author
William Gates
1863–1940
A self-taught scholar of Maya languages and manuscripts, he helped bring early Mesoamerican texts to wider attention. His work blended linguistics, collecting, publishing, and archaeology in ways that still stand out today.
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About the author
Born in 1863 and dying in 1940, William E. Gates was an American Mayanist whose research centered on Maya hieroglyphs and related languages. Sources describe him as a linguist and collector as well as an author, and note that he studied languages including Yucatec Maya, Ch'olti', Huastec, and Q'eqchi'.
He is especially remembered for collecting and publishing materials connected with Mexico and Central America. Archival and library records also show how wide-ranging his work was: he has been described as an archaeologist, publisher, museum director, and president of the Maya Society.
Institutional records connect him with the Maya Society, the Carnegie Institution of Washington, and Tulane University. A Smithsonian summary notes that a photograph of him was used in a 1931 news story about his discoveries, but I couldn't confirm a suitable portrait image from the pages available here.