GLIDDON, GEORGE R, American Egyptologist, antiquary, and ethnologist, wash. in 1807, in Grand Cairo, Egypt, where his father, John Gliddon, was for many years U. S. consul. Ile resided for thirty-two years in the valley of the Nile and in the Levant, and had extraordinary opportunities for pursuing those scientific researches to which he appears to have devoted a large portion of his life. He filled for several years, the post of the United States consul at Cairo.
About the year 1840, Mr. Gliddon visited London, Paris, and his own country, to which he had been so entirely a stranger. In the United States, he gtive lectures in all the principal cities, from Boston and New York to Mobile and New Orleans, on Egyptian and other oriental antiquities. His earliest work, Ancient Egypt, her Monuments, Hiero glyphics, History, and Arclueology, etc., was so successful, that 18,000 copies were sold in America alone in three years. It has passed through many editions. He published also, at about the same period, an Appeal to the Antiquaries of Europe on the Destruction of the Monuments of Egypt; Discourses on Egyptian Are/urology; a Memoir on the Cotton of Egypt; and Otia _zEgyptiaca.
In the course of his travels in the United States, Mr. Gliddon formed acquaintance& with men of science who were interested in his Egyptian researches, and who, in turn, interested him in a broader range of ethnological investigations. Conspicuous among these were Dr. Morton of Philadelphia, distinguished for his craniological investigations; Dr. Nott of Mobile, prof. Agassiz, the naturalist; and others. He wished now to avail himself of the advantages of European museums and libraries, but had not the necessary means. He found, however, a generous friend in Mr. Richard K. Haight of New York, who imported costly works from Europe, not then to be found in America, and also furnished him with money for a visit to London, Paris, and Berlin.
The results of his studies are to be found in two quarto volumes, published by Mr. ', Gliddon, with the co-operation of Dr. Nott, and several other savants, both European and American. In 1854 was published Types of Mankind, or Ethnological Researches ibased upon the Ancient Monuments, Paintings, Sculptures, and Crania of Races, etc., by J. 1 C. Nott, M.D., of Mobile, Ala., and George R. Gliddon; and containing papers by \ ' Dr. and Drs. q.trisa.rtUosle volume Chapters of Ethnological Inquiry, including monographs by M. Alfred Maury, librarian of the French institute; Francis Pulszky, a learned Hungarian; and prof. Meigs of Philadelphia. This work bears also the Point names and Gliddon; and Mrs.
Gliddon, an accomplished artist, gave her assistance in drawing upon the wood the engravings with which it is profusely illustrated. Just as this work was published, Mr. Glidden died at Panama, isthmus of Darien, whither he had gone to pursue his ethno logical researches.
- Mr. Gliddou was an enthusiast, not only in his investigations, but in the advocacy of his theories or convictions, and is unsparing in his criticisms of his opponents. He has labored to prove the great antiquity and diversity of origin of the human races. His works have been severely criticised and condemned by those who bold to popular chronology and the unity of the race. The materials he has brought together are valu able and suggestive; but his treatment of them can scarcely be considered satisfactory; and lie is not free from the suspicion of a bias in favor of the enslavement of certain of those whom he considered inferior races.