A member of the Society of the Divine Word, Martin Gusinde was ordained a priest in 1911. The following year, he was sent to Chile as a missionary. He taught natural history at the German High school of Santiago and was passionate about the humanities, archaeology and anthropology. The Ethnographic and Anthropological Museum provided him with documentary resources and an educational framework. His expeditions to Tierra del Fuego were supported by private funds and a number of public institutions. Following his field research, he began an academic career and earned a doctorate in ethnology in Vienna. His archives, field notes and photographs are preserved at the Anthropos institute in Sankt Augustin, Germany.