Disproving pseudo-historian Dan Richard’s fake history of Atlantism

For over 100 years Atlantis hunters have considered American congressman Ignatius Donnelly to be the father of modern-day Atlantis hunting, but pseudo-historian Dan Richards claims the true father was Frenchman Charles-Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg, because Donnelley was a racist, and Dan doesn’t want modern Atlantis hunting to have originated with a racist. In this video I provide overwhelming evidence that Dan is wrong.


Media credits

author, Unknown. Ignatius Donnelly, Unknown date. English Wikipedia. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ignatius-Donnelly.jpg.

Blakemore, Erin. “Why the Myth of Atlantis Just Won’t Die.” National Geographic, 20 April 2023. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/premium/article/atlantis-myth-plato-archaeology-false.

DeDunking. “Archaeologist Misleads TheThinkingAtheist on UFOs & Racism #archaeology #alien #science.” YouTube, 17 June 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXr8OKnTj9s.

———. “Lieception: Responding to Flint Dibble’s Excuses #jre #grahamhancock #archaeology.” YouTube, 24 June 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egt1kL_VDuM.

———. “Open Letter to Society for American Archaeology President #archaeology #psychology #alternatehistory.” YouTube, 8 July 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-xUZrAWzno.

———. “Racist? Atlantis Hunting Is Rooted in White Supremacy? #atlantis #supremacy #history.” YouTube, 11 December 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhy6l8kn7wY.

European Southern Observatory (ESO). Artist’s Animation of a Comet, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNIKGs3E4II.

Mercator’s 1595 Map of the Arctic. Mercator, Gerhard, 1512-1594., 1595. http://libweb5.princeton.edu/visual_materials/maps/websites/northwest-passage/mercator.htm. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_north_pole_1595.jpg.

No-Understanding5331. “Map of Atlantis.” Reddit Post. R/Mapmaking, 18 July 2025. https://www.reddit.com/r/mapmaking/comments/1m39ewo/map_of_atlantis/.

olenchic. “Comet, Asteroid, Space. Free Stock Video.” Pixabay, n.d. https://pixabay.com/videos/comet-asteroid-space-universe-208579/.

Persus, Nicolas Claude. Русский:  Аббат Шарль Этьен Брассёр Де Бурбур, before 1874date QS:P,+ – -00T00:00:00Z/7,P1326,+1874-00-00T00:00:00Z/9 1874. The Manuscript Hunter: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Travels Through Central America and Mexico, 1854—1859 / Translated and edited by Katia Sainson. — Norman, OK : University of Oklahoma Press, 2017. — P. iii. — (The American Exploration and Travel Series; 84). — ISBN 978-0-8061-5502-9. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abb%C3%A9_Brasseur_de_Bourbourg.jpg.

Sandweiss, Daniel H. “SAA Letter Ancient Apocalypse.” Society for American Archaeology, 30 November 2022. https://documents.saa.org/container/docs/default-source/doc-governmentaffairs/saa-letter-ancient-apocalypse.pdf.

Sargent, Julian. Latin:  Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptiotitle QS:P1476,La:”Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio”label QS:Lla,”Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio”, 1587. Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura (publ. 1595). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_World_Map.jpg.

Thomas, Ling. “Scientists Have Found What Sounds Eerily like Atlantis off Australia’s Coast.” BBC Science Focus Magazine, 20 April 2026. https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/new-hunt-for-real-world-atlantis-australia.

Unsure. English:  Founder of the Theosophical Society Elena Petrovna Gan (HP Blavatsky), Born in Russia 1831 – Died in England 1891, 1877. http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/hpbphotos6.htm. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Helena_Petrovna_Blavatsky.jpg.

“Atlantis Insula.” Barry Lawrence Ruderman Antique Maps, n.d. https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/67917/atlantis-insula.

Piri Reis World Map, 23 December 2009. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Piri_reis_world_map_01.jpg&oldid=333477830.


Sources

Adams, Herbert B. “The Abbé Brasseur De Bourbourg.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 7 (1891): 274–90.

Arnold, Jafe. “Esoteric Imperialism: The Solomonic-Theurgic Mystique of John Dee’s British Empire.” Endeavour 43.1–2 (2019): 17–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2019.05.001.

Baldwin, John D. Ancient America, in Notes on American Archeology. CIHM/ICMH Microfiche Series. Harper, 1871.

