Discovering Dorothea: The Life of the Pioneering Fossil-Hunter Dorothea Bate

In 1898, a 19-year-old girl marched into the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, England and demanded a job. At the time, no women were employed there as scientists. For the determined Dorothea Bate, however, this was the first step in an extraordinary career as a pioneering explorer and fossil-hunter as well as the beginning of a 50-year association with the Museum. A woman of immense charm, wit, and intelligence, Bate came to know many of the greatest archaeologists and paleontologists of the 20th century. Although internationally respected as a paleontologist during her lifetime, she was largely forgotten after her death. Now, drawing on letters, papers, and diaries, Karolyn Shindler’s compelling biography rediscovers the life of a unique and indomitable woman.