Leslie Van Gelder facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Leslie Van Gelder
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Van Gelder in Pukeiriti, New Zealand
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| Born | January 27, 1969 Manhattan, New York, U.S.
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| Occupation | Archaeologist, writer, educator |
| Spouse(s) | Kevin J. Sharpe |
| Relatives | Gordon Van Gelder (brother) Russell Van Gelder (brother) Lawrence Van Gelder (uncle) Richard Van Gelder (father) |
Leslie Van Gelder is an American archaeologist, writer, and teacher. She was born on January 27, 1969. Her main work involves studying ancient finger marks, called "finger flutings," found in caves like Rouffignac Cave and Gargas Cave in Southern France.
Working with her husband, Kevin J. Sharpe, she spent ten years creating ways to study these finger flutings. They built on ideas from Alexander Marshack and were the first to figure out who made the cave art by studying individual handprints. They also used a method to compare finger lengths (called 2D:4D finger studies). Their research on finger flutings was important because it showed that children in the Stone Age made symbolic art in Rouffignac Cave. Later, their work also showed that women and children played a big part in creating cave art there. They even used a rule from communication science, called Zipf's Law, to see if the finger marks were a form of early writing or just purposeful messages. Today, Van Gelder continues to research in Rouffignac and Gargas caves and gives talks around the world. Her current work focuses on the role of children in making art in these caves. She is also a leader at Walden University's Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership.
About Leslie Van Gelder
Leslie Van Gelder was born in 1969 in Manhattan, a part of New York City. Her father, Richard Van Gelder, was a curator at the American Museum of Natural History. A curator is someone who manages a collection, like in a museum. Because of her father's work, Leslie spent parts of her childhood helping him with field work. This included trips to East Africa and different U.S. National Parks.
From 1985 to 1989, she worked for the Quebec-Labrador Foundation. There, she taught about the environment in small communities in eastern Canada. Later, she taught high school in northern New Jersey. In 1998, she left teaching to study for her PhD in Place Studies at the Union Institute and University. Place Studies is about how places affect people and stories. She even won an award called the Sussman Award for her work. Her ideas about Place Studies appeared in several journals and in a book she wrote called Weaving a Way Home: A Personal Journey of Place and Story, which was published in 2008.
She helps organize something called the Roundstone Conversation on Place and Story. Since 2004, this event has brought together writers who focus on how places and stories are connected. They meet at the home of writer and mapmaker Tim Robinson.
Leslie Van Gelder was married to archaeologist and theologian Kevin Sharpe until he passed away in 2008. She now lives in the Rees Valley in New Zealand, near a community called Glenorchy.
Her Family
Leslie Van Gelder is the widow of Kevin Sharpe. Her father, Richard Van Gelder, was a curator of mammals at the American Museum of Natural History. Her uncle, Lawrence Van Gelder, was a senior editor at The New York Times until he retired in 2008. Her brother, Gordon Van Gelder, is a science fiction editor who has won a Hugo Award. Another brother, Russell Van Gelder, is the chairman of ophthalmology at the University of Washington.
