Description
The collection documents the archaeological excavations, fieldwork, research,
and writings of the nineteenth-century photographers, antiquarians, and amateur archaeologists Augustus and Alice Dixon Le
Plongeon, the first
persons to systematically excavate and photograph the Maya sites of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal (1873-1886). The couple's pioneering
work in documenting
Maya sites and inscriptions with photography, which in many cases recorded the appearance of sites and objects that have subsequently
been damaged
or lost, was overshadowed in their own lifetimes by their theories of Maya cultural diffusion, and in particular by their
insistence that the Maya
founded ancient Egypt. The Le Plongeon's work, and evidence of their wide-ranging interests, is found in manuscripts, diaries,
correspondence, and
photographs. The collection also contains papers belonging to Maude and Henry Field Blackwell, who inherited the literary
estate of the Le
Plongeons.
Background
Augustus Henry Julian Le Plongeon was born on Jersey, Channel Islands on May 4, 1826. After graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique
in Paris he
embarked on a series of adventures in the Americas, beginning with an attempt to sail to Chile with a friend in the late 1840s.
Wrecked off the
coast, they made their way to Valparaiso, Chile, where Le Plongeon took a position at a local college. When gold rush fever
reached Chile, he joined
the exodus to northern California. By 1850, Le Plongeon was working as a surveyor and city planner in Marysville, California.
To finance further
travels he sold the land that he had received in payment for his services, going first to England, where he reportedly badgered
Henry Fox Talbot
into teaching him his new method for making photographic negatives on paper. From England, Le Plongeon went to St. Thomas,
Virgin Islands to
experiment with Talbot's techniques in tropical climates, and then traveled to Mexico, Australia, China, and the Pacific Islands.
He returned to
California at the end of 1851, established a photography studio in San Francisco, and also entered the medical profession,
perhaps by apprenticing
himself to a local doctor. By the 1860s, Le Plongeon had appended the title Doctor to the front of his name.
Extent
39.4 Linear Feet
(63 boxes)
Restrictions
Contact Library Reproductions and
Permissions.
Availability
Open for use by qualified researchers.