William C. Hayes


William Christopher Hayes was an American Egyptologist. His main fields of study were history of Egyptian art and translation/interpretation of texts.

Biography

A pupil of Sir Alan Gardiner, Hayes attended the Princeton University 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: first as a member of the museum's Egyptian Expedition, then as an assistant curator 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. 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