George Gliddon

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

Life

George Gliddon grew up as the son of an English merchant in Alexandria . As a young man, he was sent to the United States by the Egyptian viceroy Muhammad Ali Pasha to gather information about cotton growing . There he met Samuel Morton , who believed that black people's brains are smaller than white people. Upon his return, he looked for mummies in Egyptian ruins to find evidence to support Morton's theory. As a by-product of his mummy hunt, he learned so much about Egyptian civilization that he was able to give lectures on Egyptology in the United States in the 1840s .

In Boston in 1850, in three lectures, Gliddon unwrapped a mummy he believed was the daughter of a priest. After he had handled the outer layers in the first two lectures, he exposed the mummy itself in the third lecture in front of 2,000 spectators. Since it was obviously a male mummy, his reputation as an Egyptologist was ruined. The event piqued the interest of Edgar Allan Poe , who immortalized Gliddon in his short story Conversation with a Mummy .

After his failure as an Egyptologist, Gliddon turned increasingly to race theory. He later worked for the Honduras Interoceanic Railway Company in South America. Gliddon died on November 16, 1857 in a hotel in Panama. The reason is believed to be an overdose of opium .

Fonts

  • 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 (numerous editions).
  • Otia Æegyptiaca. Discourses on Egyptian archeology and hieroglyphical discoveries. J. Madden et al. a., London a. a. 1849, digitized .
  • with Josiah C. Nott : 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 inedited Papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional Contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, HF Patterson. JB Lippincott, Philadelphia PA 1854.
  • Contributions to: Indigenous Races of the Earth, or, New Chapters of Ethnological Inquiry. Including Monographs on special Departments of Philology, Icongraphy, Cranioscopy, Palaeontology, Pathology, Archeology, Comparative Geography, and Natural History. Contributed by Alfred Maury, Francis Pulszky, and J. Aitken Meigs. With Communications from Jos. Leidy and L. Agassiz. Presenting fresh Investigations, Documents, and Materials by JC Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. JB Lippincott, Philadelphia PA 1857.

literature

Web links

  • Items. In: Egypt Today , September 2005 (archive link)
personal data
SURNAME Gliddon, George
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gliddon, George Robin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-American Egyptologist and racial theorist
DATE OF BIRTH 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Devonshire , England
DATE OF DEATH November 16, 1857
Place of death Panama