Mary Douglas Leakey
1913-1996
British Archaeologist and Anthropologist
Mary Leakey made several major archaeological discoveries that shed light on the origins and prehistory of humans. Working both individually and with her husband Louis Leakey (1903-1972) in Africa, her ceaseless excavations resulted in significant contributions to archaeology, geology, and paleontology.
Born Mary Nicol in London, England, Leakey had an interesting childhood. Since her father was a painter by profession, the family moved from town to town and country to country. Her future began to take shape when she was 11 years old and living in the Dordogne in France. It was there that she met Abbe Lemozi, who was in the midst of an archaeological dig at the Cabrerets. She found the adventure exciting and began to read and study the importance of recovering ancient artifacts. When her father died in 1926, she was determined to pursue studies in prehistory and eventually attended lectures on the subject at the University of London.
Mary's talent for drawing and sketching came to the attention of Dr. Gertrude Canton-Thompson, who invited her to illustrate her book, The Desert Fayoum. At that time, Louis Leakey was scheduled to give a lecture at the Royal Anthropologist Institute. Dr. Canton-Thompson introduced Mary to him and, after looking over her superb drawings, Leakey asked her to illustrate his book, Adam's Ancestors (1934). She agreed and over the next few months their professional relationship became personal (leading to Leakey's divorce from wife Frida Leakey in 1936).
Mary Leakey holding casts of footprints made by human ancestors 3.6 million years ago. (Bettmann/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.)Prior to her marriage to Leakey, Mary worked with Dorothy Liddell on an important dig at Hembury Fort in Devon, England. Liddell was an expert in the techniques of proper excavation and Mary was a gifted student. Four months later, Mary undertook her own project, an excavation at Jaywick Sands in Essex that led to the publication of her first scientific paper.
Mary Leakey and her new husband moved to Kenya in 1935, where they remained until 1959. They worked at Olduvai Gorge in the Serengeti Plains of northern Tanzania, documenting aspects of Stone Age culture as revealed by the primitive tools, bones, and artifacts they uncovered.
On one of their trips to Rusinga Island in Lake Victoria (1947), Mary discovered a Proconsul africanus skull that was later found to be 20 million years old. To this date, only three others are extant. Mary Leakey's discovery merited the Stopes Medal from the Geological Association, which was presented to her and her husband jointly. She is also credited with finding the now-famous primate fossil known as Jinjanthropus in 1959. This work and its documentation is considered an important factor in the study of human origins.
When Louis Leakey began spending more time abroad, lecturing and trying to secure funding for their work in Africa, Mary took over theresearch project and spent most of the next 25 years digging, cataloging, and writing about their findings.
She made her first trip to America in 1962. Mary and Louis were the guests of the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., where they were jointly awarded the society's Gold Hubbard Medal. Seven years later, Mary Leakey earned her first honorary degree from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa.
After the death of her husband in 1972, Mary Leakey continued to work at Olduvai and another site called Laetoli. The latter site became well known when Mary found hominid fossils (more than 3.75 million years old), 15 new species, and a single new genus. Although Mary Leakey is often referred to as an archaeologist, most scientific writings refer to her as a physical anthropologist.
Along with her awards and degrees, Mary Leakey has two books to her credit—Olduvai Gorge: My Search for Early Man (1979) and the autobiography Disclosing the Past (1984). Her son, Richard Leakey (1944- ), followed his parents' path and distinguished himself in the science of paleontology. Mary Leakey died in Nairobi in 1996.
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