Recalled to Salem by his father's death in 1826, Ebenezer married there and devoted himself to the study and cultivation of plants and fruits, and involved himself in the Democratic Party in his county.

[4] Putnam graduated from Harvard in 1862,[3] and his early work was as a naturalist done with fellow students he had first met while studying under Agassiz, Edward Sylvester Morse, A. S. Packard and Alpheus Hyatt.

In 1875, he was appointed civilian assistant on the United States surveys west of the 100th meridian, his duties being to make investigations and reports of the archæological and ethnological material collected.

Among other projects, Putnam did an archaeological survey of Ohio from 1880–1895, where he was instrumental in having the Great Serpent Mound preserved.

[8] Putnam was appointed the lead curator and head of the anthropology department in 1891 for the World's Columbian Exposition, to be held in Chicago in 1893.

As the exposition was drawing to a close, Putnam agitated for a permanent home to be found for the collection of artifacts amassed under his supervision.

[12] Putnam is widely known as the "Father of American Archaeology" for his contribution of scientific methods and direction of many of the nascent field's best students,[13] including Arthur C.