George Gliddon

Robin George Gliddon (* 1809 in Devonshire, England; † November 16, 1857 in Panama ) was a British-American Egyptologist and racial theorist.

George Gliddon grew up as the son of an English merchant in Alexandria. As a young man he was sent by the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha in the United States to gather information on the cultivation of cotton. There he met Samuel Morton, who believed that the brains of black people are less than the white people. After his return he sought mummies in Egyptian ruins to find evidence to support Morton's theory. As a byproduct of his mummy quest he learned so much about the Egyptian civilization that he could hold in the U.S. lectures on Egyptology in the 1840s. In 1850, Gliddon wrapped in Boston as part of three lectures a mummy from which he accepted that it was the daughter of a priest. After he had settled in the first two lectures, the outer layers, he put in the third lecture before 2000 spectators, the mummy itself is free. Since it obviously was a male mummy his reputation was ruined as Egyptologist. The event attracted the attention of Edgar Allan Poe, who Gliddon in his short story talking to a mummy immortalized.

After his failure as an Egyptologist to Gliddon turned increasingly to racial theory. Later he worked for the Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company in South America. On November 16, 1857 Gliddon died in a hotel in Panama. The reason an overdose of opium is assumed.

Writings

  • A Memoir on the Cotton of Egypt. J. Madden, London 1841.
  • An Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe. On the Destruction of the Monuments of Egypt. J. Madden & Co., London 1841.
  • Ancient Egypt. Her monuments, hieroglyphics, history and archeology, and other subjects connected with hieroglyphical literature ( = The New World. Extra Series. No 68/ 69, ZDB - ID 95535-8 ). J. Winchester, New York NY 1843 ( many editions).
  • Otia Æegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archæology and hieroglyphical discoveries. J. Madden and Others, London et al 1849 digitized.
  • Josiah C. Nott with: Types of Mankind, or ethnological researches based upon the ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of races and upon Their natural geographical philological and biblical history. Illustrated by Selection from the Papers of Samuel George Morton inedited and by additional Contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, RF Patterson. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia PA, 1854.
  • Posts in: Indigenous Races of the Earth, or, New Chapters of ethnological inquiry. Including Monographs on special Department of Philology, Icongraphy, Cranioscopy, Palaeontology, Pathology, Archaeology, Comparative Geography, and Natural History. Contributed by Alfred Maury, Francis Pulszky, and J. Aitken Meigs. With Communications from Josh. Leidy and L. Agassiz. Presenting fresh Investigations, Documents, and Materials by JC Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. J. B. Lippincott, Philadelphia PA 1857.
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