Dr. Mary Dawson, Curator Emerita, Vertebrate Paleontology Carnegie Museum of Natural History oil on canvas 16 x 20 2007

Artist Statement:

In 1962, when Mary Dawson was hired as a research associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History,

the director assured her, "No woman will ever be a curator here." Dr. Dawson would have the last laugh

by accepting the appointment as Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology in 1970.

In 1981, she received the prestigious Arnold Guyot Prize, awarded by the National Geographic Society

in recognition of her research in the Arctic, which produced fossil evidence that North America and Europe

were linked and shared the same animal types 45 - 48 million years ago.  Her research validated

the plate tectonics theory of continental evolution.  Dr. Dawson has served as

acting director of Carnegie Museum of Natural History and as an adjunct professor in the Department of Geology

and Planetary Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She currently continues her research

as Curator Emerita of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum.

This painting received an Honorable Mention Award

for the Pittsburgh Recast exhibit at the John Heinz History Center in Pittsburgh, PA.

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