Introduction
Unearthing the Maya is a direct result of the generosity of George E. and Melinda
Y. Stuart, who, with the recent gift of their remarkable collection of works on
archaeological research, have joined the ranks of the University Library’s
major donors. While complementing some materials already housed in
Wilson Library,
the newly acquired Stuart Collection dramatically improves the range and depth
of the Rare Book Collection’s holdings dealing with the early history of
the Americas.
The exhibition does not attempt to represent the entire scope of the Stuart
Collection, which comprises nearly 13,000 volumes about archaeology and anthropology
around the world. Instead, as its title indicates, Unearthing the Maya focuses
primarily on highlights of the Stuarts’ Maya-related materials. Much of George
Stuart’s career was spent working in this area of archaeological research,
both in the field and as the National Geographic Society’s resident archaeologist.
Another interest, which dates back to Stuart’s childhood, is archaeological
research in the United States. A small sampling of the Stuarts’ collection of
materials related to this subject is also on display, among them the first
English-language edition of Thomas Jefferson’s
Notes on the State of Virginia (1787), James Adair’s
History of the American Indians (1775), and the
manuscript of an 1883 text by noted archaeologist Cyrus Thomas explaining how
to excavate an Indian mound.
Image of Palenque by José Castañeda from
Lord Kingsborough's
Antiquities of Mexico (1829-1848), vol. 4.
Checklist no. 29.
The Maya materials included in the exhibition trace much of the history of research
in this field, from Bishop Landa’s
Relación de las cosas de Yucatán, written in 1566 but first
published in 1864 after Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg discovered
it in Madrid’s Real Academia de la Historia, to recent epigraphic work by
David Stuart, George Stuart’s son and Professor of Mesoamerican Art and
Writing at the University of Texas at Austin. Most of the significant figures in
the field are represented, often by volumes with interesting provenances. Alfred
Maudslay’s signature appears on the cover of one of the scarce fascicles
of his
Archaeology, published as part of
the
Biologia Centrali-America between 1889 and 1902; the 1861 Brasseur de
Bourbourg translation of the
Popol Vuh,
an important work which relates a Maya creation story, bears the bookplate
of Edward Tylor, a highly influential
English anthropologist.
Not all of the materials are printed. Among the manuscript materials are an
early version of Jean-Frédéric
Waldeck’s Voyage pittoresque, published in 1838; a
compilation of documents belonging to Edward King,
Lord Kingsborough, one volume of whose massive nine-volume
Antiquities of Mexico is another of the highlights of the exhibition; and
a small bound volume of manuscript
letters of recommendation
written by John Lloyd Stephens, William H. Prescott, Washington Irving,
and others for American archaeologist E. G. Squier.
It was Stephens’s 1840s
accounts of his
Mexican travels—beautifully and accurately illustrated by Frederick
Catherwood—that first sparked the public’s interest in the Maya.
Both of his works on display in Unearthing the Maya are inscribed to former President
Martin Van Buren, who had appointed Stephens minister to Central America in 1839,
facilitating his first trip to the region. In addition to receiving a warm critical
response, the books were commercially successful, and they helped to bring the
study of the ancient Maya—previously a rather exclusive pastime—to the
masses. It was not long, in fact, before the mania for Mesoamerica had been
capitalized upon by the likes of P. T. Barnum, who put together a traveling
exhibition of “Aztec children” and published a
pamphlet with the name “John L. Stevens” displayed prominently on
the cover and title page. A copy of this work is on display in Unearthing the Maya,
for in the interest of completeness, the Stuarts have collected the ridiculous
along with the sublime. The exhibition also features several of the many
Maya-inspired novels that have been published
over the years.
Manuscript by Jean-Frédéric
Waldeck, published in 1838 as
Voyage pittoresque.
Checklist no. 7.
Unearthing the Maya could not have come about without the gracious and generous
help of the donors, George E. and Melinda Y. Stuart. Charles B. McNamara,
Curator of Rare Books, and Professor Vincas P. Steponaitis of the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Anthropology are owed a debt
of gratitude for the overview of George Stuart’s career and the Stuart Collection
written for this Web site. Finally, sincere thanks are due to Tim West, Jackie Dean,
and Noah Huffman, who provided invaluable research assistance as well as the loan
of a number of items from the
Stuart Collection holdings of the Manuscripts Department.
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