Baldwin, John Denison. Pre-Historic Nations: Or, Inquiries Concerning Some of the Great Peoples and Civilizatins of Antiquity, and Their Probable Relation to a Still Older Civilization of the Ethiopians Or Cushites of Arabia. Harper & brothers, 1874.

Ballesteros – Danel, Andrea. Pre-Columbian Contact between the Americas and Oceania. Springer International Publishing, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64877-9, https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-031-64877-9.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. The Native Races of the Pacific States of North America. Longmans, Green, and Company, 1875.

———. The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft. Vol. III. A.L. Bancroft & Company, Publishers, 1883.

Beringer, Alex J. “‘Some Unsuspected Author’: Ignatius Donnelly and the Conspiracy Novel.” Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory 68.4 (2012): 35–60. https://doi.org/10.1353/arq.2012.0024.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy. 3rd rev. ed. 1918. Vol. II. Theosophical Publishing Society, 1893.

Bourbourg, abbé Brasseur de, and Constantine Samuel Rafinesque. Quatre lettres sur le Mexique: exposition absolue du système hiéroglyphique mexicain la fin de l’age de pierre. Époque glaciaire temporaire. Commencement de l’age de bronze. Origines de la civilisation et des religions de l’antiquité; d’après le Teo-Amoxtli et autres documents mexicains, etc. Maisonneuve et cia., 1868.

Brading, D. A. The First America: The Spanish Monarchy, Creole Patriots and the Liberal State 1492-1866. Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Braghine, Alexander. The Shadow of Atlantis. Adventures Unlimited Press, 1997.

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Charles-Étienne. “Historical Chronology of the Mexicans.” Translated by Jason Colavito. JASON COLAVITO, 2016. https://www.jasoncolavito.com/historical-chronology-of-the-mexicans.html.

Brasseur de Bourbourg, Étienne-Charles, and Katia Sainson. The Manuscript Hunter: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Travels through Central America and Mexico, 1854-1859. The American Exploration and Travel Series volume 84. University of Oklahoma Press, 2017.

Brinton, Daniel G. “‘The’ Annals of the Cakchiquels: The Original Text, with a Translation, Notes and Introduction.” Library of Aboriginal American Literature VI (1885).

Randall Carlson [@randallwcarlson]. Tweet. Twitter, 30 July 2026. https://x.com/randallwcarlson/status/2082904832327762291.

Colavito, Jason. “Graham Hancock Describes the Telekinetic Powers of His Lost Civilization.” JASON COLAVITO, 10 April 2019. http://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post/2019/04/graham-hancock-describes-the-telekinetic-powers-of-his-lost-civilization.html.

Corporation, Bonnier. “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. By Ignatius Donnelly.” The Popular Science Monthly 22 (1882).

De Gamboa, Pedro Sarmiento, and Baltasar De Ocampo. “The Second Part of the General History Called ‘Indica.’” History of the Incas and the Execution of the Inca Tupac Amaru. Translated by Clement Markham. Second XXII. Printed for the Hakluyt Society by John Clay, 1907.

decodingmysteries101. “Graham Hancock Explores the Legend of Atlantis 🌍.” YouTube, 23 May 2025. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o4yMDMK9NmQ.

DeDunking. (Formerly Twitter), 27 June 2025. https://x.com/DeDunkingPast/status/1938421380175057326.

Donnelly, Ignatius, Hans Schindler Bellamy, and Lewis Spence. Atlantis: The Antediluvian World. Edited by Egerton Sykes. Rev. ed. Harper & Brothers, 1949.

Fiske, John. The Discovery of America. Riverside Press, 1892.

Foucrier, Chantal. “The Myth of Atlantis in the 19th Century: Science and Imagination.” Leidschrif 32 (2017): 43–61.

Franke, Thorwald C. “Feedback on: Halmhofer, The Harmful Pseudoarchaeology of Mythological Atlantis – Atlantis-Scout.” Atlantis Scout, 8 September 2021. https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-halmhofer-engl.htm.

———. “Review of: Frank Joseph, The Atlantis Encyclopedia – Atlantis-Scout.” Atlantis-Scout, 29 July 2022. https://www.atlantis-scout.de/atlantis-frank-joseph-engl.htm.

Godwin, Joscelyn. Atlantis and the Cycles of Time: Prophecies, Traditions, and Occult Revelations. Simon and Schuster, 2010.

Green, Thomas. “John Dee, King Arthur, and the Conquest of the Arctic.” The Heroic Age 15 (2012). https://jemne.org/issues/15/green.php.

