You’re invited to join us for a pizza dinner followed by a lecture, The Extraordinary, Indomitable M. Louise Baker: Artist, Writer, Teacher, Adventurer, and Accidental Archaeologist, on Saturday May 13 beginning at 5:30 pm.

At a time when most women were confined to a life of domesticity, Mary Louise Baker (1882-1972), a member of Newtown Meeting, teacher at the George School, and resident of The Hickman, fashioned an enviable career and extraordinary life. She became the pre-eminent archaeological artist of her time. Before photography was in common use, she captured the art of ancient civilizations in exquisite watercolors. In this illustrated talk, Dr. Elin Danien, Consulting Scholar at the Penn Museum, relates some of Baker’s adventures, from defying Nazi police to changing a flat tire in the deserts of Iran.

Elin Danien is a Consulting Scholar in the American Section of the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Dr. Danien has written extensively on George Byron Gordon, Sara Yorke Stevenson, both early figures in the history of the Penn Museum, M. Louise Baker, and other actors in the history of Penn Museum and Maya archaeology. She is currently working on biographies of Robert Burkitt and of M. Louise Baker.

Childcare will be available.

To RSVP, call 610-696-0491 or send email to info@westchesterfriends.org 

For an interesting article about M. Louise Baker and the University of Pennsylvania Museum , visit Philly.com's article: Penn Museum solves the mystery of the locked suitcase