A Study of Maya Art, Its Subject Matter and Historical Development

Author: Herbert Joseph Spinden (1879-1967)

Year: 1913

Publisher: Harvard University Peabody Museum

Place: Cambridge

Description:

xxii+[1]+285+[28] pages with 80 in-text black and white drawings of Maya art as well as photographs on 29 plates, folding charts and fold-out map. Folio (14 1/4" x 11 3/4") bound in half purple cloth with black label to spine in gilt lettering over beige boards. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Volume VI. First edition.

Herbert Joseph Spinden was an American anthropologist, archaeologist and art historian who specialized in the study of Native American cultures of the US and Mesoamerica. After receiving an A.B. degree in 1906, he continued his studies at Harvard where he specialized in Mayan art under the direction of Alfred Tozzer. He received a doctorate degree in 1909 after submitting his thesis, A Study of Mayan Art, which has been called a "brilliant analysis of the evolution of styles".

He then worked American Museum of Natural History where he undertook archaeological studies in Mexico and Central America. While working as an archaeologist in Central America he and Sylvanus G. Morley were among the American scientists gathering intelligence for the US Army. He then curated the collection of the Peabody Museum at Harvard, before taking museum positions in Brooklyn and Buffalo.

Condition:

Bound in half cloth with bumped and rubbed corners, shelf wear with some soiling else very good.