Augustus Le Plongeon

Augustus Le Plongeon was born on the Island of Jersey on May 4, 1825. Augustus attended and graduated from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris. After attending school he sailed to South America where he was shipwrecked off the coast of Chile. He found his way to San Francisco and worked as a surveyor during the gold rush in 1849. In San Francisco, he also became a doctor of medicine through his apprenticeship. He then moved to England and studied photography in 1851. After learning photography in England he returned to San Francisco to open a photography studio in 1855. The then traveled to Lima, Peru and opened yet another photography studio. In 1873 he married Alice Dixon and sailed to the Yucatan region were they spent twelve years learning about the area.

Here was where Augustus Le Plongeon began his work for which he is known today. During his time in Yucatan he was the first to excavate the ruins of Chichen Itza. He was able to use his photographic skills that he had acquired earlier, to take over five hundred photos. His photography was very systematic. He documented entire facades of buildings, small artifacts, and architectural detail such as bas, relief's, hieroglyphic texts and sculptures. Few people are aware though that Augustus Le Plongeon learned the technology of creating photographic negatives directly from the father of modern photography, Fox Talbot in 1873.

Le Plongeon did a complete comparative study of Maya and Egyptian religion, linguistics and architecture. He concluded that Mayan culture had been diffused throughout Southeast Asia by Mayan travelers who had then gone on to the Middle East where they founded Egypt. Le Plongeon's theories found limited acceptance because most archaeologists placed the Mayan civilization later than Egypt. Convinced that he and his wife found the source of world civilization they spent 10 months at Chichen Itza and then lived several months in Uxmal, taking photos and making molds.

Augustus spent his final twenty-three years in Brooklyn, New York, writing about the Mayans and Egyptians and defending himself against detractors. Augustus Le Plongeon died in 1908 at the age of 83 in Brooklyn, New York. He was never fully recognized for his work in the Yucatan, but his photos still remain an important contribution to American archaeology. Some photos can be viewed at http://www.ku.edu/%7Ehoopes/506/LePlongeon.htm

Frederiksen, Thomas H. “Notable Authors, Historians, And Explorers Aztec Student Research Guide.” Authors And Historians. Former Link, http://northcoast.com/~spdtom/a-cod4.html (October 2006) 9 November 2000.

Augustus Le Plongeon

1825-1908