Guide to the Margaret Mead Christmas card collection C0216 Margaret Mead Christmas card collection

Guide to the Margaret Mead Christmas card collection C0216

Margaret Mead Christmas card collection


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George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center

Fenwick Library, MS2FL
4400 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

Repository
George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections Research Center
Identification
C0216
Title
Margaret Mead Christmas card collection 1962 - 1977
Quantity
.01 Linear Feet, 1 folder
Creator
Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978
Location
R 44, C 1, S 2
Language
English .
Abstract
A collection of 11 Christmas cards from anthropologist Margaret Mead with five cards signed with holiday greetings.

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.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

  • Mead, Margaret, 1901-1978

Container List

Margaret Mead Christmas card collection
1962-1977
  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Two children watching television by Mead with a holiday greeting
    1962
    Scope and Content

    3" x 5"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Mead on Manus Island with native children,
    1964
    Scope 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,
    1968
    Scope and Contents

    3" x 7"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Stone sculpture by William K. Roberts,
    1969
    Scope and Contents

    3" x 7"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Mead's granddaughter in a college classroom,
    1970
    Scope and Contents

    3" x 6"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Baby in a sling
    1972
    Scope 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,
    1973
    Scope and Contents

    Holiday greeting from Mead. 3" x 6"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Margaret Mead and her granddaughter in Tehran
    1975
    Scope 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,
    1976
    Scope and Contents

    Photograph by Polyxane Cobb. 3" x 5"

  • Graphic Materials box: 1 folder: 1
    Mead in Bali with children all around
    1977
    Scope and Contents

    3" x 5"