Ignatius Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was an American politician, orator, author, and social reformer.
Ignatius Donnelly is best remembered today for his influential scientific and historical writings, particularly Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), which popularized the modern theory of Atlantis as a real ancient civilization.
As a congressman, Ignatius Donnelly focused on Reconstruction-era issues and economic reforms.
Ignatius Donnelly ran unsuccessfully for various offices, including Congress in 1884 and governor in 1900.
After political setbacks, Ignatius Donnelly turned increasingly to writing.
In Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel (1883), Ignatius Donnelly advanced a catastrophist theory, claiming that a comet’s near-collision with Earth caused the biblical Flood, the destruction of Atlantis, and the extinction of mammoths.
Ignatius Donnelly married Katherine McCaffrey in 1855; she died in 1894.
In his final decades, Ignatius Donnelly focused on writing, lecturing, and third-party politics.
Ignatius Donnelly died on January 1, 1901, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at age 69.
Ignatius Donnelly left a dual legacy as a populist reformer and a popularizer of fringe theories.
Ignatius Donnelly's scientific and historical claims drew sharp criticism.
Ignatius Donnelly embodied the restless energy of 19th-century America, moving between politics, speculation, and speculative thought.
While most people today still consider Atlantis a myth, others, including nineteenth-century American congressman Ignatius Donnelly, took Plato’s words as “veritable history,” claiming Atlantis was the place where humankind first rose from barbarism to civilization.
Much like Ignatius Donnelly, Anders believed the Adanteans were gods, except that they “did not makeit into the present world.
Ignatius Donnelly, in his 1882 book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, argued that Atlantis was a real, advanced civilization that served as the source of all ancient cultures, technologies, and myths.
(See Short's North Americans of Antiquity, Winchell's Pre-Adamites, and Catlin's Indians of North America; see also Atlantis, by Ignatius Donnelly who has collected a great mass of evidence under this and other heads.) We shall see by and by how the diversity of complexion on the American continent is accounted for by the original race-tints on the parent continent of Atlantis.
Ignatius Donnelly argued that the flood myth in the Bible and similar legends in Chaldean records and other ancient texts could be a cultural memory of the catastrophe that submerged Atlantis.
LaFlem highlighted the work of Ignatius Donnelly, a 19th-century congressman, who, in his book Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, claimed that Atlantis was a real place.
Ignatius Donnelly's "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" (1882) - This book popularized the idea of Atlantis as the cradle of civilization, influencing many subsequent theories.
Mainstream Atlantis writing often answers through Egypt, Peru, and diffusion claims from Ignatius Donnelly.
Ignatius Donnelly’s Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882) is the main popular source for the Atlantean sun-worship claim.
Did Atlantis worship the sun?Atlantis writers such as Ignatius Donnelly said yes: sun worship was Atlantis’s original religion, preserved in Egypt and Peru.
Ignatius Donnelly (Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, 1882) closely follows Plato, emphasizing Atlas as the firstborn who inherits the central kingdom and whose name defines the Atlantic.
In "Atlantis: The Antediluvian World" by Ignatius Donnelly, it is stated that the Egyptians, the Guanches of the Canary Islands, and the Peruvians all shared this belief and practiced mummification as a result.
Ignatius Donnelly, in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World (1882), Part V, Chapter I, reports Toltec religion and cross use through Dêsirè Charnay’s Tula notes:
Source: Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, Part V, Chapter I (Sacred Texts).
Ignatius Donnelly opened his 1882 chapter “The God Odin, Woden, or Wotan” in Atlantis: The Antediluvian World by stating the Germanic identity, then moving into Olympus and Atlantis:
Source: Ignatius Donnelly, Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, Part IV, Chapter IV (Sacred Texts).