John Lloyd Stephens

John Lloyd Stephens
John Lloyd Stephens in 1839
Born	November 28, 1805
Died	October 13, 1852 (aged 46)
Nationality	American
Fields	Exploration
Known for	Travels in Mexico and Central America early visits and descriptions of Maya sites

John Lloyd Stephens (November 28, 1805–October 13, 1852) was an American explorer, writer, and diplomat. Stephens was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America and in the planning of the Panama railroad.

Early life

John Lloyd Stephens was born November 28, 1805, in the township of Shrewsbury, New Jersey.^[1] He was the second son of Benjamin Stephens, a successful New Jersey merchant, and Clemence Lloyd, daughter of an eminent local judge.^[2] The following year the family moved to New York City. There Stephens received an education in the Classics at two privately-tutored schools. At the early age of 13 he enrolled at Columbia College, graduating at the top of his class four years later in 1822.^[3]

After working as a student-at-law for a year, he joined the Law School at Litchfield, Connecticut. He entered practice after finishing, and returned to New York.

After 8 years, he embarked on a journey through Europe in 1834, and went on to Egypt and the Levant, returning home in 1836. Stephens wrote several popular books about his travels and explorations.

Politics

He was recommended for the post of Ambassador to Holland in 1839, but politics prevented him from securing the post.

In 1846 he would be chosen as delegate from New York city to the State Convention of New York to revise the Constitution. He was responsible for the introduction and the adoption of a Conciliation Court at the convention.

Mesoamerican studies

Stephens read with interest early accounts of ruined cities of Mesoamerica by such writers and explorers as Alexander von Humboldt and Juan Galindo.

In 1839, President Martin Van Buren commissioned Stephens as Special Ambassador to Central America. While there, the government of the Federal Republic of Central America fell apart in civil war. His Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and Yucatan gives a vivid description of some of those events which Stephens witnessed. Stephens and his traveling companion, architect and draftsman Frederick Catherwood first came across Maya ruins at Copán, having landed in British Honduras (present-day Belize). They were astonished at their findings and spent a couple weeks mapping the site. They surmised that this must have been built by some long forgotten people as they couldn't imagine the native Mayans as having lived in the city. Stephens was actually 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 Palenque, Uxmal, and according to Stephens, visited a total of 44 sites. Stephens and Catherwood reached Palenque in April 1840 and left in early June. They documented the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Cross, the Temple of the Sun and the Temple of the Foliated Cross.^[4] Of even greater importance, their book provided descriptions of several ancient Maya sites, along with illustrations by Catherwood. These were greatly superior in both amount and accuracy of depiction to the small amount of information on ancient Mesoamerica previously published.

Stephens continued his investigations of Maya ruins with a return trip to Yucatán which produced a further book.

His books served to inspire Edgar Allan Poe,^[5] who also reviewed three of his travel books for the New York Review and Graham's Magazine.

Panama railroad

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 steam ships, the Washington and the Hermann which made journeys to Europe.

When the Panama Railroad Company was founded in 1849, Stephens was chosen to be Vice President. He visited Panama and New Granada to make arrangements for the laying of the railroad. On his way to Bogotá, then capital of New Granada, he fell off his mule and was severely injured. He was never to recover from the effects of the accident. He returned to the United States, and was appointed President of the railroad company. He spent the next three years personally supervising the progress of the railroad. However, he suffered from a disease of the liver, and died after four months of illness at the age of forty-six. He is buried in the New York City Marble Cemetery.

Stephens is the subject of a biography Maya Explorer by Victor Wolfgang Von Hagan, first published in 1947.

Bibliography

• 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 Yucatan, Vols. 1 & 2 (1841)
• Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, Vols. 1 & 2 (1843)

Notes

References

External links

• Works by or about John Lloyd Stephens in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Works by John Lloyd Stephens at Internet Archive
• Works by John Lloyd Stephens at Google Books
• John Lloyd Stephens, a biography.

Reed College website including all the illustrations of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labná in Stephens' 1841 Incidents of Travel in Central America and in Stephens and Catherwood's 1843 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. http://academic.reed.edu/uxmal/contents.html