Sir Daniel Wilson (January 5, 1816 – August 6, 1892) was a Scottish-born Canadian archaeologist, ethnologist and writer.
In 1853 Wilson left Scotland to take up the post of Professor of History and English Literature in Toronto, Canada. In addition to his teaching duties, he kept up his interests in Natural history, Geology, and was very interested in the Ethnography of the indigenous groups that he encountered on his vacation treks.
In 1861 he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society and, in 1875, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. He also served as president of the Canadian Institute from 1878-1881, as president of University College, Toronto, from 1880 to 1892, and as the first president of the federated University of Toronto from 1892.
Wilson’s final masterpiece, The Lost Atlantis and other Ethnographic Studies, published posthumously in 1892, serves as a fascinating compendium of his lifelong intellectual pursuits, blending archaeological rigor with ethnographic observation.
The title essay, "The Lost Atlantis", which we propose to our readers today, addresses one of the most enduring and fascinating myths of antiquity. Wilson approaches the legend of Atlantis through a critical and historical lens. He examines Plato's original accounts and compares them with late 19th-century geographical and geological knowledge. Wilson's goal is to explore how these myths influence our understanding of human migrations and the perceived "blank spaces" on the ancient world map.
