Creative People

Jane Goodall revolutionized animal research. By living in the wild with the chimps she researched, she created an entire new paradigm for learning about primates and created a vast body of knowledge about these animals. Jane began her type of research at an early age. At five, she once spent hours inside her family's henhouse waiting to catch sight of a hen laying an egg.

E.O. Wilson was a famous microbiologist who started the field of sociobiology. Wilson's childhood can be summed up in one word - nature. He spent countless hours wandering the wilderness in south Alabama and north Florida as well as the natural parks in his hometown of Washington, D.C. He was playing, yes, but this play led to more purposeful yet fun pursuits such as collecting and creating a nature journal replete with intricate sketches of the "specimens" he encountered. Through these activities, he strengthened his natural curiosity about and passion for the miniature world at his feet. He developed persistence and preference for complexity as he pored through specimen guides and read books on the topic to better understand these animals. By the age of 13, he had documented the existence of a new species in south Alabama, the dreaded fire ant. He would go on to introduce the world to the intricate social nature of ants and explain their use of chemicals to communicate with each other.

Georgia O'Keefe grew up on a farm and became fascinated early on with the nature, colors, and shapes all around her. She collected flowers, rocks, shells, and sticks on her wanderings, taking them home to explore, analyze and place around her room. These items of varying colors and shapes were reminders of the scenes she saw throughout her childhood travels, reminders she could evoke at will later as an artist. This practice of collecting lingered into her adulthood, and many of the items she observed and collected during her travels became the basis of her most famous works of art. This narrow focus on the individual objects in nature helped reorient O'Keefe's focus which resulted in new perspectives for viewing and painting natural objects.

J.K. Rowling is her own story of imagination. Reading was the root of Rowling's imagination; her mother, wanting to stimulate her daughter's imagination, along with her husband, read aloud book after book to her. One of Rowling's best memories of her childhood is her father reading Wind in the Willows to her. It wasn't long before Rowling transformed the stories her parents read to her into her own creations, acting them out or engaging in related imaginary play with her sister and friends, with the local woods as the stimulating backdrop. Soon, she was making up her own stories and became the neighborhood storyteller. Now, she is one of the world's most beloved storytellers and children spend their time pretending to be Harry Potter and the other beloved characters from her imagination.

Jack Andraka is a noted scientist, inventor and cancer researcher. He is also just starting college! Curiosity, reading, love of nature, experimenting and math were all integral parts of his childhood that helped fuel his passion of finding a means of early detection of pancreatic cancer due to the death of a close friend of the family. Even at a “young” age, Jack pored over scientific magazines and conducted science experiments in the family basement with his brother. At the same time, the experiments satisfied his initial curiosity but raised in him even larger questions which ultimately became problems to solve. He succeeded and won First Place in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair at the age of 15. His inexpensive early test is now in trials and is believed to also be able to detect early lung and breast cancer.

Beatrix Potter, Peter Rabbit author, built her knowledge and imagination through her childhood experiences with animals. She and her brother collected bugs and small mammals, creating a menagerie that was part zoo and part biological lab. They spent hours observing, sketching and recording the habits of their specimens (most of whom became the children’s beloved pets). Beatrix spent hours each summer freely wandering the Scottish countryside. Of particular interest to Potter were mushrooms, a childhood interest that turned into a scientific passion, and ultimately Potter developed into a respected mycologist - discovering a new fungi species she documented with skilled drawings and photographs. But, Beatrix's childhood writing was not always of a scientific nature. She recorded her daily reflections and her aspirations, cleverly hiding her work from her mother by creating a secret language. Her love of language was further developed by a governess who kept both children rapt with attention and pleasure with her Scottish folk stories. With the encouragement of a mentor, in the form of her last governess, Beatrix honed her drawing and observation skills by visiting the National History Museum, spending hours studying and drawing artifacts on exhibit.