Libbie Henrietta Hyman
| Libbie Henrietta Hyman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
December 6, 1888 Des Moines, Iowa |
| Died | August 3, 1969 (aged 80) |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Zoology |
| Institutions | University of Chicago, American Museum of Natural History |
| Alma mater | University of Chicago |
| Known for |
A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology, The Invertebrates |
| Influences | Charles Manning Child |
| Notable awards |
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1951) Linnean Medal (1960) |
Libbie Henrietta Hyman (December 6, 1888 – August 3, 1969), was a U.S. zoologist.
Born in Des Moines, Iowa, she was the daughter of Joseph Hyman and Sabina ('Bena') Neumann. Hyman's father, a Polish/Russian Jew, adopted the surname when he immigrated to the United States as a youth. He successively owned clothing stores in Des Moines, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and in Fort Dodge, Iowa, but the family's resources were limited. Hyman attended public schools in Fort Dodge. At home she was required to do much of the housework. She enjoyed reading, especially books by Charles Dickens in her father's small den, and she took a strong interest in flowers, which she learned to classify with a copy of Asa Gray's Elements of Botany. She also collected butterflies and moths and later wrote, "I believe my interest in nature is primarily aesthetic."
Hyman graduated from high school in Fort Dodge in 1905 as the youngest member of her class and the valedictorian. Uncertain of her future, she began work in a local factory, pasting labels on cereal boxes. Her high school teacher of English and German persuaded her to attend the University of Chicago, which she entered in 1906 on a one-year scholarship. She continued at the university with further scholarships and nominal jobs. Turning away from botany because of an unpleasant laboratory assistant, she tried chemistry but did not like its quantitative procedures. She then took zoology and was encouraged in it by Professor Charles Manning Child. After receiving a B.S. in zoology in 1910, she acted on Child's advice to continue with graduate work at the University of Chicago. Supporting herself as laboratory assistant in various zoology courses, she concluded that a better laboratory text was needed, which in time she was to supply. She received a Ph.D. in zoology in 1915, with a thesis on regeneration in certain annelid worms. Again unsure of her future, she accepted a position as research assistant in Child's laboratory, and she taught undergraduate courses in comparative anatomy.
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