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Finding Aid to the John Lloyd Stephens Papers, 1795-1882
BANC MSS Z-Z 116
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Collection Title: John Lloyd Stephens Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1795-1882
Collection Number: BANC MSS Z-Z 116
Creator:
Stephens, John Lloyd, 1805-1852
Extent:
Number of containers: 4 boxes and 2 oversize folders
Repository: The Bancroft Library
Berkeley, California 94720-6000
Physical Location: For current information on the location of these materials, please
consult the Library's online catalog.
Abstract: Pt. I : Mainly letters and papers of John Lloyd Stephens; papers for the
settlement of his estate and some correspondence of his father, Benjamin Stephens. Concerning John L.
Stephens' travels in Mexico and Central America, his publications and his association with the Panama
Railroad. Some papers pertain to family land holdings in New York State.
Pt. II : "Eventful expedition ... to Iximaya: material assembled by Wolfgang Von Hagen.
Pt. II : Use positive microfilm only (BANC MSS Z-Z 116 FILM): $b Consult the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, regarding use.
Pt. II : "Eventful expedition ... to Iximaya: material assembled by Wolfgang Von Hagen.
Pt. II : Use positive microfilm only (BANC MSS Z-Z 116 FILM): $b Consult the Head of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, regarding use.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English,
Spanish and Yucateca
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to The Bancroft Library. All requests for permission to publish or
quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Public Services. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of The Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the
reader.
[Identification of item], John Lloyd Stephens Papers, BANC MSS Z-Z 116, The Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley.
Materials Cataloged Separately
- Proyecto de Alto Reformatorio de la Constitución. Bogatá. 1852.
John Lloyd Stephens was born November 28, 1805, in Shrewsbury, Monmouth County, New Jersey, the son of
Benjamin Stephens and Clemence Lloyd Stephens. He received his A. B. degree from Columbia College in
1822 and his M. A. from Columbia in 1828. In 1824, he was graduated from the Tapping Reeve Law School in
Litchfield, Connecticut. Between 1834 and 1836, he traveled extensively through Europe and the Near
East, including Egypt, Arabia Petrea and Russia, and in 1837 and 1838, published accounts of his
travels. Stephens' archaeological expeditions to Central America, Mexico and Yucatan were in 1839 and
1842. He was accompanied on both of these journeys by Frederick Catherwood, the British architect and
artist. The result of these two tours was
Incidents of Travel in Central America, which
Stephens published in 1841, and
Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, published in 1843. In
1847, Stephens became an official of the Ocean Steam Navigation Company and traveled to Germany, where
he met Baron Alexander von Humboldt in Berlin. He later wrote of this meeting in
An hour with Humboldt, which appeared in the
Living Age
Magazine.
From l848 to 1852, Stephens was engaged in building a railroad across the Isthmus
of Panama and became president of the Panama Railroad Company. He died in New York City, Oct. 5, 1852,
at the age of 47 -a victim of Chagres fever.
Stephens' correspondence ranges from 1822 to 1852 and deals with his school days; his travels in Central
America and Mexico; his appointment as diplomatic minister in charge of the American Legation in
Guatemala during the revolution of 1838; his activities with the Panama Railroad Company, and
correspondence and accounts, 1838-1839, of a venture to bring giraffes into the United States for
various zoos. The miscellaneous papers include Stephens' will, legal accounts and deeds, dating from
1795 to 1882. Correspondence and legal Papers of Benjamin Stephens are also included. The collection was
purchased from Dawson's Book Shop, Sept., 1948.