Editing Libbie Hyman (section)

==Life==
Born in [[Des Moines, Iowa]], she was a child of Jewish parents, Joseph and Sabina ({{nee}} Neumann) Hyman.<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279314/Libbie-Henrietta-Hyman Libbie Henrietta Hyman]</ref> Her father, an emigrant from Poland, adopted the surname "Hyman" when he immigrated to the [[United States]] as a youth. Her mother was from Germany.  Joseph Hyman successively owned clothing stores in Des Moines, in [[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]], and in [[Fort Dodge, Iowa]], but the family's resources were limited. Hyman attended public schools in Fort Dodge. At home, she was required to do much of the housework. She enjoyed reading, especially books by [[Charles Dickens]] in her father's small den, and she took a strong interest in [[flower]]s, which she learned to classify with a copy of [[Asa Gray]]'s ''[[Elements of Botany]]''. She also collected butterflies and moths and later wrote, "I believe my interest in nature is primarily aesthetic."<ref name="Hyman 1919" />

Hyman graduated from high school in Fort Dodge in 1905 as the youngest member of her class and the valedictorian. Uncertain of her future, she began work in a local factory, pasting labels on cereal boxes. The high school teacher who taught [[English language|English]] and [[German language|German]] persuaded her to attend the [[University of Chicago]], which she entered in 1906 on a one-year scholarship. She continued at the university with further scholarships and nominal jobs. Turning away from botany because of an unpleasant laboratory assistant, she tried chemistry but did not like its quantitative procedures.<ref name="Hyman 1919" /> She then took zoology and was encouraged in it by Professor [[Charles Manning Child]]. After receiving a B.S. in [[zoology]] in 1910, she acted on Child's advice to continue with graduate work at the University of Chicago. Supporting herself as laboratory assistant in various zoology courses, she concluded that a better laboratory text was needed, which in time she was to supply. She received a Ph.D. in zoology in 1915, with a thesis on regeneration in certain annelid worms. Again unsure of her future, she accepted a position as research assistant in Child's laboratory, and she taught undergraduate courses in comparative anatomy.{{cn|date=June 2024}}

After Joseph Hyman's death in 1907, his widow moved to [[Chicago]], bringing her daughter "back into the same happy circumstances which lasted until the death of my mother in 1929. I never received any encouragement from my family to continue my academic career; in fact my determination to attend the University met with derision. At home, scolding and fault-finding were my daily portion" (quoted in Hutchinson, p.&nbsp;106).<ref name="Hyman 1919" />