William Christopher Hayes (March 21, 1903 – July 10, 1963) was an American

Egyptologist Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

. His main fields of study were history of

Egyptian art Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculpture ...

and translation/interpretation of texts.W. C. Hayes, ''The Scepter of Egypt'', part II, 4th printing, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Abrams, inc., New York, 1990, , (back cover).

Biography

His father William C. Hayes Sr. was a British national and his mother Helen Hawthorne Maule was from Philadelphia and both parents were passionate about horses.Bill initially went to

William Penn Charter School William Penn Charter School (commonly known as Penn Charter or simply PC) is an independent school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1689 at the urging of William Penn as the "Public Grammar School" and chartered in 1689 to be op ...

(then known as Penn Charter) and then went to the prep school st george's for 4 years, where he won the " George Gordon King medal" in advanced greek.A pupil of Sir

Alan Gardiner Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century. Personal life G ...

, Hayes attended the

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

(in 1920) where he graduated in 1935 with a dissertation on the royal sarcophagi of the 18th Dynasty. For most of his life he was involved with the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

: first as a member of the museum's Egyptian Expedition (since 1926), then as an assistant curator (1936) and later as curator of the museum's Egyptian Department, from 1952 until his death occurred on July 10, 1963.
In 1956, he was involved as a consultant in the production of the film ''

The Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ� ...

''. His best-known work, ''The Scepter of Egypt'', is still considered by many Egyptologists as one of the standard works in their field.

Significant works

*1961-1962. ''Chronology: Egypt – To End Of The Twentieth Dynasty''. In ''

The Cambridge Ancient History ''The Cambridge Ancient History'' is a multi-volume work of ancient history from Prehistory to Late Antiquity, published by Cambridge University Press. The first series, consisting of 12 volumes, was planned in 1919 by Irish historian J. B. Bury ...

'' *1956. ''Most ancient Egypt''.

University of Chicago Press The University of Chicago Press is the largest and one of the oldest university presses in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including ''The Chicago Manual of Style'', ...

(as editor) *1953-1959. ''The Scepter of Egypt, a Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art''. part I, New York 1953; part II, New York 1959 *1942. ''Daily life in Ancient Egypt''.

National Geographic Society The National Geographic Society (NGS), headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational organizations in the world. Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, and ...

*1935. ''Royal Sarcophagi of the XVIII Dynasty'' (dissertation)

References

1903 births 1963 deaths American Egyptologists People from Hempstead (village), New York People associated with the Metropolitan Museum of Art St. George's School (Rhode Island) alumni Princeton University alumni {{Egyptologist-stub