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| Egypt, circa 1927-1931 |
Hamilton Phelps Clawson was born December 27, 1892. Keen curiosity led him to many careers, including poet, archaeologist, banker, magazine manager, and museum director. Clawson's family was well-known in Buffalo; his father John L. Clawson owned dry goods wholesaler Clawson and Wilson Co., was part-owner of Hens and Kelly department stores, and was a director at Marine Trust and Marine Midland Banks.
Phelps was educated at Yale, and briefly worked at the National City Bank of New York. During World War I he enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was eventually promoted to lieutenant. Throughout his life, Phelps wrote poetry, and in the early 1920s, he began printing his work.
First Poems was privately printed for the enjoyment of his family and friends. His first published poetry collection,
Transmutation and Other Poems was released in London in 1923 and was well-received. It was there that he met his first wife, Russian actress Valia Venitsky (the marriage however, was brief; they divorced in 1927). Phelps' poetry was heavily influenced by those closest to him, as well as his travels and photography.
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| Empress of Britain, July 20, 1911 |
In the late 1920s, Phelps began work as an archaeologist for the Harvard University - Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in Egypt and the Sudan. He was part of the discovery of the tomb of Queen Hetep-heres, mother of Cheops (builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza). Phelps also worked as manager of the short-lived magazine
Panorama: New York's Illustrated Weekly (1928-1929). During the 1930s, he was appointed Curator of Anthropology at the Buffalo Museum of Science, where he instituted "The Corridors of Time," the first anthropology exhibits at the museum. In 1946, he married second wife Louise McAllister Young. Settling in Chatham, New York, he would be instrumental in the creation of the Shaker Museum and Library. His directorship at the Museum lasted 11 years.
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| Bahia, Brazil, 1941 |
Phelps inquisitiveness extended far beyond the professional; throughout his life, he traveled the world. His archaeological pursuits brought him to Cairo, Egypt and Semna, Sudan. In 1911, he took a cruise on board the luxury liner
Empress of Britain. Departing from Quebec, the cruise made its way to Russia, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and France. A 300-mile walking trip in the South of France in 1933 and trips to Ireland and Brazil followed. The common thread through all of these journeys was the extensive photographic documentation Phelps created to record his experiences.
H. Phelps Clawson died April 5, 1975 at age 82 in Buffalo, New York.
