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Darwin Correspondence Project

John Cleves Symmes

1780–1829

American army officer and hollow-earth theorist. Nephew of John Cleves Symmes (1742–1814). Captain in the US army. After retiring in 1818, issued a circular declaring the earth to be hollow, with openings at the poles, and campaigned for polar exploration to confirm his theory.

Sources

Letter from J. C. Symmes, 6 February 1874 and n. 6

Rothenberg ed. 2001 s.v. Hollow-earth, theory of.

letter