The Middle American Research Institute seeks to study and safeguard the culture and history of the areas of Mesoamerica and lower Central America.

The Institute supports education and research in archaeology, ethnography, ethnohistory, linguistics, and art history throughout Mexico and Central America.

The Middle American Research Institute seeks to disseminate the results of its scholarship to academics, students, educators, and the public.

Samuel Zemurray, president of the Cuyamel Fruit Company, generously donated $300,000 to “support the new Department of Middle American Research in the university, and supply money for an archaeological expedition.”[1] Additionally, Zemurray bought Gates’ private library of original sources on the prehistory of Mexico and linguistics of the Maya area.

In 1925, Gates hired field archaeologist Frans Blom to lead the Department's first expedition into the Mexican hinterland.

In his own words, Blom describes the first expedition: “We discovered twenty-four ruined cities hitherto unrecorded by scientists… To sum up the matter in a few words, the work that we have begun in Central America will put Tulane University on the map as having the greatest department in the country on Maya Indian study.”[5] Throughout his time with the Department, Blom participated in four major expeditions covering areas and topics including Guatemalan ancestral ritual calendars, investigations of Mayan ritual cycles at Jacaltenango, and a long trek from the southern coast of Chiapas to Chichen Itza on the Yucatán.

Tulane's location in New Orleans (a major port city servicing Latin America) meant that the Department was often frequented by researchers on their way into the field.

The Department of Middle American Research became known internationally when reproductions of architecture from the Nunnery Quadrangle at Uxmal, discovered during the Institute's expeditions, were displayed at the World's Fair of 1933.

[12] This continued focus on publication and field research led to a tripling of the number of graduate students working in Maya archaeology.

In the late 1970s Andrews gathered grants to begin research on Maya farming settlements around Komchen, Mexico.

This was achieved through ceramic and obsidian artifact analysis, study of sculpture, and investigations of El Cementerio Marcello Canuto is the current director of Tulane University's Middle American Research Institute.

His field work focuses on the areas of La Corona in Guatemala and the El Paraíso valley in Honduras, where he studies the socio-political organization of the prehispanic Maya.

This renovation allowed the Institute the opportunity to build a larger modern exhibit gallery, as well as digitized storage systems for archives and collections.

The Middle American Research Institute is also working on community outreach through the continuation of the Tulane Maya Symposium as well as school group visits, and updated exhibits.

In the early 1900s, expeditions focused on Mexico, and have since expanded to include research in Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, and El Salvador.

Recently, the Middle American Research Institute has received some attention for Dr. Canuto's role as director of excavations at La Corona in Guatemala.

[15] Other recent findings include a broken stone monument at the site of El Achiotal, which speaks of the anniversary of an Early Classic king installed by Siyaj K'ak' from the Valley of Mexico,[16] discovered by graduate student Luke Auld-Thomas in 2015, as well as a 6 foot tall stucco mask.

[19] The Middle American Research Institute gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9am to 4pm at Tulane University, Dinwiddie Hall, 3rd Floor, New Orleans, LA 70118.

Stone tools from the United States, Honduran pot sherds, Egyptian coffins, Mexican masks, Guatemalan textiles, Amazonian featherwork, and the iconic Tulane pennant exemplify the range of materials in the collection.

The archive spans the entirety of the Americas including the Pepper Collection of photographs from the U.S. Southwest; field journals, maps, and photos from the Institute's early expeditions in Middle America; and miscellaneous personal archives donated to the Institute by scholars interested in Mesoamerican archaeology and ethnography.

Buried Cities, Forgotten Gods: William Niven's Life of Discovery and Revolution in Mexico and the American Southwest.