Mary Leakey enters the scene.
Louis Leakey's leaving his wife and young children and then divorcing, in a more conservative age, as a result of a woman nearly a decade his junior, turned out to be the last nail in his career's coffin.
Or almost...
Once married to Mary it would be her finds that would resurrect his career as a scientist and once again place him in the spotlight on the world anthropological stage.
By National Institutes of Health - https://ihm.nlm.nih.gov/images/A16794, Public Domain, Link
While growing up Mary Nicol manged to get herself expelled from two convents and so her formal schooling was scant.
She would later develop an interest in archaeology, attend lectures at London's University College and become a magnificent illustrator. This was a sought after skill in scientific publishing circles in the days before photography in books was common and she was recommended to Louis Leakey while he was compiling his book "Adam's Ancestors".
Louis would later write:
"Mary Nicol's drawings were the best representations of stone tools I had ever seen then or, indeed, have seen since"
Times at the archaeological excavation were tough in the early years. Louis ruined reputation led to a shortage of patrons and funds. Expeditions, when they could be accomplished, often proceeded on a shoestring budget with common comforts like clean drinking water being dispensed with due to lack of funds for fuel to fetch it etc.
Although many were skeptical at first, Mary soon became recognized as a respectable archaeologist and developed new techniques and methods that are now the standard practice for archaeologists today.
Work in Kenya proceeded slowly until, in 1948, Louis pleadings in a letter to the Times of London would uncover a certain Charles Boise who funded an expedition to Lake Victoria's Rusinga Island.
It is here that Mary would make her first major find and get the ball rolling to more fluid funding, steady recognition and success.
Good thing she got kicked out of several schools, her true calling would have been derailed.
Apparently so.
I sent you a memo, Wanted to see if you had a chance to have a look at it.
please sir see my introducing post.
Interesting story! They could make a movie about it lol
Some people in this world are more with the profession they choose and those are the ones who accomplish things that get them on the books...
Effort matters.
Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised Proconsul skull, an extinct ape which is now believed to be ancestral to humans. She also discovered the robust Zinjanthropus skull at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eastern Africa. For much of her career she worked with her husband, Louis Leakey, at Olduvai Gorge, where they uncovered fossils of ancient hominines and the earliest hominins, as well as the stone tools produced by the latter group. Mary Leakey developed a system for classifying the stone tools found at Olduvai. She discovered the Laetoli footprints, and at the Laetoli site she discovered hominin fossils that were more than 3.75 million years old.
Mary Douglas Leakey was a paleoanthropologist who is best known for making several prominent archaeological and anthropological discoveries throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Working with husband Louis Leakey, her longtime colleague, she uncovered a number of fossils in Africa, which significantly advanced scientific knowledge of the origins of humankind.
Mary Leakey was born Mary Douglas Nicol on February 6, 1913, in London, England. The daughter of an artist, at a young age, Leakey excelled at drawing—a talent that she later used to enter into the field of paleoanthropology. When she was just 17 years old, she served as an illustrator at a dig in England.
Mary Douglas Leakey (Douglas)
Birthdate: February 6, 1913 (83)
Birthplace: London, Greater London, UK
Death: December 9, 1996 (83)
Nairobi, Kenya
Immediate Family:
Daughter of Erskine Edwin Nicol and Cecilia Marion Elizabeth Frere
Wife of Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey
Mother of Richard Erskine Frere Leakey; Private and Private
Occupation: Anthropologist, Archeologist (known for Fossil, Laetoli)
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated: February 3, 2015
Most times you have to face challenges that will eventually bring out the real you in you. Such an inspirational scientific article.
Mary Leakey, one of the world's most renowned hunters of early human fossils, died in Nairobi on December 9, 1996, at the age of 83. Crowning triumphs of her long career included such finds as the 1972 discovery (with Louis, her husband and collaborator) of 1.75-million-year-old remains from Homo habilis at Olduvai Gorge and the 1978 discovery of 3.6-million-year-old footprints at Laetoli, both in Tanzania. This profile of Dr. Leakey, written by former news editor Marguerite Holloway, originally appeared in the October 1994 issue of Scientific American
Excellent story . yes bonding is barrier for progress but need for life
great article sir @gavvet