CHARLES PICKERING BOWDITCH. 477 



soil Bowditch, was Treasurer of the Academy from 1842 to 1852. Mr. 

 Charles P. Bowditch was elected a member of the Academy in 1892 

 and was its Treasurer from 1905 to 1915 and President from 1917 to 

 1919. 



He was also a member of the following societies : Boston Society of 

 Natural History, serving as Vice President from 1895 to 1907, the 

 American Geographical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, 

 and numerous American and European Anthropological organizations. 

 His historical-genealogical interests are shown in his membership in 

 the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Bostonian Society, the 

 Colonial Society of Massachusetts, and the New England Historical- 

 Genealogical Society. Each of these institutions is indebted to him 

 for generous support. His varied interests are shown by this list of 

 organizations of which he was a member. As a man of affairs he was 

 an ofhcer in many corporations and numerous benevolent enterprises 

 and a Trustee of many estates. 



After a pleasure trip to Mexico and Yucatan in 1888 his main avoca- 

 tion was the investigation of Central American antiquities and, more 

 especially, the Maya system of hieroglyphic writing. In this study he 

 was the most outstanding figure in America. His book, " The Numer- 

 ation, Calendar Systems, and Astronomical Knowledge of the Mayas" 

 (1910), was the most important book published up to that time on the 

 Central American hieroglyphic writing. He added much to the 

 knowledge of this subject and blazed a trail which will always remain 

 open to future students of this subject. This book, together with 

 numerous pamphlets, show the results of an acute mathematical mind 

 and most painstaking study. He was a worthy foe to speculative 

 theories and his deductions are based on mathematical calculations 

 and sound common sense. 



Mr. Bowditch's connection with the Peabody Museum of Harvard 

 University was a long and a close one. From 1888 to the time of his 

 death he was its greatest benefactor. In 1894 he became a Trustee 

 of the Museum and always took the greatest personal interest in the 

 welfare of the institution and its varied activities. His patronage of 

 the Central American work of the Museum covered many sides. He 

 financed and planned annual expeditions to the Maya field, beginning 

 in 1891 and continuing in an almost unbroken series down to the 

 present time. The scientific results of these expeditions were pub- 



