Alice Dixon’s life (1851-1910) as a writer began in the 1870s after she decided to accompany her husband Augustus Le Plongeon to Yucatán to search for evidence that the ancient Maya had founded Egyptian civilization.
She had been privately educated in London, and saw the explorations proposed by Le Plongeon as a unique opportunity to apply the writing skills she had learned from her tutors, and began posting entries in her Yucatán Diary as early as 1873 during their initial voyage from New York to Progreso, Yucatán, and was the first woman to have her writings published by the American Antiquarian Society since it founding in 1812.
She returned permanently to New York City in 1884, and for the next twenty-five years she published in professional and popular journals about life as it was lived by the Maya and Yucatecans in nineteenth century Yucatán, and about life in the ancient Maya cities of Chichén Itzá and Uxmal.
Armed with a Remington rifle against surprise attack she witnessed battles between the rebel Maya and Yucatecan army, and traveled within territory controlled by the Maya to photograph, interview rebel commanders, and report on the war in a way similar to war correspondents of today.
Dixon’s writings are unique for the colonial era, and unlike nineteenth century men’s writings that reflect their complete domination of all levels of society. Dixon’s writings give broader view of the war and its causes being “freer and more expressive than men’s, using irony and humor" (Deptris 2024:7).