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 About
Hiram Bingham
Bingham was born in Honolulu, Hawai'i, to
Hiram Bingham II (1831-1908), an early Protestant missionary
to the Kingdom of Hawai'i, the grandson of Hiram Bingham I
(1789–1869), another missionary. He attended Punahou School
and O'ahu College in Hawai'i from 1882 to 1892. He returned
to the United States in his teens in order to complete his
education, entering Phillips Academy in Andover,
Massachusetts, from which he graduated in 1894. He obtained
a degree from Yale University in 1898, a degree from the
University of California, Berkeley in 1900, and a degree
from Harvard University in 1905. While at University,
Bingham was a member of Acacia Fraternity. He taught history
and politics at Harvard and then served as preceptor under
Woodrow Wilson at Princeton University. In 1907, Yale
University appointed Bingham III as a lecturer in South
American history.
It was during Bingham's time as a lecturer
— later professor — at Yale that he rediscovered the largely
forgotten Incan city of Machu Picchu. In 1908, he had served
as delegate to the First Pan American Scientific Congress at
Santiago, Chile. On his way home via Peru, a local prefect
convinced him to visit the pre-Columbian city of
Choquequirao. Bingham published an account of this trip in
Across South America; an account of a journey from Buenos
Aires to Lima by way of Potosí, with notes on Brazil,
Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru (1911). |
 Hiram Bingham, Credited With Discovery Of
Machu Picchu On July 24, 1911. Melchor Arteaga,
A Local Farmer Actually Discovered The Ruins And
Took Hiram Bingham There |
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Bingham was thrilled by the prospect of unexplored Incan
cities, and in 1911 returned to the Andes with the Yale
Peruvian Expedition of 1911. On 24 July 1911, Melchor
Arteaga led Bingham to Machu Picchu, which had been largely
forgotten by everybody except the small number of people
living in the immediate valley (possibly including two local
missionaries named Thomas Paine and Stuart McNairn whose
descendants claim that they had already climbed to the ruins
in 1906).
Bingham returned to Peru in 1912 and 1915 with the support
of Yale and the National Geographic Society.
Machu Picchu has become one of the major tourist attractions
in South America, and Bingham is recognized as the man who
brought the site to world attention, although many others
contributed to the archaeological resurrection of the site.
The switchback-filled road that carries tourist buses to the
site from the Urubamba River is called the Hiram Bingham
Highway.
Bingham has been cited as one possible basis for the
'Indiana Jones' character. His book Lost City of the Incas
became a bestseller upon its publication in 1948. |
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 Peru long sought the return of the more than 4000 artifacts,
including mummies, ceramics and bones, Bingham had removed
from the Machu Picchu site. On 14 September, 2007, an
agreement was made between Yale University and the Peruvian
government for the return of the objects.
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The Hiram Bingham Car
of the PeruRail Train to Machu Pichu |
BINGHAM, HIRAM, Lt.
Colonel, United States Army
VETERAN SERVICE DATES: 06/08/1917 - 03/08/1919
BIRTH: 11/19/1875 - DEATH: 06/06/1956
DATE OF INTERMENT: 06/08/1956
BURIED AT: SECTION 1 SITE 357-B
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY |
