Rhys Carpenter (August 5, 1889 – January 2, 1980) was an American classical art historian and professor at Bryn Mawr College.

Carpenter won a Rhodes scholarship at the University of Oxford, studying at Balliol College.

The president of Bryn Mawr College, Martha Carey Thomas (1857–1935) invited Carpenter to establish a department of classical archaeology at the college, which he did while completing his own graduate work at Columbia University; he completed his Ph.D. in 1916 with a dissertation on The Ethics of Euripides.

Dr. Carpenter, one year before his death, was forced from his estate "Jerry Run" by the government so Marsh Creek State Park lake could be built.

[5] Bryn Mawr College dedicated their newly built archaeology library in Carpenter's name and memory in 1997.