Squier, E. G. (Ephraim George), 1821-1888

Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888) and Dr. Edwin Hamilton Davis (1811-1888) of Chillicothe, Ohio were antiquarian authors who became authorities in the field of Indian antiquities. Mr. Squier was editor of the Scioto Gazette in Ohio when he began investigating the moundbuilders of the Scioto Valley under the tutelage of Dr. Davis, an Ohio physician who wrote for several historical and medical journals. Squier was later appointed Charge d'affaires to Guatemala and other Central American states and negotiated the preliminary agreements which led to the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty in 1850.

From the description of Papers, 1847-1848. (American Antiquarian Society). WorldCat record id: 218551737

Squier was an author and diplomat, secretary, 1853, of the Honduras Interoceanic Railway.

From the description of Letter : New York, to J.W. Doughty, 1870 Oct. 15. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 30806827

American archaeologist, diplomat and businessman.

From the description of Letter to Fitz-Greene Halleck [manuscript], 1842 March 18. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647923956

Archeologist, diplomat, and businessman.

From the description of The papers of Ephraim George Squier, 1841-1848. (University of California, Berkeley). WorldCat record id: 214955710

Squier was a journalist, diplomat, and archaeologist. He edited newspapers in New York and Ohio, and wrote books on Native American antiquities and the Civil War. Squier negotiated a treaty for an interoceanic canal across Nicaragua, and was involved in plans to build a railroad across Honduras. About 1860 he became chief editor for Frank Leslie's Publishing House. He married Miriam Florence Follin, who later married Frank Leslie.

From the description of Papers, 1838-1905. (Indiana Historical Society Library). WorldCat record id: 33804797

Journalist, diplomat, and archaeologist, Squier was born in Bethlehem, N.Y. He edited various newspapers in New York, Connecticut, and Ohio from 1842 to 1846. He collaborated with Edwin H. Davis studying the remains of Mound Builders in Ohio. The result of their research appeared in the first publication of the Smithsonian Institution. He was commissioner to Peru (1863-1865) and was successful in settling financial claims between the two countries. He later returned to his work with the publishing house of Frank Leslie. (DAB)

From the guide to the Claims Brought Before the United States and Peru Mixed Claims Commission, 1863-1864, (Harvard Law School Library, Harvard University)

Diplomat, journalist and archeologist.

From the description of Papers, 1847-1894 (bulk 1849-1859). (New York University, Group Batchload). WorldCat record id: 58778904

Ephraim George Squier (1821-1888), a journalist, archaeologist and diplomat, was an authority on Central America. He held a number of consular and diplomatic posts in Latin America.

From the description of Letter : New York to Hon. J. M. Mason, 1853 February 19. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122640072

Ephraim G. Squier, an archaeologist, author and diplomat, went to Central America in 1849 as chargé d'affaires, and returned in 1853 to make surveys for the Honduras Interoceanic Railway. He served as U.S. commissioner to Peru (1863-65) and as consul general of Honduras in New York in 1868. Squier wrote many books on Central and South America.

From the description of Papers of E. G. Squier, 1852-1858. (Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens). WorldCat record id: 122288696

Archeologist and diplomat.

From the description of Papers, ca. 1845-1870. (Rhinelander District Library). WorldCat record id: 18727444

Ephraim Squier was a diplomat, archaeologist, traveler and author.

From the description of Letter to "Dear Gov." and portrait of Ephraim Squier. 1866. (Haverford College Library). WorldCat record id: 173972923

Archaeologist, diplomat, and businessman.

From the description of Papers of E. G. Squier. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 71132858

Journalist, diplomat, and archaeologist, Squier was born in Bethlehem, N.Y. He edited various newspapers in New York, Connecticut, and Ohio from 1842 to 1846. He collaborated with Edwin H. Davis studying the remains of Mound Builders in Ohio. The result of their research appeared in the first publication of the Smithsonian Institution. He was commissioner to Peru (1863-1865) and was successful in settling financial claims between the two countries. He later returned to his work with the publishing house of Frank Leslie.(DAB)

From the description of Claims brought before the United States and Peru Mixed Claims Commission, 1863-1864. (Harvard Law School Library). WorldCat record id: 235991916

Archaeologist, diplomat, author, editor, and businessman.

From the description of E.G. Squier papers, 1841-1888 (bulk 1846-1874). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 70981199

Archaeologist, diplomat, and author.

An investigator of antiquities in the Mississippi Valley and the state of New York, Squier subsequently was appointed to various diplomatic posts in Central and South America, regions which also became the subject of his archaeological and historical research and writing.

