Alice Dixon Le Plongeon

Later the same year Alice met Augustus Le Plongeon while he was in London studying Mexican and Maya artifacts at the British Museum.

"[2] Twenty-five years her senior, Augustus Le Plongeon was a French-American photographer and amateur archeologist who had already traveled and worked in Chile, California, and Peru.

Alice grew interested in ancient Maya civilization, studied John L. Stephen's Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, and agreed to join Augustus on his expedition.

In 1875, they left Mérida and traveled to Chichen Itza with a military escort, who was assigned to stay with the archeologists while they worked.

[3] When out in the field, the Le Plongeons practiced archeology by taking numerous photographs, sketching drawings and maps, making molds of bas-reliefs, and digging excavation tunnels to explore buildings.

In addition to the detachment of soldiers, the Le Plongeons hired local Maya men to cut back the vegetation and clear growth from the site.

[1] In addition to exploring the sites of Chichen Itza and Uxmal, Alice and her husband worked around the city of Mérida, and at Mayapan.

In 1878 they traveled south to British Honduras before financial difficulties forced them to return to the United States to solicit sponsorship.

When in New York the couple gave lectures on their work and attempted to sell their bas-relief molds to museums and collectors.

[4] In November 1875 the Le Plongeons unearthed a large statue from near the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars at Chichen Itza.

She also gave lectures to fund raise for the New York Diet Kitchen Association, an organization which aimed to fed the poor.

Alice continued to write and give lectures after her husband's death but became ill and was diagnosed with breast cancer in February 1910.