C. Staniland (Charles Staniland) Wake

Born in Kingston upon Hull on 22 March 1835, Charles Staniland Wake became known as a British anthropologist and prolific writer on comparative religion, mythology, and social institutions. He later moved to the United States and died in Chicago on 21 June 1910.

Wake was active in the world of early anthropology and is associated with the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. His published work includes Serpent-Worship and Other Essays, The Development of Marriage and Kinship, and Vortex Philosophy, showing interests that ranged from ancient belief systems to family structure and broader speculative ideas about science and society.

Today he is remembered mainly through these writings, which capture a period when anthropology was trying to compare cultures on a very large scale. While some of the assumptions common to that era have aged, his work still offers a window into how Victorian and turn-of-the-century scholars tried to understand religion, symbolism, and human origins.