Mary Catherine Bateson Dies at 81

Mary Catherine Bateson, the daughter of Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, passed away a couple weeks ago (see this obit . Several years ago, Anthropology alum Logan Tierney (class of 2012) gave us a set of “throwaway” photos her uncle had been given by Mead, which we later learned were from early fieldwork carried out in Papua New Guinea the late 1920s and early 1930s. The detective work needed to ascertain the photos’ original contexts benefited from Anthropology alum Juliana Hedeman (Class of 2014) and Women’s Studies student Barbara Cady – and took us to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC (where we met with Dr. Jennifer Newel, the Pacific Ethnology Curator — Mead’s old job) and, eventually, to Mary Catherine Bateson herself. Bateson generously received Juliana, Barbara and Prof. Junge at her New Hampshire home in the Spring of 2013, where we spent an incredible afternoon going through the photos and hearing Bateson’s reflections on her parents’ earliest years together. Following Bateson’s wishes (and with the approval of the donor), we eventually donated the entire collection to the Library of Congress, where they now sit.

These are great memories and this was a powerful moment for our Department (one of many of course!).