In September 1837 he was appointed librarian of the American Antiquarian Society, located in Worcester, Massachusetts.

He began his duties as librarian in April 1838, and in October of that same year, he was elected a member of the society.

[5] Haven was particularly interested in research of the indigenous people of North America, including those referred to as the Mound Builders.

[7] The Smithsonian Institution commissioned Haven to write a consolidation of then current archeological knowledge.

The result of his travels and studies, it proposed an ancient origin of the native peoples of the Americas and of their migration from Siberia.