Charles P. (Charles Pickering) Bowditch

Born in Boston in 1842, Charles Pickering Bowditch came from a distinguished New England family and graduated from Harvard in 1863. He also served in the Civil War before building a career in business, but he became best known for the passion that shaped his later life: the study of Maya history, language, and inscriptions.

Bowditch was one of the leading American specialists in Mayan epigraphy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He translated and interpreted important work on Central American antiquities and helped scholars better understand Maya calendrics and historical records.

He was also an important patron of research. As a major benefactor of Harvard's Peabody Museum, he supported expeditions and publications that gave Maya studies a stronger footing in the United States. He died in 1921, remembered both for his own scholarship and for the opportunities he created for other researchers.