Ruth DeEtte Simpson

Who was Ruth DeEtte Simpson?

Ruth DeEtte Simpson was an important woman archeologist at a time when the field of archeology was still dominated by men. She was born in Los Angeles, California.

She received her Masters degree from the University of Southern California in 1944. She went on to be the curator of the Heard Museum in Arizona for two years. She was a curator at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, California from 1946 to 1964. In 1964 she became the County Archeologist at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California.

Although she pursued many important archeological projects, mostly in the Mojave Desert in California, she spent much of her life working with Dr. Louis Leakey on the Calico Early Man Site in Yermo, California, however this lead to disagreements between Louis and her wife. She was a member of the American Anthropologist Association and the Society of American Archaeology.