Fairbanks was born November 13, 1864, in
Hanover, New Hampshire. He graduated from
Dartmouth College in 1886 and attended the
Yale Divinity School and the
Union Theological Seminary. He also studied in
Germany, receiving a
Ph.D. from the
University of Freiburg in 1890. He was on the faculty of
Dartmouth College and
Yale and
Cornell Universities until 1900, when he became professor of Greek literature and archaeology at the
University of Iowa. In 1906, he was appointed professor of Greek and Greek archaeology in the
University of Michigan. He was appointed curator of classical art at the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1907, and in 1908 became director there. He supervised the museum's move to its current
Fenway location. He retired in 1925. He was a member of many classical and learned societies. He died January 13, 1944, in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. ==Works==