In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl

The gripping story of a pioneering anthropologist whose exploration of Aztec cosmology, rediscovery of ancient texts, and passion for collecting helped shape our understanding of pre-Columbian Mexico.

Where do human societies come from? The drive to answer this question inspired a generation of archaeologists and treasure-seekers who, following Darwin, began to look beyond the Bible for the origins of civilisations. Proud, disciplined, ferociously territorial, the inimitable Zelia Nuttall threw herself into the study of Mexico's past, eager to bring the tools of science to the study of ancient civilisations.

A child of the San Francisco Gold Rush, Zelia immersed herself in the tales of conquistadores and pored through records of the Inquisition. She knew Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec and Toltec, and was skilled at deciphering their pictographic stories. She was also conversant with their gods and myths, as well as the stars by which they regulated their rituals and other activities. The first to fully decode the Aztec calendar stone, Zelia Nuttall was a protégé of Frederick Putnam, who offered her a job at Harvard's Peabody Museum. But as a divorced mother with a dwindling fortune, she preferred to live in Mexico, her mother's birthplace, where she became a vital bridge between Mexican and American anthropologists through war and revolution.

The first biography of a true original, In the Shadow of Quetzalcoatl reveals how, from the 1880s to the 1930s, scholar-collectors like Zelia Nuttall shaped America's museums. Merilee Grindle captures the appeal and contradictions of this trailblazing woman, who contributed so much to the new field of anthropology until a newly professionalised generation trained in universities overshadowed her remarkable achievements.