Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888) Papers,
1820-(1842-1872)-1877, n.d.
1,082 pieces.
COLLECTION GUIDE
Prepared by Michael Forrest Fry, February 1981.
Introduction
Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888), born in Bethlehem, New York, the
son of a Methodist Minister, led a varied and distinguished career that
spanned the greater part of the nineteenth century. As the documents of
this collection illustrate, his language, opinions, talents, and actions
reflected the spirit of that period of Anglo-American history.
While working on a farm as a youth, Squier studied civil engineering
until financial problems during the Panic of 1837 forced him to consider
education and law as careers. Finding neither fame nor fortune in these
occupations, he turned to journalism in hope of finding at least fame. In
1840 he edited the Literary Pearl of Charlton, New York. During
this time he was planning a literary history of Portugal which he never
finished. Always a sensitive man, he soon abandoned his work in Charlton
to take up the cause of the working classes by going to Albany in 1841 to
work for a unionist magazine, the New York State Mechanic.
Meanwhile, he was trying to publish what he thought would be a national
repository for American poetry, the Poet's Magazine, and to secure
a diplomatic appointment to China. Two issues of the Poet's
Magazine appeared in 1842 but, containing many of Squier's own poems,
it was doomed to fail. Yet in that same year his great interest in the Far
East prompted him to edit the notes of G. Tradescent Lay and subsequently
to publish The Chinese As They Are. In 1843, however, the New
York State Mechanic failed, and Squier, disgusted with what he called
the ingratitude of the working classes, accepted a position as editor of
the Whig Daily Journal of Hartford, Connecticut, and became an
important state organizer for the Whig Party as well as a staunch
supporter of Henry Clay in the 1844 presidential election. With the defeat
of Clay and the sale of his paper to the leading opposition paper, a
bitter Squier moved to Ohio.
In Chillicothe, Ohio, Squier came to the editorship of the Scioto
Gazette in 1845. By 1847 he had quit that post upon his election as
clerk of the Ohio House of Representatives. Yet he took those duties
rather lightly and spent a large portion of his time researching the
Indian mounds of the area. Although he had already shown some interest in
archaeology while in New York, the result of this research, conducted with
the help of a Chillicothe physician, Dr. E.H. Davies, became his most
influential and famous publication, Ancient Monuments of the
Mississippi Valley (1848). Thus Squier launched himself into a new
career and finally found the fame he had sought for so long.
This new career as a scholar of antiquities soon drew Squier's
interest to the great ancient civilizations of Central America.
Accordingly, he conceived the idea of a diplomatic appointment as a means
of getting there to study the aboriginal ruins, upon the election of the
Whig, Zachary Taylor. Unlike his attempt to go to China, this effort
proved successful and in 1849 he became the United States Chargé
d'affaires to Central America. Despite his quick involvement in a clash
between the United States and Great Britain he had considerable time for
archaeological studies during his two years there. His principal
accomplishment as a diplomatic agent was to convince the British of the
seriousness of United States aims in Central America, thus persuading them
later to agree to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. Moreover, Squier also
negotiated an agreement with Nicaragua (never ratified by the U.S. Senate)
for the United States construction of an interoceanic canal. Despite his
short term of office as Chargé d'affaires, he thereafter became the
leading publicist of Central America in the United States. Among his most
important works are Nicaragua: Its People, Scenery, Monuments
(1852), Notes on Central America: Particularly the States of Honduras
and San Salvador (1855), The States of Central America (1858),
Travels in Central America, Particularly in Nicaragua (1860), and
Honduras: Descriptive, Historical, and Statistical (1870), portions
of which appear in the manuscripts of this collection.
In his remaining years Squier continued to pursue an array of
activities. In 1853 he worked diligently as Secretary of the Honduras
Interoceanic Railway Company until the project utterly failed. After
getting married to Miriam Florence Folline of New Orleans in 1858, he
worked as the Chief Editor of Frank Leslie's Weekly. In 1862,
however, President Lincoln sent Squier to Peru as United States
Commissioner. His diplomatic duties there were of small consequence, but
his studies and travels produced another extremely popular book, Peru;
Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877).
Large portions of his notes in preparation of this book are included in
the collection.