Hancock, Graham. America Before: The Key to Earth’s Lost Civilization: AS SEEN ON NETFLIX. Hachette UK, 2019.

———. Fingerprints of the Gods – The Evidence of Earth’s Lost Civilization. Three Rivers Press, 1995.

———. Magicians of the Gods: The Forgotten Wisdom of Earth’s Lost Civilisation. Updated and Expanded edition. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2017.

Holmes, William Henry. Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities: Part 1, Introductory, the Lithic Industries. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1919.

Hubard, Samuel. The Doheny Scientific Expedition to the Hava Supai Canyon, Northern Arizzona: October and November, 1924. Sunset Press, 1925.

Joseph, Frank. The Atlantis Encyclopedia. New Page Books, 2005.

Kershaw, Stephen P. Brief History of Atlantis: Plato’s Ideal State. Robinson, 2017.

Legrand, H. E., and Wayne E. Boese. “Chariots of the Gods? And All That: Pseudo-History in the Classroom.” The History Teacher 8.3 (1975): art. 3, p. 359. https://doi.org/10.2307/491740.

McBride-Limaye, Ann. “Metmorphoses of La Malinche and Mexican Cultural Identity” (1988).

Molle, Guillaume. “Panels from the South Seas: Pacific  Colonialism, Archaeology, and Pseudoscience  in Francophone Bande Dessinée.” Comics and Archaeology. Edited by Zena Kamash, Katy Soar, and Leen Van Broeck. Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels. Springer International Publishing, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-98919-4, https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-3-030-98919-4.

O’Brien, Jean Maria. Firsting and Lasting: Writing Indians out of Existence in New England. Indigenous Americas. University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Orser, Charles E. Race and Practice in Archaeological Interpretation. Archaeology, Culture, and Society. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Roberts, W.J. “The Racial Interpretation of History and Politics.” International Journal of Ethics 18.4 (1908).

Science, University of Kansas Seminary of Historical and Political. Seminary Notes, 1891.

Sellen, Adam. “The Manuscript Hunter: Brasseur de Bourbourg’s Travel through Central America and Mexico, 1854–1859. KATIA SAINSON, Translator and Editor. 2017. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Xiii + 288 Pp. $39.95 (Cloth), ISBN 978-0-8061-5502-9.” Latin Am. Antiq. 30.4 (2019): art. 4, pp. 873–74. https://doi.org/10.1017/laq.2019.88.

Solovʹev, Vsevolod Sergeevich. A Modern Priestess of Isis. Longmans, Green, 1895.

Spence, Lewis. The History of Atlantis. Rider & Co, 1924.

———. The Problem of Atlantis. 2d ed. William Rider & Son, Limited, 1924.

Spencer, Herbert. The Principles of Psychology. D. Appleton, 1883.

Staudenmaier, Peter. Between Occultism and Nazism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race in the Fascist Era. Aries Book Series volume 17. Brill, 2014.

Sweeney, Emmet. Atlantis: The Evidence of Science. Algora Publishing, 101 AD.

Thompson, Robert Ellis, and Wharton Barker. “Extracts from Notices of the Press.” The American: A National Journal 104 (1882).

Union, Pan American. Monthly Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912.

———. Monthly Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1912.

Wauchope, Robert. Handbook of Middle American Indians, Volume 13: Guide to Ethnohistorical Sources, Part Two. University of Texas Press, 2015. https://doi.org/10.7560/701533, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.7560/701533/html.

Wilkins, Harold T. Secret Cities of Old South America; Atlantis Unveiled. Rider & Co, 1950. https://search.worldcat.org/title/1705587.

Wilson, Sir Daniel. The Lost Atlantis: And Other Ethnographic Studies. Macmillan, 1892.

Winchcombe, Rachel. Encountering Early America. Manchester University Press, 2021.

Winsor, Justin. Aboriginal America. Houghton, Mifflin, 1889.

Atlantic Monthly: A Magazine of Literature, Art and Politics. Atlantic Monthly, 1857.

“BBC – Science & Nature – Horizon – Atlantis Reborn Again.” BBC, 14 December 2000. https://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/atlantisrebornagain.shtml.

Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature. J. M. Stoddart, 1889.

Light. Eclectic Publishing Company, 1909.

Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada. Hope, 1886.

The Bookman. Dodd, Mead and Company, 1927.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *