David Joaquín Guzmán (August 15, 1843 – January 20, 1927). Born in 1843 in San Miguel, San Salvador, El Salvador, to the future president of El Salvador. After the war with Guatemala, Dr. Guzmán would go on to focus on public education and vaccination while undergoing multiple geological and archeological studies of El Salvador. He received his BA in Philosophy from the University of San Carlos, Guatemala, and his MD (1869) from the School of Medicine in Paris.
He returned to El Salvador and began geological investigations. He then served as the Undersecretary of Public Instruction and Outer Relations for President González of El Salvador where he established the San Salvador School of Arts and Careers (1874) and headed the vaccination campaign to fight smallpox. From 1881-1887 he served as a Professor of Medicine and Botany at the University of El Salvador, and after 1883 served as founding Director of the National Museum of El Salvador. It is said that the majority of the exhibits were donations from his own geological and archeological expeditions, including art and artifacts from Olmec and Mayan cultures. He was an Honorary Member of both the Academie Internationale de Botanique de Le Mans and the Academie Universelle des Sciences Naturelles, Bruxelles. Dr. Guzmán passed away in 1927, and the museum was renamed in his honor to the David J. Guzmán National Museum of Anthropology.
REFERENCES:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20170305001426/http://www.elsalvadorhistorico.org/articulos/biografias/105-dr-david-j-guzman.html,
- https://neglectedscience.com/david-joaquin-guzman/
Image Source:
Public Domain
Before 1920
