Raymond Edwin Merwin was born in Humbolt, Kansas November 21, 1881. He received his A.B. degree from the University of Kansas in 1903, his A. M. Degree the following year, and during the school year 1904-1905 he had the teachers fellowship in sociology and anthropology. For one year he was principal of the High School in Galena, Kansas.
In 1906 he entered Harvard University as a graduate student. At roughly the same time he became employed by the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard, which was and is the heart of the Harvard Anthropology program. For the year 1907-1908 Raymond was named a Hemenway Fellow and put in charge of the work at the American Indian cemetery and village site in Madisonville, Ohio. The site had been worked by the Peabody Museum since 1881. In 1907 he excavated the site from June through November. Raymond returned to the Madisonville site in 1908 from April until October, working part of the site that had previously been covered by structures. He was reappointed to the Hemenway Fellowship for 1908-1909.
In the summer of 1909, Raymond worked with Mr. Ernest Volk on his site in the Delaware Valley. The Peabody Museum also renewed the permit originally granted to it in 1901 by the government of Guatemala for research in that country. Dr. Tozzer was named field director and Raymond was selected as second officer for the planned expedition to Guatemala. Raymond was also named the Peabody's Fellow in Central American Archaeology. The main objective for the trip was to map Tikal and gather the information needed to be able to publish the report on Tikal started by Teobert Maler. Raymond performed the surveys and photography at Nakum and Tikal. The expedition produced not only the completion of the Maler report but also two other Peabody Museum reports, one on Tikal (Peabody Museum Memoirs, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1911) and another on Nakum (Peabody Museum Memoirs, Vol. 5, No. 3, 1913).
Following the expedition of 1909-1910, Raymond was renamed Fellow in Central American Archaeology and the director of the expedition of 1910-1911. His younger brother Bruce, who had worked for the Peabody Museum at other sites, assisted him on this expedition. This expedition focused on Holmul. When first visited in 1910 Holmul appeared to be an interesting site, but time was limited and what they found would require excavation, so it would have to wait for some other time. The expedition produced the first stratigraphical study of a Maya ruin. One building in particular Building B, Group II, produced much more than anyone would have hoped for. The results of this expedition were not published until many years later as, The Ruins of Holmul, Guatemala. By Raymond E. Merwin and George C. Vaillant (Peabody Museum Memoirs, Vol. 3, No. 2, 1932).
Raymond was again director of the expedition in 1911-1912, this time he was joined by Chief Assistant Clarence L. Hay and J. L. Peters, Zoologist. They traveled to the southern region of Quintana Roo and the Hondo River area. The expedition explored Rio Bec locating groups of ruins undiscovered by Comte Maurice de Perigny. One ruin they located and photographed, Raymond called Temple B. Temple B has twin towers with false doorways and is the basis of the so called “Rio Bec” style of Mayan architecture.
The Peabody Museum did not field an expedition during 1912-1913 as Raymond worked to complete his dissertation. His thesis titled The Ruins of the Southern Part of the Peninsula of Yucatan, with Special Reference to their Place in the Maya Culture was approved and he received his Ph.D. in June 1913.
Returning to the field in 1913-1914, Raymond was joined by C. W. Bishop, they spent December and January in Quintana Roo, Mexico but were forced to leave because of pirates and civil unrest. Traveling to the Peten they worked the rest of the season at previously unknown sites.
The 1914-1915 season found Raymond and his assistant A. W. Carpenter exploring Guatemala and British Honduras. They visited Santa Rita in the north before moving into Guatemala. A good deal of time was spent at the site named Rio Grande now known as Lubaantun. This visit located many new structures and produced the first photographs and map. Raymond brought three carved round stones back to the Peabody Museum. Interestingly, Alfred M. Tozzer in his biography of Raymond included with the 1932 publication The Ruins of Holmul, Guatemala states “From this site he brought back three circular carved stones which he calls in his notebook 'Ball Game' stones. He has a drawing of a ball-court with the position of the stones carefully noted. This is probably the first definite statement of such a structure in a site, possibly First Empire.”
Raymond did not return to the field after 1915. He continued to work at the Peabody Museum for several years on his notes from the various expeditions. Raymond's premature death would keep him from publishing the details of his work. His obituary explains it this way, “In this work he contracted a tropical disease which baffled the skill of many physicians and from which he never recovered.”
In 1916 he was married to Evelyn Albrecht of Massilon, Ohio. Their home was made at Hot Springs, Ark. Raymond Merwin died in New York City on November 25, 1928.
