the exhibition, after subscriptions climbed from 3, to 12, When Tut opened, the line meandered into City Park.

The museum erected a striped canopy over the sidewalk to provide shade. The museum also used a grant from NEH to offer a series of public programs about Tut and Egyptian history. The museum saw Tut off with a jazz funeral. The show traveled next to Los Angeles, where it ran from February 15 to June 15, Ticket scalpers went to work.

When it came time to pack up the exhibition, the museum gave the Los Angeles Times a front row seat to the painstaking process. No matter how gentle the curators were, the packing and display process enacted a toll on the objects. Curators from the Cairo Museum assessed items for damage and repairs were made before tucking the artifacts into special containers. Upon arrival in the next city, the process was repeated.

The Seattle Art Museum, the sponsoring institution, lacked the necessary facilities. Unlike in Los Angeles, which drew the majority of its visitors from the surrounding area, the show in Seattle relied heavily on tourists.

Tickets for packaged tours could be purchased in advance. Monitors around the Seattle Center and downtown displayed wait times and ticket availability. Afterward, visitors rode to the top of the Space Needle and sipped Tut-inspired cocktails.

By the time he departed for New York, 1. After organizing the exhibition and watching it enthrall audiences from afar, the Met finally had its moment. To handle the crowds—and keep people from freezing in line during the New York winter—the Met offered its free tickets through Ticketron, which charged a small service fee. They went on sale on a rainy September morning, and the line stretched along Fifth Avenue from 80th Street all the way down to 59th. Scalping was illegal on both sides of the Hudson River.

When the Met closed its doors on the exhibition, 1. While Nixon and Kissinger wanted the Tut show for diplomatic reasons, there was no denying, as Martin so deftly pointed out, that the exhibition made money for its host museums, savvy retailers, and local economies. The exhibition also captured the imagination of the American public, making Tut and his enchanting treasures part of the cultural zeitgeist of the s.

Did the decadent golden treasures present an antidote to the cash-strapped s? Were we just fascinated by mummies and Egyptian burial practices? It forced museums to devise new ticketing systems for popular shows. The quality and success of the merchandising set a standard for future exhibitions.

It also helped museums expand their membership rosters and interact with their communities in new ways. Whether or not blockbuster shows are good for museums remains an issue of contention.

Hoving, who resigned as director of the Met in , helped mastermind an overhaul. Copyright Seattle's Child. All Rights reserved.

Search Go. Small children may be bored in the dark, quiet spaces of the Pacific Science Center exhibit. But school-age kids will find some things to capture their attention, including a small coffin used to bury a royal cat and a video that teaches visitors how to read hieroglyphics.

Museum officials point out that school tours are all booked for this spring, but a few slots are still available in the fall. The center already sold 90, tickets before the exhibit opens and some time slots are already sold out.