Yucatán Through Her Eyes: Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, Writer & Expeditionary Photographer by Lawrence Gustave Desmond (PhD Anth’83)

This biography tells the story of Alice Dixon Le Plongeon, who left London to travel to the Yucután peninsula in southeastern Mexico  with husband and Mayan archaeologist Augustus Le Plongeon.  The couple was the first to excavate and systematically photograph the Mayan sites of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal. Alice devoted the rest of her life to lecturing and writing on a wide range of topics, including her exploration of Maya civilization, political activism and social justice, and epic poetry.  Desmond’s book offers a rare glimpse of life in the Yucután and the emerging field of Mesoamerican archaeology during the final quarter of the 19th century.

University of New Mexico Press, 2009; 415 pages; 0826345956