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ABSTRACT
Carved out of the jungle by American big business, Penn Museum’s project at Tikal to restore massive pyramids and showcase Maya civilization was a direct outgrowth of government, military, and corporate connections. The story of Pennsylvania in the Petén is about American involvement in developing tourism, infrastructure, research stations, training, and the making of Guatemalan heritage citizens. It is also about increasing US government vigilance south of the border after the 1954 CIA-backed coup, whether in forging anti-communist alliances or commercial concessions. Philanthropists supporting Tikal were themselves representatives from US banking, oil, agriculture, aviation, and tourism sectors, making it impossible to disentangle archaeology from industrial and political adventurism. Extractive economies involving archaeology, oil, chicle, and bananas all ferried equipment and products back and forth to the Petén via American boats and planes, along dirt roads and airstrips built by American firms. Sold as the first great city of the Americas and costing almost a million dollars, the resurrection of Tikal underlines the ineluctable dependencies between security, espionage, international politics, corporations, conservation, and donor economies.
Acknowledgements
As always, I am grateful for the opportunity to work in the Penn Museum archives and especially with my colleague Alex Pezzati, who generously shared his insights on Tikal. Anne Tibali and Sarah Linn also facilitated this research through their ongoing support and in funding my research assistant, Sarah LaPorte. In Guatemala, I am indebted to Tomas Barrientos Quezada, Director of the Department of Archaeology at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala for opening up the Shook Archive and to his students who collected and scanned the correspondence. Barbara Arroyo was a generous colleague and interlocutor during my visit in 2022, sharing her knowledge of the site and Guatemalan archaeology. Perhaps the real discovery of Tikal was meeting Roberto Ortiz, the grandson of Antonio Ortiz who managed the day-to-day operations of Tikal, made his own archaeological discoveries, and went on to develop the site for future generations. Staying at the Jungle Lodge, built by Ortiz during Penn’s excavations and now run by his family, was an unforgettable experience. Finally, I would like to thank Rosemary Joyce, Sam Holley-Kline, Susan Lindee, Gertjan Plets, Richard Leventhal, Charlotte Williams, Richard Hodges, and Annalisa Bolin who read and improved the paper, along with four anonymous reviewers, and Christina Luke for her incomparable guidance throughout.
Notes
1 November 9, 1955, News Bureau, University of Pennsylvania. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, Box 1, 1955. Penn Museum Archives (hereafter PM).
2 Draft letter from Froelich Rainey to Nelson Rockefeller. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, Box 1, 1955. PM.
3 November 9, 1955, News Bureau, University of Pennsylvania. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, Box 1, 1955. PM.
4 John Dimick, ‘Methods and Costs.’ Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, Box 1, 1948–1950. PM.
5 June 3, 1948, Froelich Rainey to Sylvanus Morley. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Box 1. PM.
6 June 3, 1948, Froelich Rainey to Sylvanus Morley. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Box 1. PM.
7 June 1, 1948, A. V. Kidder to Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Box 1. PM.
8 December 23, 1948, A. V. Kidder to Percy Madeira. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Box 1. PM.
9 March 15, 1949, John Sims to Edwin Shook. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Folder 1. PM.
10 March 15, 1949, John Sims to Edwin Shook. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1950, Folder 1. PM.
11 January 16, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. Universidad del Valle de Guatemala Archives (hereafter UVG).
12 January 16, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. UVG.
13 January 16, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. UVG.
14 February 18, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. UVG.
15 February 18, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. UVG.
16 February 21, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 200. UVG.
17 January 25, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 41. UVG.
18 January 25, 1958, Linton Satterthwaite to Edwin Shook. Box 41. UVG.
19 April 8, 1957, Froelich Rainey to Sam Eckert. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1957, Box 1. PM.
20 February 8, 1958, Froelich Rainey to John Dimick. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1958, Box 2. PM.
21 February 8, 1958, Froelich Rainey to John Dimick. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1958, Box 2. PM.
22 February 14, 1958, Froelich Rainey to Phillip Wootten, Life magazine. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1958, Box 2. PM.
23 February 28, 1958, Froelich Rainey to Edwin Shook. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1958, Box 2. PM.
24 October 24, 1961, Froelich Rainey to William J. Mayer-Oakes, Box 33, Folder 4. UVG.
25 June 29, 1956, draft letter to Henry Ford II. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence, 1948–1956, Box 1. PM.
26 May 22, 1964, Col. Truman Smith to Edwin Shook. Folder 209. UVG.
27 Undated letter from Col. Truman Smith, sent to Froelich Rainey April 25, 1955, to be forwarded to A. V. Kidder. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1955, Box 1. PM.
28 August 2, 1958, Michael Coe to A. V. Kidder. CA: letters received by Edwin Shook, Folder 41. UVG.
29 April 9, 1961, Edwin Shook to Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1961, Box 3. PM.
30 February 25, 1960. Edwin Shook to Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1961, Box 3. PM.
31 December 7, 1960. Text by Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1961, Box 3. PM.
32 February 26, 1963, Froelich Rainey to Carlos Samayoa Chinchilla. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1963, Box 4. PM.
33 May 13, 1964, Edwin Shook to Col. Truman Smith. Folder 209. UVG.
34 March 4, 1964, Froelich Rainey to Aubrey Trik. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1964, Box 4. PM.
35 Undated draft by Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1963, Box 4. PM.
36 Undated draft by Froelich Rainey. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1963, Box 4. PM.
37 Draft response to Heinrich Berlin from Froelich Rainey, Alfred Kidder II, Linton Satterthwaite, and William R. Coe, June 1966. Tikal Project, Administrative Correspondence 1966–1967, Box 4. PM.
38 September 11, 1964, Froelich Rainey to Congressman John Rooney. “R-” Correspondence 1947–1977. Froelich Rainey Director’s Office Records. PM.
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Lynn Meskell
Lynn Meskell is Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is Richard D. Green Professor of Anthropology in the School of Arts and Sciences, Professor in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation at the Weitzman School of Design, and curator in the Middle East and Asia sections at the Penn Museum. Currently she serves as AD White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University (2019–2025).