In 1868 Squier became the Consul General of Honduras in New York, and
he was very active until 1871. However, following his divorce in 1873, he
began to lose his mental grip, and in 1874 he was declared insane. His
previous energy was now sapped and the sudden lack of documentation in
this collection after that date reflects that change. He died in Brooklyn
in 1888.
This collection covers the years between 1835 and 1872 with the
majority of the documents falling in the 1849-1872 period; however, some
undated items may have been written or published after 1872. It was bought
by the Middle American Research Institute of Tulane University from
William Gates in 1924, who himself had purchased the material in 1917. The
very bulk of Squier's correspondence and documentation is astonishing, for
the papers of this collection, numerous as they are, actually constitute
only a small portion of the documentation extant. The Library of Congress
holds 4,000 letters dating from 1841 to 1884. The Harry E. Huntington
Library in San Marino, California has 489 items relating to Squier in the
1852-1858 period. The New-York Historical Society possesses seven volumes
of Squier material between 1849 and 1878. The Biblioteca Nacional in Lima
has the final draft of Squier's chapters on Tacna and Cuzco for his book
Peru; Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas
(1877). Earlier drafts are in the Tulane collection in folders 14 and 16
(Box 2). The library of the University of Michigan houses a small
collection of 46 items covering the years 1818-1886. The Massachusetts
Historical Society has a small collection of Squier letters to Francis
Parkman. The Southwestern Museum at UCLA has Charles Fletcher Lummis'
notes on Squier's book taken when Lummis retraced Squier's travels in
Peru. All but the last three collections are on microfilm in the Tulane
University library. The University of Florida in Gainesville has a small
collection of Squier materials (0.5 lin. ft.) which includes 14 letters,
holograph manuscripts and notes by or about Squier. A finding aid is in
the Accession File.
The Tulane collection is valuable not only for the documentation it
provides for Squier's own career, but also for the light it throws on the
contemporary state of anthropology, ethnology, and archaeology in America,
the tortuous course of United States relations with Latin American
nations, and the heroic struggles of various groups of entrepeneurs,
engineers and adventurers to construct some form of transportation across
the Isthmus.
For more information on Squier or his publications see Charles Lee
Stansifer, "The Central American career of E. George Squier," Unpublished
Doctoral Thesis, Tulane University, 1959; Joseph Sabin (ed.), Catalogue
of the Library of E.G. Squier, New York, 1876; Don C. Seitz,
Letters from Francis Parkman to E.G. Squier, Cedar Rapids, 1911;
Frank Squier, A Collection of Books by Ephraim George Squier, New
York, 1939; William C. Mills, "Mr. E.G. Squier, Chargé D'Affaires,
Central America," American Review VI (1850), 345-352; Rafael
Heliodoro Valle, "Ephraim George Squier," (Notas bio-bibliográficas),"
Memorias y Revista de la Sociedad Científica "Antonio Alzate," XL
(1922), 509-518, and "Ephraim George Squier," Hispanic American
Historical Review V (1922), 777-789; Mary Wilhelmine Williams,
"Letters of E. George Squier to John M. Clayton, 1849-1850," HAHR
I (1918), 426-434; Jerry E. Patterson and William R. Stanton, "The Ephraim
George Squier Manuscripts in the Library of Congress: A Checklist," The
Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 53 (1959), 309-26;
and "Squier, Ephraim George," Dictionary of American Biography XVII
(1946) as well as Squier's obituary in the New York Times, 18
April, 1888.Outline of Collection Arrangement
I.
Correspondence, 1835-1871, 37 pieces. Box 1, Folders 1-36. See
Calendar that follows.
Manuscripts and notes, 1850s-1860s, 25 pieces. Box 2, Folders
1-25. See listing that follows.
IV.
Miscellaneous; A. Poetry by Squier, 23 pieces. Box 2, Folders
26-48.
B. Pencil drawings, 8 pieces. Box 2, Folders 49-56.
V.
Photographs (detailed description follows), 257 pieces. A.
Steropticon views and miscellaneous photographs, Boxes 2-5. B. Oversized
photographs, Box 6. C. Japanese photographs, Box 6.
VI.
Clippings, 852 pieces. Boxes 7-11.
See binder for a detailed 20-page guide to the Squier Collection.