National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Division of Paleontology and Paleobotany Search this
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Dept. of Paleobiology Search this
National Museum of Natural History (U.S.) Search this
Physical description:
Number of Images: 1; Color: Color; Size: 1w x 1 3.7h; Type of Image: Person, candid; Medium: Slide
Type:
Person, candid
Slide
Place:
Washington (D.C.)
Date:
1975
Category:
Historic Images of the Smithsonian
Notes:
Kjell Bloch Sandved of the Office of Exhibits, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), at the commission of Porter Kier, then Director, NMNH, prepared these photographic materials to document personnel and activities of NMNH in 1975. Kjell Bloch Sandved of the Office of Exhibits, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), at the commission of Porter Kier, then Director, NMNH, prepared these photographic materials to document personnel and activities of NMNH in 1975.
For additional photos of Leo J. Hickey, see Negatives SIA2013-03967 through SIA2013-03971.
Summary:
Leo J. Hickey, paleobotanist with the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, is looking at a fossil leaf as he compares it to a drawing of a leaf. Other drawings are visible.
Hickey was curator and research scientist in paleobiology at the Smithsonian from 1969 to 1982 and chief scientist for four major permanent exhibits including the Ice Age Mammals and the Emergence of Man (Exhibition) which traced the impact of the Ice Age on the earth and evolution.
An expert in stratigraphy, the plant fossil record, and the history of life broadly, Hickey from the start melded botanical and geological approaches to understand plant evolution. He revolutionized the study of fossil leaves by making a comprehensive study of leaf vein patterns in living plants and using the detailed patterns he found to identify and classify the fossils. By analyzing the sediments in which the earliest fossils of flowering plants were preserved, he could reconstruct the ecological setting in which this preeminent group of plants evolved.
Contained within:
Smithsonian Institution Archives, Record Unit 095-13, Box 1, Folder A -Kier