Editing Libbie Hyman

{{short description|American zoologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Libbie Henrietta Hyman
| image             = Libbie Hyman.jpg
| birth_date        = {{birth-date|December 6, 1888}}
| birth_place       = [[Des Moines, Iowa]]
| death_date        = {{death-date and age|August 3, 1969|December 6, 1888}}
| death_place       = New York City, New York, U.S.<ref>[https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/libbie-henrietta-hyman-1888-1969 Biography], asu.edu. Accessed June 15, 2024.</ref> 
| nationality       = American
| ethnicity         = 
| field             = [[Zoology]]
| work_institutions = University of Chicago,<br> American Museum of Natural History
| alma_mater        = [[University of Chicago]]
| doctoral_advisor  = 
| doctoral_students = 
| known_for         = ''A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology'', <br> ''The Invertebrates''
| author_abbrev_bot = 
| author_abbrev_zoo = 
| prizes            = [[Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal]] <small>(1951)</small><br>[[Linnean Medal]] {{small|(1960)}}
}}

'''Libbie Henrietta Hyman''' (December 6, 1888 – August 3, 1969), was an American [[zoologist]].<ref>{{cite book |author=Moira Davison Reynolds |title=U.S. Women Scientists: 23 Inspiring Biographies 1900- |year=2004 |publisher=McFarland & Company |pages=54 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xkaLjEuHPq8C&q=libbie+hyman&pg=PA54 |isbn=978-0-7864-2161-9 }}</ref> She wrote numerous works on [[invertebrate zoology]] and the widely used ''[[A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy]]'' (1922, revised in 1942).<ref name=":0" />

==Life==
Born in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], she was a child of Jewish parents, Joseph and Sabina ({{nee}} Neumann) Hyman.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279314/Libbie-Henrietta-Hyman Libbie Henrietta Hyman]</ref> Her father, an emigrant from Poland, adopted the surname "Hyman" when he immigrated to the [[United States]] as a youth. Her mother was from Germany.  Joseph Hyman 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 [[flower]]s, 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."<ref name="Hyman 1919" />

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. The high school teacher who taught [[English language|English]] and [[German language|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.<ref name="Hyman 1919" /> 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.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

After Joseph Hyman's death in 1907, his widow moved to [[Chicago]], bringing her daughter "back into the same happy circumstances which lasted until the death of my mother in 1929. I never received any encouragement from my family to continue my academic career; in fact my determination to attend the University met with derision. At home, scolding and fault-finding were my daily portion" (quoted in Hutchinson, p.&nbsp;106).<ref name="Hyman 1919" />

==Work==
At the request of the University of Chicago Press, Hyman wrote ''A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoology'' (1919),<ref name="Hyman 1919">{{cite web | last=Hyman | first=Libbie Henrietta | title=A Laboratory Manual for Elementary Zoölogy : Libbie Henrietta Hyman : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive | website=Internet Archive | date=1919 | url=https://archive.org/details/alaboratorymanu00hymagoog | access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref> which promptly became widely used, to her astonishment. She followed this, again at the publisher's request, with ''[[A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy]]'' (1922),<ref name="Hyman 1922">{{cite web | last=Hyman | first=Libbie Henrietta | title=A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy : Libbie Henrietta Hyman : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive | website=Internet Archive | date=1922 | url=https://archive.org/details/ost-biology-labmanualcompvert00hymarich | access-date=2015-10-23}}</ref> which also had great success. She was, however, much more interested in [[invertebrate]]s. By 1925 she was considering how to prepare a laboratory guide in that field but "was persuaded by [unnamed] colleagues to write an advanced text" (quoted in Hutchinson, p.&nbsp;107).<ref name="Hyman 1919" />

While at the University of Chicago, Hyman also wrote taxonomic papers on such invertebrates as the [[Turbellaria]] (flatworms) and North American species of the freshwater cnidarian ''[[Hydra (genus)|Hydra]]''. She published an enlarged edition of her first laboratory manual in 1929.

In 1931, Hyman concluded that she could live on the royalties of her published books, and she also recognized that her mentor Child was about to retire. She therefore resigned her position at Chicago. Hyman toured western Europe for fifteen months and then returned to begin writing a treatise on the invertebrates. Settling in [[New York City]] in order to use the library of the [[American Museum of Natural History]], she became, in December 1936, an unpaid research associate of the museum, which provided her with an office for the rest of her life. There, Hyman created her six-volume treatise on invertebrates, ''The Invertebrates'', drawing on her familiarity with several European languages and [[Russian language|Russian]], which she had learned from her father.<ref name=":0">{{cite journal |url= http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/hyman-libbie.pdf|title= Libbie Henrietta Hyman | journal =Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences | volume = 60| issue = 5230| pages =103–114|bibcode= 1970Natur.225..393. |year= 1970 |doi= 10.1038/225393a0 |s2cid= 4220968 |doi-access= free }}</ref> She compiled notes from books and scientific papers, including those in the many journals to which she subscribed, organized the notes on cards, and wrote an account of each invertebrate group. She took art lessons in order to illustrate her work professionally. She spent several summers studying specimens and drawing illustrations at [[Bermuda biological station for research|Bermuda Biological Laboratory]], [[Marine Biological Laboratory]], [[Mt. Desert Island]] Biological Laboratory, and [[Friday Harbor Laboratories|Puget Sound Biological Station]].{{cn|date=June 2024}}

