Hawes, Harriet Boyd

Hawes, Harriet (Ann) Boyd (1871–1945) archaeologist, educator, social activist; born in Boston, Mass. After graduating from Smith College (1892), she went off to Greece to continue her studies; in 1897 she worked as a nurse during the Greco-Turkish war. She went to Crete in 1900, and with the encouragement of Arthur Evans, began to excavate a Minoan site at Kavousi; from 1901–05 she led a large team that excavated the Minoan town of Gournia, thereby becoming the first woman to head a major archaeological dig. She also became the first woman to lecture to societies of the Archaeological Institute of America (1902). She married the English anthropologist Charles Henry Hawes in 1906 and in 1908 published her monumental work on Gournia. During World War I she went over to Corfu in 1916 to help nurse the Serbians; in 1917 she organized a unit of Smith College graduates and directed their relief efforts in France, where she stayed until June 1918. From 1920–36 she was on the faculty of Wellesley College. Always involved in one political and social cause or another, she worked for woman suffrage, protested the Sacco-Vanzetti executions, became involved in labor and economic issues during the Depression, personally protested the Germans' annexation of Czechoslovakia, called for the U.S.A. to go to Europe's defense in World War II, and was a strong advocate of an international body to promote unity and peace.