Home > Alfred Maudslay

Alfred Percival Maudslay was born into a wealthy engineering family 1850. He studied natural sciences at Cambridge in 1868-72 and was acquainted with J.W. Clark , who was Secretary of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society . After graduation he enrolled in medical school but left because of acute bronchitis. He moved to Trinidad and became a private secretary to the governor William Cairns . He transferred with Cairns to Queensland but later moved to work with Sir Arthur Gordon , governor of Fiji. During his time there, Maudslay took part of the campaign against local rebellious tribes. Later he served as a British consul in Tonga and Samoa. In total, Maudslay spent six years in the British colonies in the Pacific.

In February 1880 Maudslay resigned from the colonial service to pursuit his own interests. He joined his siblings in Calcutta during their around-the-world trip and returned to Britain by December. He set out for Guatemala via British Honduras.

In Guatemala Maudslay went to the Maya ruins of Quirigua and Copan. With the help of Frank Sarg, he began to hire laborers to help with the ruins. Sarg also introduced Maudslay with the newly found ruins in TikalTikal is the largest of the ancient ruined cities of the Maya civilization. It is located in the Peten region of Guatemala. Tikal in the Classic era Tikal was one of the major cultural and population centers of the Maya civilization. Monumental architectu and a reliable guide Gorgonio Lopez.

Maudslay had the ruins cleared and surveyed them. He pioneered many of the later archaeological techniques. He hired technicians to make plasterThis article is about the building material. For the adhesive medical dressing, see Sticking plaster. Plaster of Paris or simply plaster is a type of building material based on calcium sulfate hemihydrate, nominally (CaSO). It is created by heating gypsum casts of the carvings, took numerous photographs - dry-plate photography was still a new technique in those days - and made copies of the inscriptions.

Maudslay decided to make plaster casts of many of the sculptures. For this purpose he hired Italian expert Lorenzo Giuntini . Gorgonio López learned to make casts out of papier-mâchéPapier-mach (French, 'chewed-up paper') is a construction material that consists of pieces of paper, sometimes reinforced with textiles, stuck together using a wet paste (e. glue, starch, or wallpaper adhesive). The crafted object becomes solid when the p. Casts were then shipped to Britain. Two of them were damaged during transportation. Maudslay then hired artist Annie Hunter to draw impressions of the casts.

Maudslay made total of six expeditions to Maya ruins. He was the first to describe the site of Yaxchillan. The result of the Maudslay's work was published as a 5-volume archaeology section in a compendium Biologia Centrali-Americana.

In 1892Events January 1 Ellis Island begins accepting immigrants to the United States. January 14 Death of Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, second in line heir to the throne of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Next in line is his younger b Maudslay married US-born Annie Morris. For their honeymoon, the couple sailed to Guatemala via New York and San Francisco. There Maudslays worked for two weeks in behalf of the Peabody MuseumThe Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University was founded by the philanthropist George Peabody in 1866 at the behest of his nephew Othniel Charles Marsh, the early paleontologist. Most famous for its Great Hall of Dinosaurs, which includes a mo of Harvard University. Their account was published 1899 as A Glimpse at Guatemala.

Maudslay also applied for permission of making a survey in Monte Alban in Oaxaca but when he finally received permission in 1902, he could no longer support the work with his own money. The firm of Maudslay, Sons and Field had went bankrupt and reduced Maudslay's income. He unsuccessfully applied for funding from the Carnegie Institution . Maudslays moved to San Angel near Mexico City for two years.

In 1905 Maudslay began to translate memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who had been an ordinary soldier in the troops of conquistadors; he completed it 1912. In 1907 Maudslays moved permanently back to Britain. Maudslay become a President of the Royal Anthropological Institute 1911-12. He also chaired the 18th International Congress of Americanists in London in 1912.

Annie Maudslay died in 1926. In 1928 Maudslay married widow Alice Purdon. In the following years he finished his memoirs, Life in the Pacific Fifty Years Ago.

Alfred Maudslay died January 1931 in Hereford, London. He was buried in the crypt of Hereford Cathedral next to his first wife. Materials he collected are currently stored at Harvard and the British Museum.