William Gates

Born in 1863 and dying in 1940, William Edmond Gates was an American Mayanist whose research centered on Maya language and hieroglyphic writing. He is also noted for collecting Mesoamerican manuscripts, and reference sources describe him as a linguist, archaeologist, collector, publisher, and museum director.

Gates studied several Mayan languages, including Yucatec Maya, Ch'olti', Huastec, and Q'eqchi'. Biographical sources also credit him with an impressive gift for languages more broadly, and his career connected scholarship with collecting and publishing in ways that helped keep rare materials in circulation.

He was associated with institutions and organizations devoted to the study of the ancient Americas, including the Maya Society, and archival records note later ties to the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Tulane University. For readers interested in the history of archaeology, linguistics, or Mesoamerican studies, he stands out as a curious and energetic figure from an earlier era of research.