From the description of Letter : New York, [N.Y.], to [John Russell] Bartlett, 1870 Dec. 11. (Newberry Library). WorldCat record id: 40222331

Biographical Note

• 1821, June 17: Born, Bethlehem, N.Y.
• 1842 - 1845 : Journalist and editor, Poets' Magazine,New York State Mechanic, and Hartford Evening Journal
• 1845: Publisher, Scioto Gazette (Chillicothe, Ohio)
• 1847 - 1848 : Clerk, Ohio House of Representatives
• 1848: Published with Edwin Hamilton Davis Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (New York: Bartlett and Welford; Cincinnati: J.M. and U.P. James; Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. 306 pp.)
• 1849 - 1850 : Chargé d'affaires, Guatemala
• 1851: Published Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New York (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. 188 pp.)
• 1852: Published Nicaragua; Its People, Scenery, Monuments, and the Proposed Inter-oceanic Canal (New York: D. Appleton & Co. 2 vols.)
• 1853: Secretary, Honduras Interoceanic Railway Co.
• 1858: Published The States of Central America (New York: Harper & Brothers. 782 pp.) Married Miriam Florence Folline (later divorced)
• 1860: Editor, publishing firm of Frank Leslie
• 1861: Supervised Frank Leslie's Pictorial History of the American Civil War (New York: F. Leslie, 1861-1862, 2 vols.)
• 1863 - 1865 : United States United States Peru Republic of Peru United States Commissioner to Peru
• 1867: Delegate of the American Ethnological Society to the Anthropological Congress of Paris for 1867
• 1868: Honduras Republic of Honduras New York, N.Y. New York City Chelsea New York Consul-General of Honduras,New York, N.Y.
• 1870: Published Honduras; Descriptive, Historical, and Statistical (London: Trubner & Co. 278 pp.)
• 1871: President, Anthropological Society of New York
• 1874 - 1888 : Suffered intermittent periods of mental illness
• circa 1874: Remarried Miriam Florence Folline Squier Leslie
• 1877: Published Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (London: Macmillan and Co. 599 pp.)
• 1888, Apr. 17: Died, Brooklyn, N.Y.

From the guide to the E. G. Squier Papers, 1841-1888, (bulk 1846-1874), (Manuscript Division Library of Congress)

Ephraim Squier (1821-1886) is well known in American anthropology. The son of Joel Squier (1798-1891), a Methodist minister, and Katherine Kilmer Squier (1797-1833), Ephraim was born in Bethlehem, New York. Because of his father's itinerant preaching and sparse income, Squier had little opportunity to receive a formal education and thus attended school intermittently. At his father's behest, he initially began his career as a teacher. Realizing his disdain for pedagogy, Squier then trained to be a civil engineer. This career, however, did not prove to be lucrative. Having an interest in poetry, Squier became increasingly engaged in writing and was eventually drawn to journalism. In the early 1840's, he edited and published several unsuccessful magazines and journals, such as the short-lived Poet's Magazine . He then edited and wrote for The New York State Mechanic, publishing articles on prison reform. His gradual involvement in politics and social issues led to a position in 1843 as co-editor of the Hartford Journal, for which he wrote articles in support of the Whig party. In 1845, he took a job in Chillicothe, Ohio, as editor of the Scioto Gazette, a publication that also had Whig inclinations.

Despite his productive writing career, Squier is best known for his influence in the founding of American archaeology, and for his contribution to ethnology. It was during his time as editor of the Gazette that Squier became interested in the remnants of Mississippian culture in Ohio. Although he continued to engage in politics, as evidenced by his appointment in 1846 as House Clerk to the Ohio House of Representatives, the lure of ancient cultures and their material remains still intrigued him. He proved to be as prolific a writer of anthropology as he was as a journalist. His seminal publications are Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley (1848), which he wrote with Edwin Hamilton Davis (1811-1888), and Aboriginal Monuments of the State of New-York (1849). Both volumes were based on extensive survey work conducted by Davis and Squier in Ohio and Squier himself in New York, and published by the Smithsonian Institution. As serious and ambitious anthropological works, the volumes contain cross-cultural analogies and provide detailed maps of survey work of mounds and earthworks, thus yielding a great deal of insight into the prehistory of New York and the Ohio Valley.

In 1849, Squier was offered a diplomatic position in Nicaragua. During his one-year tenure, he negotiated a treaty with Nicaragua for the construction of an American canal. Despite his diplomatic responsibilities, he was still able to find time to explore local archaeological sites, and to investigate and write on anthropological topics. Thus, his focus shifted to the archaeology of Central America. One publication that he wrote during this period was The Serpent Symbol and the Reciprocal Principles of Nature (1851). In 1852 he then published Nicaragua: Its People, Scenery, Monuments and the Proposed Inter-Oceanic Canal, which addresses both archaeological and ethnohistorical questions.

In addition to Nicaragua, Squier acquired other diplomatic positions in Central America in order to have access to archaeological sites, although he also used his station to promote development in the region. In 1853, he put forth the idea of building a railroad across part of Nicaragua and Honduras. However, the Honduras Interoceanic Railway Project never reached fruition. In the early 1860's, Squier once again returned to journalism, this time as an editor for a publishing firm owned by Frank Leslie (1821-1880). A few years later, he was appointed United States Commissioner to Peru between 1863 and 1865, after which he wrote his last major publication, Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Incas (1877). In 1868, he was appointed Consul-General of Honduras. This was his last diplomatic appointment.

In 1873, Squier and his wife, Miriam Florence Follin (1828-1914), divorced. Shortly thereafter, he began to show signs of mental deterioration and was committed to an asylum before eventually becoming the ward of his brother Frank. He died in 1888. Although his anthropological pursuits ceased during the latter part of his life, Squier is nonetheless remembered as a passionate intellectual who attempted to answer theoretical questions about human behavior and the nature of the organization of societies. Above all, he sought to understand trans-historical and cross-cultural similarities between ancient societies, which has earned him a prominent place as one of the forerunners of modern anthropology.

From the guide to the Ephraim George Squier papers, Squier, Ephriam George, 1818-1886, 1861-1886, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)