Stephens, John Lloyd

Stephens, John Lloyd,

1805–52, American author and traveler, b. Shrewsbury, N.J., grad. Columbia College, 1822. His travels (1834–36) in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America provided the material for a number of studies. By far the best are Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia, Petraea, and the Holy Land (1837) and Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland (1838). The last seven years of his life were devoted to planning the Panama RR.

Bibliography

See A. and M. Sutton, Among the Maya Ruins (1967).

Stephens, John Lloyd

 

Born Nov. 28, 1805, in Shrewsbury, N.J.; died Oct. 12, 1852, in New York. American traveler and archaeologist.

From 1834 to 1836, Stephens journeyed through countries of Europe and the Near East. During two expeditions to Mexico and Central America (1839–41 and 1842), Stephens visited areas difficult of access and discovered monuments of ancient Indian civilizations that had developed long before the Spanish conquest. Stephens’ travel books, together with drawings by the English artist F. Catherwood, laid the foundation for the scholarly study of the Mayan civilization.

WORKS

Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea, and the Holy Land, 11th ed., vols. 1–2. New York, 1860.
Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland, vols. 1–2. New York, 1847–53.
Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan, 12th ed., vols. 1–2. New York, 1867–71.

Stephens, John Lloyd

(1805–52) traveler, author, promoter; born in Shrewsbury, N.J. A New York lawyer, he began a series of exotic journeys in 1834 and through his books became known as the "American traveler." He wrote Incidents of Travel in Egypt, Arabia Petraea and the Holy Land (1837) and Incidents of Travel in Greece, Turkey, Russia, and Poland (1838). During 1839–41, he traveled in Central America and Mexico with the English artist Frederick Catherwood. His two books on their travel and discoveries, beautifully illustrated by Catherwood, were among the first to publicize Mayan remains and effectively founded the field of Mayan archaeology. He later promoted both steamboat and railroad companies, notably the Panama Railroad (1849–51). He died prematurely from a disease he contracted in Panama.