Heinrich Schliemann, 1822-1890, was born in Neubukow, Germany, on 6 January 1822. His mother died when he was nine years old, and his father sank into poverty in the following years. As a result, Schliemann had to leave school and begin working when he was fourteen years old. He worked as a grocer's apprentice, a steamer cabin boy, an office attendant, and a bookkeeper before joining the importing and exporting firm B. H. Schröder & Co. in 1844. Schliemann moved to the United States in 1851 and ran a bank in Sacramento, California. In April 1852, he moved to Russia, where he ran a successful wholesale business. He retired in 1858 and moved to Greece. Inspired by a life-long interest in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey, he became an amateur archaeologist in the 1870s. He is famous for excavating the presumed locations of Troy, Mycenae, and other sites from classical works. Schliemann died in Naples, Italy, on 26 December 1890.