Volume I ([[Protozoa]] through [[Ctenophora]]) of ''The Invertebrates'', was published in February 1940. Volume 2 ([[Platyhelminthes]] and [[Rhynchocoela]]) and Volume 3 ([[Acanthocephala]], [[Aschelminthes]], and [[Entoprocta]]), both published in 1951, were followed by Volume 4 ([[Echinodermata]]) in 1955, Volume 5 (Smaller [[Coelomates|Coelomate]] Groups) in 1959, and Volume 6 ([[Mollusca]] I) in 1967. In it, she developed her scientific theory that the [[phylum]] [[Chordata]], including all [[vertebrate]]s, was evolutionarily related to the apparently very different and very much more primitive [[Echinoderm]]ata, such as [[starfish]].<ref name="HymanIV">{{cite book |last=Hyman |first=Libbie Henrietta |year=1955|title=The Invertebrates: Echinodermata. The Coelomate Bilateria. |volume=IV |publisher=McGraw-Hill Book Company |location=New York |url=https://archive.org/details/invertebrates0004hyma/page/n7/mode/2up }}</ref> This group is now known as the  [[deuterostomes]]. Her theory was based upon the morphological data of classical embryology, and has since been confirmed by molecular [[sequence analysis]].

In addition to her major project, Hyman extensively revised ''[[A Laboratory Manual for Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy]]'' in 1942 into a textbook as well as laboratory manual; she referred to it as her "bread and butter" for its income.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} She wrote about 136 papers on physiology and systematics of the lower invertebrates and published technical papers on [[annelid]] and [[polyclad]] worms and on other invertebrates. She commented in a letter: "The polyclads of [[Bermuda]] were so pretty that I could not resist collecting them and figuring out Verrill's mistakes" (quoted in Schram, p.&nbsp;126). [[Addison Emery Verrill]] had been an earlier expert in invertebrate classification.

Hyman served as editor of the journal ''[[Systematic Zoology]]'' from 1959 to 1963. In 1960, she was elected a Fellow of the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]].<ref name=AAAS>{{cite web|title=Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter H|url=http://www.amacad.org/publications/BookofMembers/ChapterH.pdf|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 29, 2014}}</ref> She was honored in 1961 with membership in the [[United States National Academy of Sciences|National Academy of Sciences]], from which she had received the [[Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal]] in 1951.<ref name=Elliot>{{cite web|title=Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal |url=http://www.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot |publisher=National Academy of Sciences |access-date=15 February 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120801121352/http://nas.nasonline.org/site/PageServer?pagename=AWARDS_elliot |archive-date=August 1, 2012 }}</ref> She also received the gold medal of the [[Linnean Society of London]] (1960) and a gold medal from the [[American Museum of Natural History]] (1969).<ref>{{Cite book|title=American Museum Novitates|year=1921 |publisher=American Museum of Natural History (BioOne sponsored)|doi=10.1206/novi|url=http://archive.org/details/americanmuseumno01ameruoft}}</ref> She died from [[Parkinson's disease]] in New York City, aged 80.<ref name="Hyman 1919" />

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
*{{Cite journal
|last=Jenner
|first=Ronald A
|date=September 2004|title=Libbie Henrietta Hyman (1888-1969): from developmental mechanics to the evolution of animal body plans
|journal=[[J. Exp. Zool. B]]
|volume=302
|issue=5
|pages=413–23
| issn = 1552-5007| pmid = 15384165
|doi = 10.1002/jez.b.21019
}}
*Hyman did not keep her correspondence, according to [[Frederick R. Schram]], who found some of her letters to [[Martin Burkenroad]] in the archives of the San Diego Natural History Museum; see Schram's "A Correspondence between Martin Burkenroad and Libbie Hyman; or, Whatever Did Happen to Libbie Hyman's Lingerie," in F. M. Truesdale, ed., ''History of Carcinology'', vol. 8 of Crustacean Issues (1993), pp.&nbsp;119–142.
*A tribute to Hyman is in [[Edna Yost]], ''American Women of Science'' (1943), pp.&nbsp;122–38.
*Memorials are by
**Richard E. Blackwelder in ''Journal of Biological Psychology'' 12 (1970): 1-15
**Horace W. Stunkard (unsigned) in ''Nature'' 225 (1970): 393-94 and in ''Biology of the Turbellaria'' (1974, "Libbie H. Hyman Memorial Volume"), pp. ix-xiii, with a bibliography
**[[G. Evelyn Hutchinson]] in ''National Academy of Sciences, Biographical Memoirs'' 60 (1991): 103–14, which includes an autobiographical account by Hyman and a selected bibliography.
*An obituary appeared in the ''New York Times'' of August 5, 1969.
* {{DSB |first=Judith E. |last=Winston |title=Hyman, Libbie Henrietta  |volume=21 |pages=434–435}}
*{{cite book
| last1 = Davidson Reynolds
| first1 = Moira
| title = American women scientists : 23 inspiring biographies, 1900-2000
| date = 2004
| publisher = McFarland
| location = Jefferson, NC
| isbn = 9780786421619
| oclc = 60686608
| url = https://archive.org/details/americanwomensci00moir
}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book|last1=Davidson Reynolds|first1=Moira|title=American women scientists : 23 inspiring biographies, 1900-2000|date=2004|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-0786421619|oclc=60686608|url=https://archive.org/details/americanwomensci00moir}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hyman, Libbie}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1969 deaths]]
[[Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:American people of German-Jewish descent]]
[[Category:20th-century American zoologists]]
[[Category:Jewish American scientists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences]]
[[Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences]]
[[Category:People from Des Moines, Iowa]]
[[Category:People from Fort Dodge, Iowa]]
[[Category:20th-century American women scientists]]
[[Category:Deaths from Parkinson's disease in New York (state)]]