E. G. (Ephraim George) Squier

Born in Bethlehem, New York, in 1821, Ephraim George Squier was largely self-educated and began his career in journalism before becoming known for his work in archaeology and ethnology. He moved to Ohio in the 1840s, where his interest in ancient earthworks led to a major collaboration with physician Edwin H. Davis.

That partnership produced Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley in 1848, a landmark study of the prehistoric mounds and enclosures of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. The book is widely remembered as the first major systematic investigation of the Mound Builders and helped establish Squier's reputation as an important early American archaeologist.

Squier later served as a U.S. diplomat in Central America and continued exploring and writing about the Americas, including work in Nicaragua, Peru, and Bolivia. His career ranged across archaeology, history, diplomacy, and publishing, and although some of his ideas reflect the limits of nineteenth-century scholarship, his fieldwork and publications played a notable role in the early development of American anthropology and archaeology.