Samuel Kirkland Lothrop

Samuel Kirkland Lothrop (1892–1965) was an archaeologist and anthropologist who specialized in Central and South American Studies. His work, Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua (2 vols., 1926), based on his doctoral dissertation in anthropology at Harvard University, is regarded as a pioneering study. Lothrop was a longtime research associate of Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and made many contributions based on fieldwork, laboratory analysis, and evaluations of private and public collections that focused on Central and South America. He is known for archaeological excavations in Argentina and Chile as well as investigations of the archaeological contexts for the stone spheres of Costa Rica. Lothrop is also known for his research on goldwork and other artifacts from Costa Rica, the Veraguas Province of Panama, and the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza, Yucatán, Mexico.

Lothrop was descendent of his namesake, prominent Unitarian minister Samuel Kirkland Lothrop. He was born in Milton, Massachusetts on July 6, 1892 to William and Alice Lothrop. His childhood was split between Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. Lothrop’s interest in Latin America may have been sparked in his childhood as a result of his having spent time in Puerto Rico, where his father was a banker with interests in the sugarcane industry.

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