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Alexander Cunningham
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British army engineer and amateur archaeologist (1814-1893)
OverviewAI-generated
Alexander Cunningham (1814–1893) was a British explorer, art historian, archaeologist, and numismatist born and died in London. He served as a general in the British Army and was educated at Christ's Hospital. His professional work focused on archaeology and oriental studies, and he wrote in English. He was a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Cunningham authored twenty-eight works, including *Ladak - Physical, Statistical and Historical with Notices of the Surrounding Countries*, *Ancient Geography of India*, *Saṇchi and Its Remains*, and *Report of a Tour in the Central Provinces and Lower Gangetic Doab in 1881-82. Vol. 17, Bhilsa Topes; or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India*. He is described by sources such as the *Nordisk familjebok* and the *Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary*. He was the father of Allan Joseph Champneys Cunningham and the brother of Joseph Davey Cunningham.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Open Library. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 28
Top works
- Ladak - Physical, Statistical and Historical with Notices of the Surrounding Countries
- Ancient Geography of India
- Sánchi and Its Remains
- Report of a Tour in the Central Provinces and Lower Gangetic Doab in 1881-82. Vol. 17
- Bhilsa Topes; or, Buddhist Monuments of Central India
via Open Library + Wikidata
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1814-01-23 ) 23 January 1814, London , United Kingdom
- Died
- 28 November 1893 (1893-11-28) (aged 79), London , United Kingdom
- Spouse
- Alicia Maria Whish ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1840 – 1870 ) (her death)
- Children
- Allan J. C. Cunningham Sir Alexander F. D. Cunningham
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Alexander
- Family name
- Cunningham
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Place of birth
- London
- Place of death
- London
- Father
- Allan Cunningham
- Occupation
- historian
- Educated at
- Christ's Hospital
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Field of work
- oriental studies
- Military branch
- British Army
- Military rank
- general
- Image
- Alexander Cunningham of the ASI 02.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- date of birth
- 1814-01-23
- date of death
- 1893-11-28
- Commons category
- Alexander Cunningham
- member of
- Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences
- name in native language
- Sir Alexander Cunningham
- writing language
- English language
- Commons Creator page
- Alexander Cunningham
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Major-General Sir Alexander Cunningham KCIE CSI (23 January 1814 – 28 November 1893) was a British Army engineer with the Bengal Sappers who later took an interest in the history and archaeology of India. In 1861, he was appointed to the newly created position of archaeological surveyor to the government of India; and he founded and organised what later became the Archaeological Survey of India.
He wrote numerous books and monographs and made extensive collections of artefacts. Some of his collections were lost, but most of the gold and silver coins and a fine group of Buddhist sculptures and jewellery were bought by the British Museum in 1894. He was also the father of mathematician Allan Cunningham.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Alexander Cunningham” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.