[1] His paternal grandfather, John Murray Forbes, was a French-born railroad magnate, merchant, and abolitionist.

His brother, William Cameron Forbes, went on to serve as the United States Ambassador to Japan from 1930 to 1932.

[2] Forbes co-founded the Harvard River Associates in 1902 with Robert Bacon, James Abercrombie Burden, Jr., Augustus Hemenway and Thomas Nelson Perkins.

[6] Moreover, he sailed aboard the Asama Maru from San Francisco, California, to Japan to undertake an art research trip and to visit his brother in 1931.

[1] The first Honorary Fellowship of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) was awarded to Edward Forbes in 1958.

[8] As a permanent tribute, the plaza outside and the arcade inside Harvard's Holyoke Center were named in his honour.

[1][10] He served on the administrative committee of the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and Research Library of Byzantine Studies in Washington, D.C., from 1941 to 1963.

[2] He became honorary fellow of the International Institute for Conservation in 1958, where the annual Edward W. Forbes Prize was named in his honor.

[2] Forbes died on March 11, 1969, at the McLean Hospital in Belmont, a suburb of Boston in Massachusetts.