Carter was born on May 9, 1874 in London, to a family of artists. When he was seventeen he assisted Percy Newberry in the excavation and recording of Middle Kingdom tombs at Beni Hasan, starting a career path which in 1899 led him to become the first chief inspector of the Egyptian Antiquities Service (EAS).
Carter was employed by Lord Carnarvon to supervise his excavations from 1907, and after many years of searching (interrupted by the first world war), in November 1922 Carter's excavation group found the Tutankhamun's tomb, one of the most important archaeological discoveries ever.
Carter died of a natural cause (cancer) in 1939, which largely refuted the widely publicized idea that anyone who enters Tutankhamun's tomb would be placed under a curse.