E. G. Squier

Ephraim George Squier ( born June 17, 1821 in Bethlehem, New York, † April 17, 1888 in New York City ) was an American journalist, newspaper editor, engineer, diplomat and pioneer of archeology in North America.

Life

Squier came from the family of a Methodist preacher. Due to lack of funds he received only a slight formal education with three years at a secondary school. Even at age 19, he founded a poetry magazine, which was unsuccessful. His second creation, the poet 's Magazine in 1842 in the state capital of Albany, saw only two issues. Since 1841 he was deputy editor of the New York State Mechanic, a workers' journal with a political claim. Besides, he published an influential book by George Tradescant Lay, a British scientist and diplomat whose observations about the Chinese culture. In 1844 he was co-founder of the Hartford Journal, a newspaper that clearly positioned itself on the side of long-term Whig politician Henry Clay. Squier and the Journal had considerable share in the victory Clays in Connecticut, at the federal level, however, he was defeated. Squier went to Chillicothe, Ohio, where he was editor of the Scioto Gazette. He worked full time as a secretary for the government of Connecticut and studied at Princeton College, where he graduated in engineering in 1848. In his spare time he studied prehistoric Native American earthworks in the valleys of the Ohio River and the Mississippi River. Along with Edwin H. Davis, he founded the scientific and archaeological exploration of the elongated ramparts and mounds, artificial mound, which had developed from graves and are associated today the Hopewell culture and the Mississippian culture. They dug in around 200 Mounds and 100 other plants. The excavated by him Mound City Group is now the core of the Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. 1848, it published the work of Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley as the first volume in the series of the newly founded Smithsonian Institution. A short version appeared at the instigation of Albert Gallatin in Transactions, the scientific journal of the Ethnological Society. Squier went back to New York and buried there as well on behalf of the Smithsonian and the New York Historical Society, from which the band Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York emerged.

1848 Henry Clay was defeated in the primaries of the Whig party against Zachary Taylor, who subsequently won the presidential election. Squier was appointed in 1849 in recognition of his services to the party for the affaires of the United States in Guatemala and Nicaragua, where he experiments Britain counteracted with success to push the boundaries of their reserve Mosquitia at the expense of Nicaragua. In addition, he led two archaeological expeditions in Central America and brought stone steles back to the Smithsonian Museums. After his return he published The Serpent Symbol and the Reciprocal Principles of Nature, a book about the symbolism of the serpent. The issue stemmed from his discovery of the Serpent Mound in Ohio in 1846. Moreover, he wrote a two -volume work on Nicaragua. Became prominent by the publications, he traveled in the early 1850s at the invitation of scientific societies to Europe several times and received there a variety of honors. He has since been a corresponding member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1853 to 1855 he worked for a railway project in Honduras, but this was never realized. In time, other books about Central America appeared with a focus on ethnography, economics and geography.

In 1857 he married Miriam Florence Follin and turned back to journalism. For the publishing empire of Frank Leslie Frank Leslie's, he published Illustrated Newspaper and himself wrote a variety of topics. He was at this time as a member of the New York high society. From 1863 to 1864 Squier could go as Commissioner of the Union States to Peru, where he undertook further excavations. Back in New York, he prepared several publications about his findings, but was distracted by his resumed work for Leslie. He edited at this time the first two volumes of Frank Leslie's Pictorial History of the American Civil War. 1868 Squier was appointed Consul General of Honduras in New York. In 1871, he was founder and president of the short-lived Anthropological Institute of New York. In 1873 he divorced his wife and married the following year Frank Leslie. Squier had a nervous breakdown, which led to a severe mental illness. His step- brother and guardian Frank Squier supported him so far that he could publish a book about Peru and 1880 a short work on Honduras in 1877. He died in 1888 in Frank Squiers house in Brooklyn.

Publications

• Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley ( 1848)
• Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York ( 1851)
• The Serpent Symbol and the Reciprocal Principles of Nature ( 1851)
• Nicaragua: Its People, Scenery, Monuments, and Proposed Interoceanic Canal (1852 ) - also German as the central American country Nicaragua, in relation to his people, its nature and its monuments; together with a detailed treatise on the projectirten interoceanischen channel. Translated by Edward Hoepfner, Leipzig, Dyk Verlag, 1854
• Notes on Central America ( 1855)
• Waikna, or Adventures on the Mosquito Shore (1855 )
• The States of Central America ( 1858) - also German as the States of Central America: in particular, Honduras, San Salvador ud Mosquito Coast. Edited by Karl Andree, Leipzig, mustard Verlag, 1865
• Monograph of Authors Who Have Written on the Languages ​​of Central America ( 1861)
• Peru: Incidents and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877 ) - as well as German Peru: travel and research experiences in the land of the Incas. Leipzig, Spohr Verlag, 1883
• Honduras and British Honduras ( 1880)