Mary Butler Lewis

Early life and education

Born Mary Butler in Media, PA in 1903, to an old Pennsylvania Quaker family. (Some sources call her the daughter of Smedley Butler, "from whom she inherited her strong personality.", but this appears to be inaccurate). Lewis attended Vassar College for her undergraduate studies, graduating in 1925, then went on to the Sorbonne for a year of postgraduate studies. She taught French for a time in the United States, then began her studies in anthropology with a master's degree at Radcliffe College, where she graduated in 1930. In 1936, she earned her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, the first woman to earn an anthropology degree at that institution. Her dissertation concerned types of Mesoamerican pottery in Guatemala with research funded by the American Philosophical Association.

Career and research

After earning her doctorate, Lewis conducted a large archaeological survey of the Hudson Valley, including 45 sites, sponsored by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. She hired many women to work with her in the field; her first field crew was one-third women. Due to personal conflicts, this research was never published. After marrying and having children, she shifted her research focus to local historical sites in Pennsylvania. For her entire career, she was a research associate at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Eleven weeks after giving birth to her first child, she returned to the field and conducted an excavation in Broomall, Pennsylvania. Lewis continued her research until she died in 1970.

Lewis was an instructor at several universities throughout her career, including Hunter College, Vassar College, and Bryn Mawr College. She was a fellow of the American Anthropological Association.