Roland Wells Robbins (1908–1987) was an American archaeologist, author, and historian who is known for discovering the site of Henry David Thoreau's house at Walden Pond.
While there he collected tales and stories from local newspapers that he used to form the basis of his first book, Thru the Covered Bridge.
[6] Robbins' excavations uncovered the major manufacturing units of the Iron Works, including the foundations of buildings, remains of the blast furnace, holding ponds, and canal, a 500-pound hammer used in the forge, and a waterwheel that powered the bellows for the blast furnace, along with its wheel pit.
[7] Robbins abruptly left the Iron Works in 1953, not long after a dispute with Quincy Bent of the American Iron and Steel Institute (the financial backer of the project), who wanted Robbins to give tours of the excavation site on weekends in addition to his other duties.
[7] Robbins also discovered the sites of the John and Priscilla Alden home in Duxbury, Massachusetts, the remains of Thomas Jefferson's birthplace in Shadwell, Virginia, Fort Crown Point, Sterling Iron Works in Tuxedo, New York, duPont's Powder Rolling Mills in Wilmington, Delaware, the Sleepy Hollow Restorations in Tarrytown, New York, Samuel Parris's parsonage in Danvers, Massachusetts, John Winthrop Jr. Iron Furnace Site in Quincy, Massachusetts, mill sites in Moore State Park, and a Revolutionary War encampment site on Talcott Mountain.
[11] In 1947, Robbins purchased 1,230 negatives of Herbert W. Gleason, a photographer who took several thousand pictures of areas frequented by Thoreau.