Jane Goodall began observing chimpanzees in 1960, but her
first study of animal behavior took place some 20 years earlier, when she was
about 5 years old. One afternoon, she disappeared from home for several hours.
Just as her panicked mother was about to contact the police, young Jane
returned. “Well, I’ve been in a henhouse, waiting to see how a hen laid an
egg,” she explained. “Nobody’d tell me, so I just sat down. And now I know.”
That curiosity helped propel Goodall to become one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century. Her evolution from precocious child to “global icon” is documented in “Becoming Jane,” an exhibit at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C., through September 7. After that, the exhibit heads to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
For an exhibit devoted to a researcher whose equipment was
as simple as a pen and paper, “Becoming Jane” is technology heavy. Interactive
digital displays, 3-D experiences and a hologram-like appearance by Goodall
herself will capture the attention of both adults and youngsters. For those who
have followed Goodall’s career closely, the real treat is seeing her childhood
mementos, field notes, Ph.D. thesis and other personal belongings and photos.
Goodall’s early possessions tell a story of someone who
seemed destined to study chimpanzees. On her first birthday, her father gave her
a stuffed animal, a chimp. The toy is in the exhibit, its fur nearly all worn
away, perhaps from too many hugs. Goodall’s favorite books included Tarzan
of the Apes and The Story of Doctor Dolittle. On a page from a
nature magazine Goodall made with her friends, visitors can see neatly drawn
hands of different creatures, including chimps, with details on what “purpose”
each kind of hand has.
As the exhibit segues to Goodall’s adulthood, visitors learn
that her childhood dream of going to Africa came true in 1957, when a friend
who had moved to Kenya invited Goodall for a visit. While there, she met the
famed paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey and became his secretary. Leakey was
looking for someone to study wild chimps. At the time, most of what science knew
about the apes came from captivity, the exhibit explains.