Background
Davis, Edwin Hamilton was born on January 22, 1811 in Hillsboro, Ohio, United States. Son of Henry and Avis (Slocum) Davis.
Davis, Edwin Hamilton was born on January 22, 1811 in Hillsboro, Ohio, United States. Son of Henry and Avis (Slocum) Davis.
Graduate Kenyon College, 1833, Cincinnati Medical College, 1838.
Davis gathered the largest collection of prehistoric Indian collections in the United States. He practised in Chillicothe, Ohio until 1850, when he was called to the chair of materia medica and therapeutics in the New York Medical College. Doctor Davis was one of the editors of the American Medical Monthly.
Davis gave much attention to the subject of American antiquities and aided Charles Whittlesey in explorations of ancient mounds in 1836.
Then from 1845 until 1847, assisted by Ephraim G. Squier, Davis surveyed nearly one hundred groups of aboriginal earthworks, and opened two hundred mounds at his own expense. In 1848, the results of Davis and Squier"s explorations were embodied in the book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, which formed the first volume of the Smithsonian contributions to knowledge series.
The work was a landmark in American scientific research, the study of the prehistoric Mound Builders of North America, and the early development of archaeology as a scientific discipline. lieutenant was characterized by the distinguished Swiss archaeologist, Charles Adolphe Morlot, in a paper before the American Philosophical Society in 1862, as being “as glorious a monument of American science as Bunker Hill is of American bravery.” During the spring of 1854, Doctor Davis delivered a course of lectures on archaeology before the Lowell Institute in Boston, which were repeated in Brooklyn and New York City.
Davis was interred at the Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe in Ross County, Ohio.
In 1858 He was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society.
Married Lucy Woodbridge, 1841, 9 children including John Woodbridge.
