William H Bates was born  in 1860 in Newark and he died in 1931 in New York.

 He was an ophthalmologist who was dissatisfied with the conventional ophthalmological practice of simply providing corrective lenses. Finally, he decided to begin his own research about eyesight disorders and he developed The Bates Method. 

He helped people to improve their eyesight and take off their glasses for good.

 He discovered that people with bad eyesight use their eyes in a different way from people with good eyesight. He showed that his patients could see better, even reverting their vision their vision troubles by changing some habits. How? By returning to the natural vision and normal working of the eyes. We can recover it with eyesight re-education based on relaxation. 

Bates had many papers published in the journal Better Eyesight Magazine and his famous book Perfect Sight Without Glasses was published in 1921. 

So began the holistic discipline named The Bates Method (or Natural Eyesight Re-education) and today, we can find more proponents, authors, therapies and techniques that complement The Bates Method, as well as a large number of Natural Eyesight Teachers around the world.

You can find more information about William H Bates in the bibliography section. 

The ways in which people strain to see are infinite, and the methods used to relieve the strain must be almost equally varied. Whatever the method that brings most relief, however, the end is always the same, namely relaxation.

William H Bates, M.D, Perfect Sight Without Glasses, page 101.