[1][2] He was son of George Hobbs Sanborn and Lillian Knight Hodgdon.
[1] He graduated from Harvard University in 1905, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1908.
[2] From 1918 to 1919, he served as the executive secretary of the American Red Cross Commission to Palestine, where he was based in Jerusalem.
[2] In 1920, Sanborn was on an expedition to the tomb of Merenptah with Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr. and Clarence Stanley Fisher, where they found Pharaoh's throne.
[1] Sanborn served as the librarian of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston from 1923 to 1925, and as its secretary from 1925 to 1952.