James Vinton Stowell, Sr. (1897?-1970) was an artist, archaeologist and explorer. Stowell graduated from the New York School of Fine and Applied Art (later, Parsons The New School for Design) in 1917 with an Advertising Design degree, and was employed by the school as a trade representive through the 1918-1919 academic year. A native of Elmira, New York, Stowell served in the U.S. Navy in 1917-1918. While he worked as an art director in advertising, Stowell devoted his life to amateur archaeology of Native American sites. Some of the artifacts he collected were acquired on arctic expeditions, including a 1946 trip to Nova Scotia and Labrador on the ship Bowdoin, and a 1952 trip on the Regina Polaris to Hudson Bay. Stowell lectured and wrote extensively, primarily on his espeditions to the North and on archaeology. He died in 1970.