Editing Dorothy Hodgkin (section)

==Early life==
Dorothy Mary Crowfoot was born in [[Cairo]], [[Egypt]],<ref name="whoswho2">{{Who's Who|title=Hodgkin, Prof. Dorothy Mary Crowfoot|type=was|id=U173161|volume=2017|edition=online [[Oxford University Press]]|location=Oxford}} {{doi|10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U173161}} {{subscription required}}</ref> the oldest of the four daughters whose parents worked in North Africa and the middle East in the colonial administration and later as archaeologists. Dorothy came from a distinguished family of archaeologists.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |date=September 11, 2014 |title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin |website=Trowelblazers |url=https://trowelblazers.com/2014/09/11/dorothy-crowfoot-hodgkin/ |access-date=2023-01-23 |language=en-GB}}</ref> Her parents were [[John Winter Crowfoot]] (1873–1959), working for the country's Ministry of Education, and his wife [[Grace Mary Crowfoot|Grace Mary (née Hood)]] (1877–1957), known to friends and family as Molly.<ref>"Calm Genius Of Laboratory And Home." Times [London, England] 30 Oct. 1964: 8. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 12 June 2017.</ref> The family lived in Cairo during the winter months, returning to England each year to avoid the hotter part of the season in Egypt.<ref>[http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Grace&last=Crowfoot "Grace Crowfoot", ''Breaking Ground: Women in Old-World Archaeology'', 1994–2004] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823121537/http://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Grace&last=Crowfoot|date=23 August 2017}}.</ref>

In 1914, Hodgkin's mother left her (age 4) and her two younger sisters [[Joan Crowfoot Payne|Joan]] (age 2) and Elisabeth (age 7 months) with their Crowfoot grandparents near [[Worthing]], and returned to her husband in Egypt. They spent much of their childhood apart from their parents, yet they were supportive from afar. Her mother would encourage Dorothy to pursue the interest in crystals first displayed at the age of 10. In 1923, Dorothy and her sister would study pebbles that they had found in nearby streams using portable mineral analysis kit. Their parents then moved south to Sudan where, until 1926, her father was in charge of education and archaeology. Her mother's four brothers were killed in World War I and as a result she became an ardent supporter of the new [[League of Nations]].<ref name="frs2">{{cite journal |last1=Dodson |first1=Guy |author-link=Guy Dodson |year=2002 |title=Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin, O.M. 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994 |journal=[[Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society]] |volume=48 |pages=179–219 |doi=10.1098/rsbm.2002.0011 |issn=0080-4606 |pmid=13678070 |s2cid=61764553}} {{free access}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Dorothy Hodgkin 1910–1994 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bmhodg.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170724040227/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bmhodg.html |archive-date=24 July 2017 |access-date=26 August 2017 |work="A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries" a 1997 [[PBS]] documentary and accompanying book}}</ref>

In 1921 Hodgkin's father entered her in the [[Sir John Leman High School|Sir John Leman Grammar School]] in [[Beccles]], [[England]],<ref name=whoswho/> where she was one of two girls allowed to study chemistry.<ref>Georgina Ferry, ''Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life'', Granta Books: London, 1998, p. 20.</ref> Only once, when she was 13, did she make an extended visit to her parents, then living in [[Khartoum]], the capital of Sudan, where her father was Principal of [[Gordon Memorial College|Gordon College]]. When she was 14, her distant cousin, the chemist [[Charles Harington (chemist)|Charles Harington]] (later Sir Charles), recommended D. S. Parsons' ''Fundamentals of Biochemistry''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Thiel, Kristin|title=Dorothy Hodgkin: Biochemist and Developer of Protein Crystallography|publisher=Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC|year=2016|pages=40–41|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FHdmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|isbn=9781502623133|access-date=23 May 2019|archive-date=24 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210324064412/https://books.google.com/books?id=FHdmDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA40|url-status=live}}</ref> Resuming the pre-war pattern, her parents lived and worked abroad for part of the year, returning to England and their children for several months every summer. In 1926, on his retirement from the Sudan Civil Service, her father took the post of Director of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, where he and her mother remained until 1935.<ref>S.G. Rosenberg, "British Groundbreakers in the Archaeology of the Holy Land", ''Minerva'', January/February 2008.</ref>

In 1928, Hodgkin joined her parents at the archaeological site of [[Jerash]], in present-day Jordan, where she documented the patterns of mosaics from multiple Byzantine-era Churches dated to the 5th–6th centuries. She spent more than a year finishing the drawings as she started her studies in Oxford, while also conducting chemical analyses of [[Tessera|glass tesserae]] from the same site.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://trowelblazers.com/dorothy-crowfoot-hodgkin/|title=Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin {{!}} TrowelBlazers|date=11 September 2014 |access-date=2019-10-07|archive-date=7 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007084619/https://trowelblazers.com/dorothy-crowfoot-hodgkin/|url-status=live}}</ref> Her attention to detail through the creation of precise scale drawings of these mosaics mirrors her subsequent work in recognising and documenting patterns in chemistry. Hodgkin enjoyed the experience of field archaeology so much that she considered giving up chemistry in favour of archaeology.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1964 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1964/hodgkin/biographical/ |access-date=2023-01-23 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> Her drawings are archived by Yale University.<ref name=":0" />

Hodgkin developed a passion for chemistry from a young age, and her mother, a proficient botanist, fostered her interest in the sciences. On her 16th birthday her mother gave her a book by W. H. Bragg on [[X-ray crystallography]], "''Concerning the Nature of Things''", which helped her decide her future.<ref>{{cite book|title=International Encyclopedia Of Women Scientists|last=Oakes|first=Elizabeth H.|publisher=Facts On File, Inc|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8160-4381-1|location=New York, NY|pages=[https://archive.org/details/internationalenc00oake/page/163 163]|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalenc00oake/page/163}}</ref> She was further encouraged by the chemist A.F. Joseph, a family friend who also worked in Sudan.<ref name="ferry19993">{{cite book |last=Ferry |first=Georgina |title=Dorothy Hodgkin : a life |publisher=Granta Books |year=1999 |isbn=978-1862072855 |location=London}}</ref>

Her state school education did not include [[Latin]], then required for entrance to [[Oxbridge]]. Her Leman School headmaster, George Watson, gave her personal tuition in the subject, enabling her to pass the [[University of Oxford]] entrance examination.<ref name="ferry19993"/>

When Hodgkin was asked in later life to name her childhood heroes, she named three women: first and foremost, her mother, [[Grace Crowfoot|Molly]]; the medical missionary [[Mary Slessor]]; and [[Margery Fry]], the Principal of [[Somerville College, Oxford|Somerville College]].<ref>Lisa Tuttle, ''Heroines: Women inspired by Women'', 1988.</ref>