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Margaret Mead

Margaret Mead
Usage Conditions Apply
Artist
Ken Heyman, 6 Oct 1930 - 10 Dec 2019
Sitter
Margaret Mead, 16 Dec 1901 - 15 Nov 1978
Date
1957/1958 (printed later)
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image: 38.7 x 38 cm (15 1/4 x 14 15/16")
Sheet: 50.4 x 40.3 cm (19 13/16 x 15 7/8")
Topic
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses
Exterior\Cityscape
Margaret Mead: Female
Margaret Mead: Literature\Writer
Margaret Mead: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Lecturer
Margaret Mead: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Professor\University
Margaret Mead: Education and Scholarship\Scholar\Anthropologist
Margaret Mead: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist
Margaret Mead: Presidential Medal of Freedom
Margaret Mead: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Professor\Anthropology
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of the Institute for Intercultural Studies, Inc.
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Copyright
© Ken Heyman
Object number
NPG.2006.115
Exhibition Label
Margaret Mead began making path-breaking contributions to the study of anthropology with the publication of her first book, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). In 1954, she became acquainted with the photographer Ken Heyman, who enrolled in her course at Columbia University in New York City. A few years later, the two met again in Indonesia. Mead had returned to the village of Bayung Gedé, in Bali, where she had conducted research from 1936 to 1939. Although Bayung Gedé had changed significantly, she saw many of the same people she had encountered during her earlier trip.
Heyman took this photograph sometime in December 1957 or January 1958. The often-reproduced image depicts Mead as she speaks to a Balinese child being held by a woman. This trip turned out to be the beginning of two decades of collaborations between Heyman and Mead, which resulted in the publication of several books.
Margaret Mead inauguró sus revolucionarias aportaciones a los estudios antropológicos con la publicación de su primer libro, Coming of Age in Samoa (1928). En 1954 conoció al fotógrafo Ken Heyman, quien se matriculó en el curso que ella dictaba en la Universidad de Columbia en Nueva York. Años más tarde se reencontraron en Indonesia. Mead había regresado a la villa de Bayung Gedé, en Bali, donde había hecho investigación entre 1936 y 1939. Aunque Bayung Gedé había cambiado mucho, Mead logró ver a muchas de las personas que había conocido en su viaje anterior.
Heyman tomó esta foto en diciembre de 1957 o enero de 1958. Es una imagen muy reproducida en la que Mead le habla a un bebé balinés en brazos de una mujer. Este viaje fue el comienzo de dos décadas de colaboración entre Heyman y Mead que dieron por fruto varios libros.
Data Source
National Portrait Gallery
Location
Currently not on view