John Lloyd Stephens
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John Lloyd Stephens (November 28, 1805 – October 13, 1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. He was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of
Early life
John Lloyd Stephens was born November 28, 1805, in the township of
After studying law with an attorney for a year, he attended the Litchfield Law School. He passed the bar exam after completing his course of study and practiced in New York City.
Stephens embarked on a journey through Europe in 1834 and went on to Egypt and the Levant, returning home in 1836. He later wrote several popular books about his travels and explorations.
Politics
He was recommended for the post of
Mesoamerican studies
Stephens read with interest early accounts of ruined cities of
Stephens and his traveling companion, architect, and draftsman Frederick Catherwood first came across Maya ruins at Copán, having landed in British Honduras (now Belize). They were astonished at their findings and spent two weeks mapping the site. Stephens surmised that it must have been built by some long-forgotten people, as he could not imagine it was the native Mayans. However, Catherwood noted the facial resemblance to modern Mayans. Stephens was able to buy the city of Copan for a sum of $50 and had dreams of floating it down the river and into museums in the United States.
They went on to
Catherwood's drawings and lithographs showed, without question, the Maya to have been the authors of some of the most artistic and intellectual works of pre-Columbian America. Besides large constructions, they produced works of artistic refinement such as stone and plaster sculptures, frescoes, painted pottery, and bas-reliefs in wood. As a result of their explorations, Stephens and Catherwood argued convincingly that the Mayans built the ancient Central American cities in contrast to the theory that ethnic groups from European or Asian civilizations had built them.[6]
Stephens's books served to inspire Edgar Allan Poe, who reviewed three of Stephens's books for the New York Review and Graham's Magazine.[3]
Panama Railroad Company
At the time England enjoyed a monopoly over the ocean navigation to and from the United States. Stephens obtained a charter from the state of New York and incorporated the Ocean Steam Navigation Company. The company acquired two steamships, the Washington and the Hermann which made journeys to Europe.
When the
Personal life
In 1841, Stephens was elected to the American Philosophical Society.[7] While in Panama, he was struck down by malaria in the spring of 1852. He recovered sufficiently to return to New York, only to have a recurrence of the disease.[8] He died October 13, 1852. He was buried at New York City Marble Cemetery.
Legacy
Stephens is the subject of the following works: Maya Explorer by Victor Wolfgang von Hagen, first published in 1947, and Jungle of Stone by William Carlsen (2016).
Publications
- Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land (1837)
- Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland (1838)
- Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatán, Vols. 1 & 2 (1841) (Reissued by ISBN 978-1-108-01730-5)
- Incidents of Travel in Yucatán, Vols. 1 & 2 (1843)
References
- ^ Person Detail: John Lloyd Stephens Archived February 23, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, New York State Literary Tree. Accessed December 4, 2007.
- OCLC 50092694. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
- ^ a b c Harris, Peter (2006). "Cities of Stone: Stephens & Catherwood in Yucatan, 1839-1842". Co-Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. Photoarts Journal (Summer 2006). pp. 1–2. Archived from the original on October 22, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
- ^ McNally, Shelagh (n.d.). "The First Explorers". The Revelations of Palenque. Mundo Maya online. Archived from the original on June 17, 2007. Retrieved January 5, 2007.
- ^ Fabio Bourbon, The Lost Cities of the Mayas, 1999
- ISBN 978-0486147925. Retrieved May 17, 2014.
- ^ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved April 9, 2021.
- ^ The Path Between the Seas, David McCullough, ©1977, pp 139-140
Further reading
- Cabañas, Miguel A. (2008). "Chapter One: Putting the World in Order: John Lloyd Stephens’s Narration of America." The Cultural “Other” in Nineteenth-Century Travel Narratives: How the United States and Latin America Described Each Other. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
- Carlsen, William (2016) Jungle of Stone: the true story of two men, their extraordinary journey, and the discovery of the lost civilization of the Maya
- Hay, John (2017). "The American Holy Land: John Lloyd Stephens's Mayan Excursions." Postapocalyptic Fantasies in Antebellum American Literature. New York: Cambridge University Press. 154-165.
- Pérez Luna, Julio Alfonso (2002). "John Lloyd Stephens. Los indígenas y la sociedad mexicana en su obra" (PDF). In Manuel Ferrer Muñoz (ed.). La imagen del México decimonónico de los visitantes extranjeros: ¿un estado-nación o un mosaico plurinacional? (OCLC 50761138. Archived from the original(PDF) on February 29, 2008.
- Stephens, John L. (1841). Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Vol. in 2 vols. OCLC 863468.
External links
- John Lloyd Stephens, a biography.
- Guide to the John Lloyd Stephens at The Bancroft Library
- Reed College website including all the illustrations of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labná in Stephens's 1841 Incidents of Travel in Central America and Stephens and Catherwood's 1843 Incidents of Travel in Yucatán.
- Works by John Lloyd Stephens at Project Gutenberg
- Works by or about John Lloyd Stephens at Internet Archive
- Works by John Lloyd Stephens at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by John Lloyd Stephens at Google Books