William Henry Holmes (1846–1933) was a man who didn’t mind getting his hands dirty, as long as he could, in the end, display the beauty and intricacies of the world. Holmes preferred the world of the past, and though the timing of his birth and the opening of the Smithsonian Institution appears mere happenstance, the man and the institute would become almost synonymous.
Holmes possessed a great gift for drawing. His artistic craftsmanship would later be in high demand, but first he needed a stroke of luck. In the latter part of the 1860s, Holmes was a teacher of various subjects while he worked to graduate from McNeely Normal School in eastern Ohio.
During this time, he made two unsuccessful attempts to pursue a full-time career in art in 1866 to 1867. In 1870, he graduated from McNeely Normal School and began teaching geography, natural history, drawing, and painting. Holmes felt his education was lacking and decided to attend State Normal School in Massachusetts. It was at this moment that he was introduced to Theodore Kauffman, a well-known painter in Washington. Holmes began a tutelage under Kauffman in the nation’s capital.
The following year in 1871 while attending Kauffman’s art school, a fellow pupil by the name of Mary Henry, informed him of the Smithsonian Institution. He had never heard of it, but it soon became a source of inspiration for natural history and art.
While sketching a bird on display at the institute, a naturalist from Costa Rica by the name of José Zeledon happened by his artwork. Impressed, he introduced the young artist to the institution’s F.B. Meek, who hired him to draw the paleontological pieces that came into the Smithsonian.
Word spread quickly about his ability and by 1872 he was on his way west with famed geologist, F.V. Hayden. Holmes became the geologist-artist for Hayden’s numerous expeditions over the course of the next seven years. The expeditions included Yellowstone (which was made a national park the year of their arrival), Mount of the Holy Cross (which Holmes is attributed to be one of the first to climb the hill), and the cliff dwellings of Indians in Mesa Verde, Colorado.
Upon his return from these expeditions, Holmes was hired to create topographical illustrations for Maj. Clarence E. Dutton’s “Tertiary History of the Grand Cañon District.” The work is arguably the most important and influential study of the Grand Canyon.
His years of experience established him as an expert in geology, archaeology, anthropology, and ethnology. His experience and study of Native American cultures resulted in numerous books, including “Pottery of the Ancient Pueblos,” “Archaeological Studies Among The Ancient Cities of Mexico: Monuments of Yucatan,” and “Handbook of Aboriginal American Antiquities.”
His work over the decades enshrined him as one of the most prolific archaeological minds in the United States, resulting in his becoming the curator of anthropology for the Smithsonian Institute in 1897.
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