Background
William (Bill) H. Claflin was born in 1893 in Swampscott, Massachusetts to William Henry Claflin and Carrie Avery Claflin.
William (Bill) H. Claflin was born in 1893 in Swampscott, Massachusetts to William Henry Claflin and Carrie Avery Claflin.
Bill Claflin attended Noble and Greenough School for Harvard College, graduating in 1915 with his Bachelor of Arts In 1917, he married Helen Atkins of Belmont, Massachusetts.
He did archaeological work in Utah and at Stallings Island in Georgia. The Peabody Museum at Harvard University houses a large collection that Claflin collected and donated. Claflin also served as trustee of the Rockefeller Institute and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
In the late 1920s, Claflin and Raymond Emerson were sent on a pack trip by the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.
The Claflin-Emerson Expedition mission was to discover archaeological sites in Utah west and north of the Colorado River. From 1928 to 1931, Claflin and Emerson financed their own research around the Green River (Utah), Nine Mile Canyon in Utah and the Freemont River in Utah.
Claflin made intermittent trips to Georgia over the years and conducted several minor excavations at Stallings Island and in the middle Savannah River Valley. Claflin"s explorations in the middle Savannah River Valley, Georgia led to the discovery of 140 banner stones, of which 71 are from Stallings Island.
Many of the materials collected at Stallings Island and on his southwestern expeditions are housed at the Peabody Museum.
In 1932, the Peabody Museum published Claflin"s report, "The Stallings Island Mound, Columbia County, Georgia". An avid explorer, Claflin visited more than 77 countries in his life. He maintained a small archaeological and ethnological museum at his home in Belmont, Massachusetts with more than 34,000 artifacts from his travels and excavations.
Claflin died in 1982, at the age of 89, in Belmont.
Claflin was a Resident Member of the Massachusetts Historical Society and Charter Member of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society.