Charles Doolittle Walcott was an American paleontologist and director of the Smithsonian Institution from 1907 to 1927. He made several field trips in the Canadian Rockies, discovering the Burgess Shale fossil bed in 1909, sponsoring the 1911 Alpine Club of Canada–Smithsonian Robson Expedition (he was unable to attend in person due to the death of his wife Helena in a train crash on June 11), conducting his own investigation of the Mount Robson area in 1912, and attending the 1913 Alpine Club of Canada Camp at Mount Robson where he continued his geological investigations.

Walcott was married three times — to Lura Ann Rust [1843-1876], to Helena Breese Stevens [1858-1911], and to Mary Morris Vaux [1860-1940]. By his second wife he had four children: Charles Doolittle Jr. [1889-1913], Sidney Stevens [1892-1977], Helena Breeze [1894-1965], and Benjamin Stuart [1896–1917]. Charles died while a student at Yale, and Benjamin was killed in action in France in 1917 flying for the Lafayette Flying Corps.

When Walcott traveled to the Canadian Rockies during the summer in search of fossils, often his wife and children would accompany him on his expeditions.