Margaret Mead Christmas card collection

Access and use

Location of collection:
George Mason University
2400 Fenwick Library
Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library MS2FL
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Mieko Palazzo
Phone: (703) 993-2220
Fax: (703) 993-2669
Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions.

Terms of access:

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Preferred citation:

Margaret Mead Christmas card photograph collection, C0216, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Summary

Extent:
.01 Linear Feet 1 folder
Creator:
Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978
Abstract:
A collection of 11 Christmas cards from anthropologist Margaret Mead with five cards signed with holiday greetings.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

Margaret Mead Christmas card photograph collection, C0216, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Background

Scope and content:

A collection of 11 Christmas cards from anthropologist Margaret Mead with five cards signed and with holiday greetings. The collection includes 10 original photographic prints, with one in color, and one printed card, many taken by friends and contributors to her work, such as visual anthropologist Paul Byers and cinematographer Richard Leiterman. Four of the card images include Mead's granddaughter, Sevanne "Vanni" Kassarjian, with one also showing her daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson (herself a well-respected anthropologist). Three other Christmas cards picture Mead with indigenous people of New Guinea and Bali, often surrounded by children, with one lone color image of her being filmed on Manus Island for the 1968 documentary "Margaret Mead's New Guinea Journal." Other cards show artwork, a choir, and various children.

Biographical / historical:

Margaret Mead was a prominent twentieth-century educator, writer, and lecturer. An anthropologist by occupation, she studied the lives of natives of Samoa, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea. Her first book, "Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization" (New York: Morrow, 1928), which compared the seemingly care-free adolescent years in Samoan culture to this stressful period of development for American teenagers, catapulted her to instant fame. As she went on to research and write about other cultures, she used her anthropological studies as a framework to discuss and analyze American society.

Acquisition information:
Purchased in 2012.
Processing information:

Processed in August 2012 by Jordan Patty. EAD markup completed in August 2012 by Jordan Patty. Finding aid updated by Amanda Menjivar in January 2023.

Arrangement:

Arranged by size.

Physical location:
R 44, C 1, S 2
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard