Lawrence Waters Jenkins was born on December 23, 1872 to Charles T. and Lucy Weston Jenkins, in Salem, Massachusetts. Colonel Jenkins, as he was often called, attended Nobel’s School, and joined the First Corps Cadets in 1892. He would always be a member of a military organization until he retired from the Massachusetts National Guard in 1920 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Jenkins attended Harvard University, where he graduated with his A. B. in 1896. He then became an assistant superintendent of the Crows Nest Mining Company in Melrose, Nova Scotia, from 1897 to 1899. In 1900 he took a long trip on horseback through Mexico, and acquired a lasting interest in ethnology and material culture, which prompted him to join the Peabody Museum in Salem as a volunteer. His interest in history had already led to his becoming a member of the Essex Institute in 1895. In 1901, Jenkins became the Curator of Ethnology of the Peabody Museum of Salem, a position he maintained until 1949. He also served as Assistant Director in Charge from 1914 to 1937, Curator of Marine Rooms from 1925 to 1949, Director from 1937 to 1950, and Director Emeritus from 1950 until his death in 1961.

Jenkins was instrumental in obtaining many large and important ethnological collections for the Peabody Museum. He also found log books, journals, broadsides, and manuscript materials for both the Museum and the Essex Institute. He wrote about twenty five historical and ethnological articles and catalogues and edited the journal of William Endicott, Wrecked Among Cannibals in Fiji. Jenkins was also a founder of the Essex Book and Print Club and the Marine Research Society.

Jenkins married Arvilla Bray in 1901, in Salem; shortly after they moved to a house on Locust Street in Danvers. They had three children: Stephen Waters born in 1902, Dorothy born in 1906, and Benjamin Gilbert in 1907. Jenkins died on April 20, 1961.