Edward herbert thompson biography of williams

For other people named Edward Thompson, see Edward Thompson (disambiguation).

Edward Herbert Thompson (September 28, 1857 – May 11, 1935) was an American-born archaeologist and long-time consul to Yucatán, Mexico.

Biography

Edward H. Thompson was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Thompson devoted much of his career to study of the Maya civilization.

In 1879, Popular Science Monthly published "Atlantis Not a Myth", an article by Thompson in which he argued that the indigenous civilizations of North and Central America could be remnants of the lost continent of Atlantis.^[1] The article attracted the attention of Stephen Salisbury III, a wealthy Worcester resident, Mayanist, and principal benefactor of the American Antiquarian Society.

Salisbury, along with fellow AAS members The Rev. Edward Everett Hale and Massachusetts Senator George Frisbie Hoar, persuaded Thompson to move to Yucatán to explore the Maya ruins in exchange for receivin