In Search Of A Lost Race: The Illustrated American Exploring Expedition of 1892

by James H. Knipmeyer

The Illustrated American was a periodical published in New York City during the last decade of the 1800s. Though billing itself as "A Weekly News Magazine," it also contained stories of a more general nature, articles on politics, and even works of fiction. A comparatively short-lived publication, with issues from February 22, 1890, until 1900, it has been described as "similar to Life in its attractively illustrated news feature articles." Taking place in Chicago during The Illustrated American's early years was the so-called World's Fair, though more accurately and correctly it was titled the World's Columbian Exposition. Originally intended to be a celebration of the quadricentennial of Columbus' 1492 discovery of the New World, administrative and logistical problems effectively pushed back the actual opening date until May, 1893. One of the principal purposes of the fair was to show what had been discovered and learned about the indigenous cultures and native peoples of the Americas during the four hundred years since Columbus' time. Thus, exhibits of an anthropological, archeological, and ethnological nature were to be a prime focus of at least part of the exposition. The Illustrated American had been allotted space at the Columbian Exposition to display both a collection of prehistoric relics from the American Southwest and scale models of the ancient aboriginal buildings located there. Therefore, in August of 1891, Maurice M. Milton, then general manager of The Illustrated American, hired Mr. Warren K. Moorehead, an archeologist formerly with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D. C., to lead a scientific expedition into the "Cliff Dwellers' country" of Colorado, NewMexico, and Utah. He was to secure such a collection of artifacts and make plans and photographs of the ruins themselves. Also of prime interest to The Illustrated American, of course, was the regular contribution of articles to the publication from members of the expedition, not only after they returned from their explorations, but also while they were actually away in the field. The resulting series of articles, fourteen in all, began in the April 2, 1892, issue and concluded with that of August 27 of the same year. All, with the exception of the last one, were entitled "In Search of a Lost Race," referring to the so-called "Cliff Dwellers" of the southwest United States. The Illustrated American Exploring Expedition, as it called itself, was one of the first organized scientific parties to be sent out from the East for the specific purpose of exploring, studying, and describing in printed publications the prehistoric culture of the "cliff dwellers" in the San Juan River valley of the Colorado Plateau region. If nothing else it is significant in that regard. Today, however, the Illustrated American expedition is a largely forgotten and unknown episode in the Four Corners area of the American Southwest. Only two authors briefly mention and give a comparatively short description of the exploring party. This present book includes not only reprints of the fourteen Illustrated American articles themselves, but also accounts based on stories done by some of the expedition members for other publications and two existing diaries kept during the survey. Also included are some of the drawings done while the party was in the field as well as half-tone illustrations made at The IllustratedAmerican in New York from photographs taken during the expedition. All of these appeared in the original 1892 Illustrated American articles. Supplementing these will be modern-day photographs of many of the sites visited by the exploring party. These were taken by photographer and fellow historian Mike S. Ford. Hopefully, this account will help to bring the Illustrated American Exploring Expedition back into historical focu

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 29, 2006

Reviews

[Todd Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the topic. Early historical accounts of proto-archaeology interest me. And I've seen some of the inscriptions this expedition left in Butler Wash. So it was great reading their original articles. The modern day authors added useful context, especially connecting place names to what we call things nowadays. But I wish this book included all of the illustrations from the original articles. Maybe those have been lost over time? And the modern commentary could have gone a lot deeper.