The Maya

[George Thomas Wilson]

The Maya

Article Reprint from the December 1975 National Geographic

The cover story for the December 1975 issue of National Geographic (Vol. 148, No. 6) is entitled “The Maya”. It is comprised of four articles about the Mayan people and makes up more than half of the issue.

Cover courtesy of Philip Riviere

I recently acquired the article reprint for “The Maya”. Since it contains four articles, this reprint has a spine instead of staples. The spine is solid yellow.

Roger Nathan, in his book Collectibles of the National Geographic Society (1982), states that the article reprint for the December 1975 “The Maya” comes “In Spanish and English versions” (Page 30). Not only that, Nathan has a black-and-white image of the Spanish version, “Los Mayas” (Page 26).

Besides “The Maya”, Nathan lists two other article reprints that relate to the Mayan people:

Dzibilchaltum – January 1959, and

Guatemala, Maya and Modern – November 1974.

In addition to Nathan’s listed reprints, there is a fourth, related article reprint from the October 1989 issue entitled “La Ruta Maya”. I’m fortunate to have this one as well.

When I received the December 1975 reprint, it came with a guide map of the ruins of Tikal. This map is not a National Geographic product. The line in the lower right border reads, “Copyright applied for by the Asociacion Tikal, Guatemala 1969”. Even though it was not a Society product, it is spot on as a supplement for this reprint

Yours in Collecting,

Tom Wilson

[Richard Kennedy]

The english edition of the article reprint came with the October 1989 supplement "Land of the Maya - A Traveler's Map".

The color cover of the Spanish language edition follows.

Both photographs are from my collection.

-- Richard Kennedy

[George Thomas Wilson]

Thanks Richard, the photos are great.

To be clear,  are you saying that the December 1975 article reprint came with the October 1989 map, and not that the map came with the October 1989 "La Ruta Maya" reprint?

[Richard Kennedy]

George,

The map "Land of the Maya - A Traveler's Map" came with the english version of the reprint both issued in 1989. My copy of the Spanish version did not have a map.

-- Richard Kennedy

[George Thomas Wilson]

Appreciate it, Richard.  I go by Tom by the way.

[George Thomas Wilson]

Richard, 

I just got my Spanish version today. 

Tom Wilson

[George Thomas Wilson]

Thanks to Jeff Persons I now have the images for the remaining two article reprints concerning the Mayan people.  Together with Richard's photos and my own this completes the third installments of my "Recurring Themes in NGM Article Reprints" series.

January 1959 - Dzibilchaltun

November 1974 -  Guatemala, Maya and Modern

Tom Wilson