William Henry Holmes

Archaeologist and museum director, born near Cadiz, Ohio, USA. Trained as an artist, his interests turned to archaeology in 1875 when exploring ancient cliff dwellings in the arid SW with the US Geological Survey. A visit to the Yucatan while he was curator of anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, stimulated a major contribution to Mesoamerican archaeology, the illustrated Archaeological Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico (1895–97). He worked at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, for much of his career, acting as chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1902–9) and director of the National Gallery of Art (1920–32).

William Henry Holmes (December 1, 1846 – April 20, 1933) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, geologist and museum director. In 1872 he became an artist with the F. After it was absorbed into the U.S. Geological Survey in 1879, he was assigned to work as a geologist in the southwestern United States. He contributed pioneering reports on the terrain and geologic phenomena of Yellowstone Park, and completed early geological reconnaissance work in Colorado. As an artist, he was responsible for illustrative material in an atlas of the Grand Canyon. He became particularly interested in prehistoric pottery and shell art, producing published works including "Art in Shell of the American Indians (1883)" and "Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos (1886)". He expanded these studies into textiles, and became well known as an expert in both ancient and existing arts produced by Native Americans of the Southwest.

Holmes left the Geological Survey in 1889 to become an archaeologist with the Smithsonian Institution's Bureau of American Ethnology. He returned to the Smithsonian in 1897 to serve as head curator of anthropology at the U.S. National Museum. In 1920, Holmes became the director of National Gallery of Art (now the Smithsonian American Art Museum), where he assembled exhibits of Indian arts from the Northwest Coast.

Writings by Holmes

Archœlogical Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico (1895) Stone Implements of the Potomac-Chesapeake Tidewater Province (1897) Holmes, William H. 1932] Cullings, largely personal, from the scrap heap of three score years and ten, devoted to science, literature and art. American Art Portrait Gallery Rare Book Collection. He edited geological publications including Hayden's Atlas of Colorado and the eleventh and twelfth reports of the Geological Survey.