John Cleves Symmes

Born in 1780 and active in the early United States as a soldier, trader, and lecturer, John Cleves Symmes Jr. became famous for promoting the idea that the Earth was hollow and open at the poles. In 1818 he launched that campaign with his widely discussed “No. 1 Circular,” inviting the world to test his theory.

He spent years giving lectures and trying to win support for an expedition to the polar regions, arguing that the planet was made of concentric spheres that could be entered near the poles. Although mainstream science rejected his claims, his persistence made him a memorable figure in American cultural and scientific history.

Symmes died in 1829, but his ideas outlived him. His hollow-earth theory continued to inspire debate, satire, and later works of imaginative literature, securing his place as a curious and influential fringe thinker of the nineteenth century.