Entry No. 29 — the Oklahoma City file — filed under: haunted
Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art
Founded in 1919 by a well-traveled Benedictine monk, this small but legitimately strange museum holds the only ancient Egyptian mummies on public display in Oklahoma — human and animal — alongside genuine shrunken heads and a surprisingly deep collection of Renaissance through 20th-century art. It's a cabinet-of-curiosities meets serious art museum, tucked quietly onto a Shawnee campus most people drive past without knowing.
The story
In 1919, a well-traveled Benedictine monk brought his personal hoard back to central Oklahoma, founding what became one of the oldest museums in the state. He wasn't building a sleek academic institution; he was assembling an obsessive cabinet of curiosities. The result, quietly tucked onto a leafy campus in Shawnee 40 minutes east of Oklahoma City, is the Mabee-Gerrer Museum of Art—home to the only ancient Egyptian mummies on public display in the entire state.
What makes the collection genuinely weird is its total lack of boundary. You can stand inches from CT-scanned human and animal mummies, stare straight into a case of authentic shrunken heads, and then pivot directly into galleries housing Renaissance oil paintings and 20th-century fine art. Spanning some 8,000 years of human history, the rooms reflect the precise whims of a globe-trotting monk who acquired whatever fascinated him, leaving behind a vault where high art and dark relic sit side by side.
What it's like
Pulling off I-40 onto the campus grounds, you'll find free, clear parking right outside the building. The galleries are quiet and unhurried—you won't be fighting tourist surges, though the mummy collection gets extra attention around Halloween. Give yourself around two hours to digest the contrast between ancient funerary items, grotesque oddities, and traditional portraiture before taking the five-minute drive south to Shawnee's historic Main Street to eat and unpack what you just saw.
The move: Spend a couple of hours working through the Egyptian collection together — linger over the CT-scanned mummies and let the weirdness of the shrunken heads do the talking — then grab lunch at one of Shawnee's spots on Main Street and compare notes on which exhibit unsettled you most. Admission is modest (under $10), and Tuesday through Saturday hours give plenty of flexibility for a half-day trip from OKC.
📍 Before you go It sits on the leafy former St. Gregory's University campus in Shawnee, roughly 40 minutes east of OKC off I-40 — easy to blow past, so follow the campus signs to the museum building rather than hunting for a street entrance. On-site parking is free and well marked. It is closed Mondays, so build a Tuesday-through-weekend trip; the Egyptian collection that draws people gets extra programming around Halloween, when the mummies become the main event. Shawnee's historic Main Street, a few minutes south, is your built-in lunch stop, so treat the museum as the first half of a half-day rather than the whole outing.
- 📍 Shawnee
- 💸 $
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 1900 W. MacArthur St., Shawnee, OK 74804
Hours: Mined 2026-06-07 — confirm current hours before you go.
Pair it with
- Oak, Ash & Thorn Metaphysical Shop — Double down on the strange and mystical by heading three miles into downtown Shawnee for crystals, herbs, and witch bells.
- Museum of Pioneer History — Drive 24 miles north to Chandler to trade ancient Egyptian relics for reputed hauntings inside an 1898 territorial building.
- POPS 66 — Cap off your day trip back toward Oklahoma City with a stop under the 66-foot neon bottle for rare glass-bottle sodas.
Good to know
Are the mummies on display real?
Yes. The museum holds Oklahoma's only ancient Egyptian mummies on public display—including both human and animal mummies—accompanied by CT-scan visual data detailing what sits beneath the wrappings.
Where is the museum located?
It sits at 1900 W. MacArthur St. in Shawnee, Oklahoma, on the former St. Gregory's / OBU Green Campus about 40 minutes east of Oklahoma City.
When is it open and how much does entry cost?
The museum is closed Mondays and open Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is modest—under $10—making it an easy half-day outing from OKC.
What else is inside besides the mummies?
Alongside the Egyptian funerary artifacts and shrunken heads, the collection holds classical, Renaissance, and 20th-century art covering 8,000 years of history.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Further reading: mgmoa.org · Yelp · news-star.com
last checked: 2026-06-07