Hiram Bingham
Bingham, Hiram (1875–1956), a United States explorer and political leader. He was born in Honolulu, the son of a missionary. Bingham graduated from Harvard, received his Ph.D. at Yale, in 1905, and taught Latin American history at Yale. 1907–24. While exploring Inca ruins and old Spanish trails in South America, 1906–15, he found the site of Machu Picchu, Peru. Bingham became active in politics as a Republican. He was lieutenant governor of Connecticut, 1923–24, and was elected governor in 1924. A month later he was elected to the U.S. Senate in a special election; he served two days as governor and then entered the Senate, where he remained until 1933. In 1929 he was censured by the Senate for bringing an official of a manufacturers' association to a closed committee meeting.
Among his many books are The Monroe Doctrine (1913), An Explorer in the Air Service (1920), and Lost City of the Incas (1948).