George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center
Fenwick Library, MS2FL4400 University Dr.
Fairfax, Virginia 22030
Business Number: 703-993-2220
Fax Number: 703-993-8911
speccoll@gmu.edu
URL: https://scrc.gmu.edu
Jordan Patty
Administrative Information
Use Restrictions
The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)
Access Restrictions
There are no access restrictions.
Preferred Citation
Margaret Mead Christmas card photograph collection, C0216, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.
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.
Historical Information
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.
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.
Arrangement
Arranged by size.
Related Material
The Special Collections Research Center holds the George Mason University photograph collection that includes several photographs of Mary Catherine Bateson, Mead's daughter and a former professor of Anthropology at GMU.
The Library of Congress holds the Margaret Mead papers.
Container List
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Two children watching television by Mead with a holiday greeting1962Scope and Content
3" x 5"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead on Manus Island with native children,1964Scope and Content
Inscribed by Mead with a holiday greeting. 3" x 4"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead being filmed on Manus Island for the 1968 documentary "Margaret Mead's New Guinea Journal,"1967English.Scope and Content
Signed by Mead with a holiday greeting. Photograph by Leiterman. 3" x 7"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Choir of boys singing at the Petralia Soprana commune in Italy,1968Scope and Contents
3" x 7"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Stone sculpture by William K. Roberts,1969Scope and Contents
3" x 7"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead's granddaughter in a college classroom,1970Scope and Contents
3" x 6"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Baby in a sling1972Scope and Contents
Photograph by Peter Gordon. 3" x 7"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead's granddaughter holding cymbals by Mead with a holiday greeting,1973Scope and Contents
Holiday greeting from Mead. 3" x 6"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Margaret Mead and her granddaughter in Tehran1975Scope and Contents
Photograph by Robert Levin. Signed by Mead. 3" x 5"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead with her daughter, Mary Catherine Bateson, and granddaughter,1976Scope and Contents
Photograph by Polyxane Cobb. 3" x 5"
- Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
Mead in Bali with children all around1977Scope and Contents
3" x 5"