monkeys in 1975. They later published several articles in the 1990s on the sign language acquisition of gorillas in comparison with that of the young signing children of Deaf parents, noting both the similarities and differences between the sign language development of the two groups. Bonvillian and Patterson also penned a short article on approaches to ape language research. Bonvillian was a supporting member of the Gorilla Foundation. Hand preference studies Another recurring topic in Bonvillian's research was the issue of hand preference in deaf persons, signing children of Deaf parents (whether the children were deaf or hearing), and persons with autism. Since sign languages are based on the visual-manual modality of communication (rather than the auditory-vocal modality of spoken languages), Bonvillian wondered whether individuals exposed to signing from birth (because they had one or two signing Deaf parents) showed different handedness patterns than hearing individuals not exposed to signing from birth. He was also interested in whether such persons’ hand preference varied depending on whether their manual activity was for signing or was non-sign in nature (i.e., object actions, general communicative gestures, or other manual actions). The studies of the signing children of Deaf parents showed that they had a stronger hand preference (typically for the right hand) for their manual signing activity than they showed for non-sign communicative gestures and object actions. In contrast, sign-learning students with autism did not display as strong of a hand preference in their signing activity. An earlier study of handedness patterns in deaf high-school and college students also showed a higher incidence of left-handedness, and that left-handed students tended to have been exposed to signing at a later age than those deaf students who preferred using their right hand. Use of manual signs and gestures in early contact situations Bonvillian, who had always maintained a strong interest in and personal passion for history, investigated the use of manual signs and gestures by hearing persons in various historical contexts. In particular, he focused on the use of manual signs and gestures during early contact situations between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. He approached this latter task in a systematic manner by examining the first-hand written accounts and journals of voyagers who travelled to the “New World” in search of riches (see, for example, his peer-reviewed article on Bernal Díaz del Castillo and Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, as well as