Fact #81: 20 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #81: Machu Picchu was built at the behest of Pachacuti ("He Who Shakes the Earth"), the ruler of the Incan Empire, between two peaks -- Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu.

Fact #80: 21 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #80: Hiram Bingham's missionary grandparents, the Rev. Hiram and Sybil Bingham, were among the first group of missionaries to arrive in Hawaii in 1820. Rev. Bingham was a member of the committee that founded Punahou School, which was founded in 1841 and opened in 1842. They were not there to see it: Sybil Bingham's health declined, so they returned to the States the year before the school opened.

Fact #79: 22 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #79: What do Hiram Bingham, President Obama and actors Buster Crabbe and Joan Blondell have in common? They are alumni of Punahou School on Oahu, a private, co-educational prep school in Honolulu.

Fact #78: 23 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #78: Hiram Bingham's father and grandfather were missionaries.

Fact #77: 24 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #77: Hiram Bingham's love of adventure may have been preordained. He was born in Honolulu in 1875, more than 20 years before Hawaii became a territory.

Fact #76: 25 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #76: Some say Hiram Bingham was the model for Indiana Jones, the swashbuckling adventurer of movie fame. (Yes, but did Bingham hate snakes?)

Fact #75: 26 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #75: Hiram Bingham was rich in many senses of the word. (He was married to an heir of the Tiffany fortune, whom he later divorced.) He had seven sons.

Fact #74: 27 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #74: Hiram Bingham died June 6, 1956, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Fact #73: 28 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #73: President Harry Truman established the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board to show that he was not soft on communism. Hiram Bingham was a board member from 1951-53.

Fact #72: 29 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #72: Hiram Bingham served on the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board. The board was established in 1947 by President Harry Truman. From the order establishing the body: "There shall be a loyalty investigation of every person entering the civilian employment of any department or agency of the executive branch of the federal government."

Fact #71: 30 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #71: Hiram Bingham lost his 1932 reelection for the U.S. Senate.

Fact #70: 31 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #70: According to the Biographical Dictionary of the U.S. Congress, Hiram Bingham was "censured by the Senate in 1929 on charges of placing of a lobbyist on his payroll."

Fact #69: 32 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #69: Hiram Bingham took the Senate seat, made vacant by the suicide of Sen. Frank B. Brandegee, and won reelection in 1926.

Fact #68: 33 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #68: Hiram Bingham was offered a U.S. Senate seat, made vacant by the suicide of Sen. Frank B. Brendegee, soon after Bingham assumed the governor's mantle.

Fact #67: 34 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #67: In 1924, Hiram Bingham became governor of Connecticut. But even that wasn't enough.

Fact #66: 35 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #66: A decade after Hiram Bingham's expedition to Peru, he was elected lieutenant governor of Connecticut. But he had more in mind.

Fact #65: 36 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #65: Hiram Bingham's reputation apparently didn't suffer in the United States, which was helpful because he had political ambitions.

Fact #64: 37 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #64: Hiram Bingham's reputation is said to have suffered -- at least among those who criticized his methods of gathering the treasures.

Fact #73: 28 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #73: President Harry Truman established the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board to show that he was not soft on communism. Hiram Bingham was a board member from 1951-53.

Fact #63: 38 days until the start of my field placement

Fact #63: Hiram Bingham's collection of Peruvian artifacts, however, was criticized as haphazard.