mary+leakey

Mary Leakey
Young Mary Nicol was not a typical schoolgirl. The daughter of an artist, she loved to draw. She was also obsessed with prehistory. When she was 12, she was fascinated by the amazing cave paintings that she saw in southwest France. Some were more than 10,000 years old. As a teen, she earned her first money by sketching prehistoric tools. Still, she found life in England rather stuffy. "Given the chance," she said, " I'd rather be in a tent than in a house." She got her wish when she married Louis Leakey, an anthropolagist who worked in remote areas of Africa. In most unlikely career choice for women of her day, she joined him in his work, making discoveries with him and on her own. Mary Leakey also became one of the world's foremost experts at drawing and classifying ancient stone tools.

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Mary Leakey with the skull she found. By Olivia Restivo