Mary Butler Lewis

Mary Butler Lewis (1903–1970) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, and public educator best known for her contributions to the fields of Mesoamerican archaeology and Northeastern and Central U.S. prehistory. She was the first female archaeologist to earn a doctorate degree from the department of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as one of the first female archaeologists to earn a Ph.D. in the United States. She pioneered research on Mesoamerican pottery and ceramics, which paved the way for many new projects.

Early life and education Butler was born in 1903 in Media, Pennsylvania. She was the daughter of Eleanor Baird Reed and George Thomas Butler, a leading attorney of the Delaware County Bar Association." When her children were young, Butler tried to avoid taking long trips that would require her to leave her family. She "bundled up her eleven-week-old daughter in the car and went forth to the dig - carrying on efficiently as director, and giving the baby her bottle at the coffee break and lunch hour."

She later became a Historian-Archaeologist for the restoration of the Morton Morton House in Norwood, Pennsylvania. For this project, she conducted historical research and analyzed correspondences, financial records, and more from the location. An avid educator, she was an instructor at Hunter College, Bryn Mawr College, and Vassar College, employing her graduate students on the Morton Morton restoration project.

Final Years and Death For her entire career, Butler was a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. She was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association and became President of the Philadelphia Anthropological Society. Lewis continued her research until she died of cancer in 1970 at her home in Media, Pennsylvania.