Jesse Walter Fewkes photographs of excavations in Mesa Verde National Park

Jesse Walter Fewkes (1850‐1930) was a naturalist, anthropologist, and archeologist who served as chief of the Bureau of American Ethnology from 1918 to 1928. Fewkes received a Ph.D. in marine zoology from Harvard in 1877, and was curator of lower invertebrates at the Museum of Comparative Zoology until 1887. Some of his research focuses on the culture and history of the Pueblo Indians, an interest he developed while on a collecting trip in the western United States. In 1891, Fewkes became director of the Hemenway Southwestern Archeological Expedition and editor of the Journal of American Archeology and Ethnology. Embarking on various archeological explorations for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1895, he conducted excavations in the Southwest, the West Indies, and Florida. During the summers of 1908‐1909, 1915‐1916, and 1918-1922, Fewkes worked almost exclusively on excavations and repairs of ruins in Mesa Verde National Park.