Hiram Bingham
1875-1956
American
Educator, Explorer, Legislator
HIRAM
BINGHAM and his discovery in the west of the majestic city of Machu
Picchu.
Hiram
Bingham was known for his expeditions to South America. He was born in Honolulu,
Hawaii and educated at Yale and Harvard universities and at the University of
California. He taught history at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale universities.
In 1906 and 1907 Bingham explored the
route taken across Venezuela and Colombia in the early 1800s by Venezuelan
General Simon Bolivar.
In 1908 and 1909 Bingham explored an old
Spanish trade route from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru. As director of
the Yale Peruvian Expedition in 1911, Bingham discovered the ruins of the
ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu and located Vitcos, the last Inca capital.
From 1912 to 1915 he further explored the Inca lands at Yale University and the
National Geographic Society.
During World War I (1914-1918) Bingham
was commander of the Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun, France. A member
of the Republican party of the United States, Bingham served as Lieutenant
Governor of Connecticut from 1923 to 1924 and as Governor in 1925. From 1925 to
1933 he was a U.S. senator for the state of Connecticut.
Bingham’s
many books include Lost City of the Incas(1948),
considered his most important work. In 1948 the road to Machu Picchu was named
in his honor the Hiram Bingham Highway.
Bingham
is the son of American missionary Hiram Bingham, who founded the first
Protestant mission in Hawaii.