[1] On July 16, 1881, he sailed with his brother Herbert Wolcott Bowen (1856–1927) on the SS City of Chester for a year of travel in Europe, and other countries, including Egypt, going up the Nile into Nubia, Palestine, Syria and Constantinople.

[1] After his return to America became a member of the editorial staff of The Independent, in special charge of its literary correspondence and enterprise.

At the same time he pursued a course of study in political science in Columbia College, where he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1886, presenting a thesis on "The Conflict between the East and West in Egypt," which was published afterwards.

[2] In 1888, Bowen visited Washington, D.C., with his father, mother, sister Grace Aspinwall Bowen (1850–1940), his fiancé Ethel, and cousin Fanny Lincoln to watch the inauguration of Benjamin Harrison as President of the United States.

[1] On January 3, 1890, in his 32rd year of life, he died in Brooklyn, after six weeks' illness, of typhoid fever.