Hiram Bingham III

Hiram Bingham III (November 19, 1875 – June 6, 1956) was an American academic, explorer, and politician. He made public the existence of the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu in 1911 with the guidance of local indigenous farmers. Later, Bingham served as Governor of Connecticut for a single day, the shortest term in history, and then as a member of the United States Senate.

Hiram Bingham III in 1916

Quotes

• ... after six hours and a half of climbing from Camp No. 4, we stood on the top of Coropuna.
  We found the top almost flat for an area of nearly an acre. It is oval in shape, 100 feet north and south, and 175 feet east and west. It falls off rather abruptly on the north side, moderately on the west, and very gently for some distant to the south and east.
  It is almost impossible to describe the view. Snow-capped ranges lay to the north and east. Isolated peaks covered with snow and occasional glaciers sprang up here and there in the great desert solitudes, but there was hardly an atom of green to be seen anywhere. We stood on top and in the middle of a dead world. Not even a condor was in sight. We might have been on the moon.
  • (March 1912)"The Ascent of Coropuna". Harper's Monthly Magazine 124 (742): 491–502. (quote from p. 501)

• The Belgians are setting about the task of combating the shortage of labour with almost Teutonic thoroughness and far-sightedness.
  • The visit of King Albert I to the Belgian Congo in 1928. Between propaganda and reality.

• The natives while working on the mines are very well treated. They live in compounds, which appeared to be run on model lines. I was told that there had been cases of brutality and ill-treatment, but the compound managers concerned had been instantly dismissed. The Union Minière are strongly opposed to anything in the nature of brutal treatment of the natives.
  • The visit of King Albert I to the Belgian Congo in 1928. Between propaganda and reality.

• Speaking generally, it may be said that the authorities of the Union Minière are in advance of the Mining Companies in this Territory [Rhodesia] in the care and attention they give to recruited labour.
  • The visit of King Albert I to the Belgian Congo in 1928. Between propaganda and reality.
• Agustín Lizárraga is discoverer of Machu Picchu and lives at San Miguel Bridge just before passing
  • Portrait of An Explorer: Hiram Bingham

External links

• Works by Hiram Bingham at Project Gutenberg
• Works by Hiram Bingham
• Guide to the Records of the Yale Peruvian Expedition, including Bingham's diaries
• Selection from Bingham's The Lost City of the Incas
• Machu Picchu on the Web – The Discovery
• Inca Land, by Hiram Bingham
• The Explorer of Machi Picchu by Alfred M. Bingham web site
• Hiram Bingham III

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