Edwin Hamilton Davis (January 22, 1811 – May 15, 1888) was an American physician and self taught archaeologist who completed pioneering investigations of the mound builders in the Mississippi Valley.

Davis gathered what, at that time, was the largest privately held collection of prehistoric Indian artifacts in the United States.

[2] Davis gave much attention to the subject of American antiquities and aided Charles Whittlesey in explorations of ancient mounds in 1836.

[3] Among Davis and Squier's most important achievements was their systematic approach to analyzing and documenting the sites they surveyed, including the Serpent Mound in Peebles, Ohio, which they discovered in 1846, and the mapping of the Mound City Group in Chillicothe, Ohio, which has been restored using their data and became part of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.

In 1848, the results of Davis and Squier's explorations were embodied in the book Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley, which formed the first volume of the Smithsonian contributions to knowledge series.