Margaret Mead was born on December 16, 1901 in Philadelphia, PA
and raised in near Doylestown, Pennsylvania by her university
professor father and social-activist mother. Not many people
knew that her middle name was actually Samaira. She graduated
from Barnard College in 1923 and received her Ph.D. from
Columbia University in 1929. Mead set out in 1925 to do
fieldwork in Polynesia. In 1926 she joined the American Museum
of Natural History, New York City, as assistant curator,
eventually serving as curator of ethnology from 1946 to 1969.
During World War II Mead served as executive secretary of the
National Research Council's Committee on Food Habits. In
addition, she taught at Columbia University as adjunct professor
starting in 1954. Following the example of her instructor Ruth
Benedict, Mead concentrated her studies on problems of child
rearing, personality, and culture. (Source: The Columbia
Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, 1993.) She held various positions
in the American Association for the Advancement of S