Leakey
Louis Leakey is best known for his paleoanthropology work in Africa and for being a dirty old man. I was unaware of the latter until yesterday, when for the first time, I bothered to read the back of my anthropology trading cards. When I purchased them years ago as an investment, I put them away for safe keeping without giving them more than a quick glance.
The cards came in a small set with a good share of them representing members of the Leakey family. Most of the cards depict individuals whose life's work made major contributions to various fields including anthropology, archaeology and primatology. The individual is pictured on the front of the card and career highlights are detailed on the back.
Unlike baseball cards which are mass produced by large companies, the anthropology cards were created in a single limited edition by a reclusive hobbyist named Leon Mankiewicz. Soon after retiring from 34 years in the printing business, Leon approached several zoos and natural history museums about selling anthropology cards in their gift shops. For marketing purposes, Leon printed 50 sets to present to museum curators and zoo directors but there were no takers. A month later, Leon unloaded the sets on Ebay.
The cards are similar in size to baseball cards and only a small amount of text on each card can be devoted to describe career details. It was necessary to read and compare the backs of all the cards to realize the extent of Leakey's womanizing. His legendary skirt chasing brings into question the motive for his theory that the female gender makes for a better researcher. He selected and promoted females for primate study grants claiming that males lack the required patience and are more apt to be seen as threatening by subjects in the wild.
These selections included the "Trimates", Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas. Leakey single-handedly maneuvered funding to this trio for the study of chimps, gorillas and orangutans respectively. Of course these women are now considered by the Hollywood literati as primatology's equivalent to the 1927 New York Yankees but you have to wonder what led him to pick them initially. Goodall who had no formal education and the degrees listed next to her name were gained much later via honorariums and pressure from Leakey. Gorillas in the Mist and various documentaries have been good at the box office but both Goodall and Fossey have been roundly criticized by the scientific community for ignoring standard research protocols. I doubt anyone questioned Leakey's assigning Galdikas for the orangutan project since the photo on the front of her card bears such a striking resemblance.
Leakey's parents were missionaries and his early years were spent living in a hut with a dirt floor about an hour's drive from downtown Nairobi. His childhood exposure to the local language, animals and artifacts gave focus to the education he pursued at Cambridge and eventually the fossil hunting in Africa that began in 1922.
Leakey met his first wife Frida Avern, who while on a sightseeing trip dropped by his excavation site. The first years of marriage had them splitting time between expeditions in Africa and teaching and publishing in England where they lived in a large home purchased with Frida's money. Frida did the illustrations for Leakey's books but a replacement was needed when she became pregnant with Collin (listed as botanist on his rookie card). 20 year-old Mary Nicol was selected by 30 year-old Leakey to replace Frida as illustrator and a few months later as life partner as well.
This development did not go over well with Frida or public opinion. Frida refused to agree to a divorce until 5 years later and research money disappeared after Leakey 's morals were brought into question by a Cambridge panel. A bleak stretch followed with Leakey and Mary living in a place lacking plumbing, heat and electricity. After 2 years of writing by lantern light and huddled next to the fireplace, Leakey was on his way back to Kenya via a Royal Society grant with Mary in tow.
Leakey was no more faithful to Mary during their 36-year marriage than he was to Frida during their short stint. Leakey's time in Africa saw him spending the majority of his time away from the excavation sites dealing with museums, pre and post-war politics. Mary took over the field work which eventually resulted in establishing that some erect ancestors had been in the Olduvai Gorge 3.75 million years ago. Mary cut quite a figure, never without her Dalmatians by her side or a cigarette between her lips. She later switched to cigars whose ashes would find their way into dinners she prepared for guests that were served in a dining area amid human skull fragments, live snakes, monkeys and other critters.
Leakey would spend Monday through Friday at the office and drive 700 miles round trip each weekend from Nairobi to the excavation site where Mary remained full time. This resulted in an erect Leakey working his way through many a secretary and researcher. Leakey had a brief romance with Dian Fossey but struck out with Jane Goodall. Undeterred by Jane's rejection, Leakey and Mary's marriage ended, when he took up with Goodall's mother.
The most notable of these liaisons was a secretary named Rosalie Osborn. Mary and Leakey fought bitterly about this relationship which greatly upset their sons. After their son Richard barely survived a fall from a horse, Leakey ended his affair with Rosalie by sending her off to a project site in the African bush. She lasted 4 months and then returned to England.
Leakey past away in 1972 when he suffered a heart attack while staying at Jane Goodall's apartment in London. Mary wanted Leakey to be cremated and his ashes flown to Nairobi. However, their son Richard insisted on having his father buried next to Leakey's parent's graves in Limuru, Kenya. The family took a year before they had a marker prepared for Leakey's grave. When Richard arrived in Limuru to have it installed, he discovered there was already a marker in place courtesy of Rosalie Osborn. The marker was inscribed with the letters "ILYFA" which was the way she signed her letters to Leakey when they were an item; I'll love you forever, always.