Charles Benedict Davenport was born on June 1, 1866, at Davenport Ridge, near Stamford, Connecticut. He graduated from Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute with a BS in civil engineering in 1886. In 1887 he entered Harvard to study Natural History. He graduated in 1889 and completed his Ph.D. in 1892. Davenport was an instructor at Harvard until he moved to the University of Chicago in 1893 and became director of the summer courses at the Biological Laboratory at Cold Spring Harbor in 1898.

During Davenport's tenure at CSHL much emphasis was placed on teaching. He was successful in inducing a number of leading teachers to give summer courses at the Laboratory. In addition a large number of biologists did research work there during the summers. In 1901, three years after Dr. Davenport took charge of the Biological Laboratory, he was appointed Associate Professor and curator of the Zoological Museum at the University of Chicago. However, he continued his connection with the Laboratory and spent summers at Cold Spring Harbor. In 1904, Davenport established the Station for Experimental Evolution on land adjacent to the Biological Laboratory. He organized the department, became its first Director in 1904, and remained Director until his retirement in 1934.

After he had moved his residence to Cold Spring Harbor, Dr. Davenport had a better opportunity to work for the Biological Laboratory and to develop it, and together with the Station for Experimental Evolution, as an important center for biological research. Under his leadership, and backed by the great resources of the Carnegie Institution, the Station developed rapidly. The Biological Laboratory expanded considerably as well.

Davenport established the Eugenics Records Office in 1910 and thus was responsible simultaneously for three institutions. In 1918 the Eugenics Record Office was taken over by the Carnegie Institution and combined with the Station for Experimental Evolution to form the department of Genetics, with Davenport in charge.

Davenport was a pioneer in the experiential studies of Mendelian inheritance, and made important contributions to science in the fields of genetics and anthropology. With his studies of the fauna of the Laboratory, he also pioneered in work on animal ecology. He experimented with canaries, chickens, sheep and mice, and also studied the inheritance of eye, hair, and skin color, temperament, stature build and human twin births.

He retained his youthful enthusiasm for work and his driving energy and vigor until the time of his death. After his retirement as Director of the Department of Genetics, he continued with research on the growth and development of humans, and he devoted a great deal of time to the concerns of the Long Island Biological Association.

During World War I he served a major in charge of anthropology in the Surgeon General's Office, and made studies on the physical characteristics of men in the armed services. Despite his advanced age, at the outbreak of World War II he volunteered for a full share of Civilian Defense activities. He was an airplane spotter, and carried out his spotting duties throughout the severe winters of 1942 and 1943; he also acted as an Air Raid Warden for his district. In 1942, Davenport established the Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum and served as its director a curator.

Davenport was an indefatigable organizer: he was on the editorial boards of eight journals and was a member of 64 societies including the National academy of Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He published twenty scientific books and more than 400 articles in various scientific journals. In 1923 he was awarded the gold medal of the National Institute of Social Sciences.

Davenport developed pneumonia while spending days outdoors in January, 1944, trying to prepare the skull of a killer whale that had beached at the eastern end of Long Island. He died on February 18, 1944.