1846 – Born on December 1st near Cadiz, Ohio. American archaeologist, artist, and museum director who helped to establish professional archaeology in the United States.
1872 – Holmes became interested in geology while serving as artist on a survey of the Rocky Mountains.
1875 – Trained as an artist, his interests turned to archaeology when exploring ancient cliff dwellings in the arid SW with the US Geological Survey.
1884 – After becoming honorary curator of aboriginal ceramics for the Museum, Holmes made his first field trip to Mexico, visiting Puebla, Cholula, Oaxaca, and Mexico City.
1892 – Holmes prepared exhibits for the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus’s landfall, including displays of life-size figures of native Americans.
1895 – 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.
1897 – As chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Holmes resumed fieldwork.
1902 – He worked at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, for much of his career, acting as chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology.
1907 – He traveled to Cuba and Jamaica, and attended inter-American scientific meetings in Chile.
1909 – Holmes simultaneously held the positions Curator of anthropology at the United States National Museum and Curator of the Smithsonian’s Gallery of Art.
1916 – He traveled in Guatemala and Honduras, studied Mayan architecture at Copan and collected more pottery.
1920 – The director of the National Gallery of Art.
1933 – Died on April 20th in Royal Oak, Michigan.