Katherine Maria Routledge (/ˈraʊtlɛdʒ/ ROWT-lej; née Pease; 11 August 1866 – 13 December 1935) was an English archaeologist and anthropologist who, in 1914, initiated and carried out much of the first true survey of Easter Island.

She was the second child of Kate and Gurney Pease, and was born into a wealthy Quaker family in Darlington, County Durham, northern England.

They established two base camps, one in the area of Mataveri and the other at the statue quarry, Rano Raraku and also explored Orongo and Anakena.

With the help of an islander named Juan Tepano, Routledge proceeded to interview the natives and catalogue the moai (giant statues) and the Ahus they had once stood on.

They excavated over 30 moai, visited the tribal elders in their leper colony north of Hanga Roa and recorded various legends and oral histories including that of Hotu Matua, the Birdman cult, clan names and territories and data on the enigmatic rongorongo script; Van Tilburg credits her with a primary role in assisting preservation of Rapa Nui's indigenous Polynesian culture.

By the time the Germans landed 48 British and French merchant seamen from sunken prizes it had become clear to all that World War I had broken out, and Routledge complained sharply of this infringement of neutral Chilean territory to the schoolmaster in his capacity as representative of the Government of Chile; whilst her husband sailed the Mana to Valparaíso to pass on a similar complaint to the British Consul in Santiago.

Routledge also decided to mediate in the native rebellion against the sheep ranch that was led by local medicine woman and visionary named Angata.

[4] That large archive consisted of diaries, field notes, original illustrations, photographs, and artifacts, among other materials, relating to the expeditions of Katherine Routledge and her husband in Kenya and Polynesia, among other places.