Films and Archives

• Mead and Bateson Research Resources: Archives
• Mead/Bateson Films
• Publishing Permissions and Literary Rights
• Audiotapes of Margaret Mead interviews, lectures and speeches

Other Resources

• Books by and about Gregory Bateson
• Books written and/or co-authored by Margaret Mead
• Books about Mead and her work
• Biographical books about Mead
• For young readers
• Mead Books Reissued for the Centennial
  • Book List (PDF format file)
  • Book Descriptions (PDF format file)

IIS Newsletter Now Available Online

Current and some back editions of the IIS newsletter, "Notes from the Field" are now available in pdf format on line. The newsletter was published semi-annually from 1999 through 2002 during Mead Centennial activities, and continued as an annual publication until the final Fall 2009 edition.

Fall 2009 - the final edition
• Spring 2008
• Spring 2007
• Fall 2005
• Fall 2004
• Fall 2003
• Spring 2002

Mead/Bateson Films

Margaret Mead/Gregory Bateson Film Collection (includes 1936-39 Bali and Iatmul field footage)
The South Pacific Ethnographic Archives at the Library of Congress includes more than 30,000 feet of film footage. Find out more about the Film Preservation Project.

Edited films using Mead-Bateson footage are available for purchase or rental from:
PENN STATE AUDIO-VISUAL SERVICES
Special Services Building
1127 Fox Hill Road
University Park, PA 16803-1824
(814) 865-6314
www.medianet.libraries.psu.edu

• Bathing Babies in Three Cultures, b&w, 1954, 11 minutes.
• Childhood Rivalry in Bali and New Guinea, b&w, 1954, 17 minutes.
• First Days in the Life of a New Guinea Baby, b&w, 1952, 20 minutes.
• Karba’s First Years: A Study of Balinese Childhood, b&w, 1952, 20 minutes.
• A Balinese Family, b&w, 1951, 20 minutes.
• Trance and Dance in Bali, b&w, 1952, 22 minutes.
• Learning to Dance in Bali, b&w, 1978, 13 minutes.

For footage sales, contact:
Penn State Media Sales
237 Outreach Building
University Park, PA 16802
mediasales.psu.edu

Other films available:

• Strangers Abroad: Margaret Mead - Coming of Age color, 1990, 52 minutes, distributed by Films for Humanities and Sciences, P.O. Box 2053 Princeton, NJ 08543-2053. Tel: 800-257-5126. Fax: 609-275-3767.
• Reflections: Margaret Mead, color, 1975, 59 minutes, distributed by National Audiovisual Center.
• New Lives for Old, color, 1959, 20 minutes, distributed by Educational Testing Service Archives, Rosedale Rd., Princeton, NJ 08541. Tel: 609-921-9000. Fax: 609-734-5410. Email: etsinfo@ets.org
• Papua New Guinea: Anthropology on Trial, color, 1983, 57 minutes, distributed by Ambrose Video Publishing, 28 W. 44th St., Ste. 2100, New York, NY 10036. Tel: 212-768-7373. Fax: 2112-768-9282.
• Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed, color, 1996, 85 minutes, distributed by Filmmakers Library, 124 East 40th St., New York, NY 1--16. Email: info@filmmakers.com.
• Margaret Mead’s New Guinea Journal, color, 1969, 90 minutes, distributed by Indiana Univ AV Center.
• Margaret Mead, color, 1988, 12 minutes, distributed by Films for Humanities and Sciences.
• Four Families, b&w, 1960, 60 minutes, distributed by the National Film Board of Canada (1-800-542-2164). VHS video version of the film, in English, available for purchase at $250.00 plus shipping. NOTE: They do not rent the film.
• The Family: Lifestyles of the Future, color, 1971, 22 minutes, distributed by Cinema Guild, 130 Madison Ave., 2nd Floor, New York, NY 10016-7038. Tel: 212-685-6242. Fax: 212-684-4717. Email: thecinema@aol.com.

Mead/Bateson Research Resources: Archives

Since the deaths of Margaret Mead in 1978 and Gregory Bateson in 1980, the IIS has devoted a substantial proportion of its resources to preserving their intellectual legacies and providing access to their work. Most of their papers are now available to researchers, along with extensive collections of photographs, films and tapes. Because Mead was deeply committed to collaborative research, often half of a correspondence is preserved in one library and the other half in another. Thus there are multiple sources for Mead and Bateson materials.

MARGARET MEAD ARCHIVES
SOUTH PACIFIC ETHNOGRAPHIC ARCHIVES
Columbia University, Research in Contemporary Cultures
The Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
1st and Independence Avenues
Washington, DC 20540-4780

The personal and professional papers of Margaret Mead are housed in the Library of Congress and include some 1,800 boxes of diaries, correspondence, manuscripts, and photographs; over 500 reels of motion picture film; and more than 1,000 pieces of recorded sound tapes and cassettes. Gregory Bateson's personal papers from 1922 to 1945 are also in the collection.

Mead's field materials, as well as those of Gregory Bateson, Theodore Schwartz, Rhoda Metraux and others with whom she did field work, have been brought together in the South Pacific Ethnographic Archives. On-line access to portions of the collection is available through some 40 institutions who subscribe to the Research Libraries Group (RLG).

Motion picture film and recorded sound items are housed in the Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Find out more about the Film Preservation Project.

Scholars continue to use the Mead Archives in their research on the development of scientific organizations such as the American Anthropological Association, as well as on individuals such as Jane Belo, Ruth Benedict, Edith Cobb, Milton Erickson, Reo Fortune, Colin McPhee, and Zora Neale Hurston.

GREGORY BATESON ARCHIVES (1946-1980)
University of California at Santa Cruz
Special Collections, University Library
Santa Cruz, CA 95064
831-459-2547
email: specoll@scilibx.ucsc.edu

Rodney E. Donaldson created The Gregory Bateson Archive: A Guide/Catalog (completed in 1987), a 2,514-page research tool which, in addition to identifying each item in the Archive, contains a detailed biographical chronology, a definitive Bibliography of the Published Work of Gregory Bateson. Excerpts from the Guide/Catalog may be found at http://www.crazytigerinstitute.com/batesonarch.htm.

RUTH BENEDICT PAPERS (1904-1948)
Vassar College
Rare Books and Manuscripts
Vassar College Libraries, Box 20
Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-6198

FRANZ BOAS PAPERS (1862-1942)
BATESON FAMILY PAPERS (1936-1940)
American Philosophical Society, Manuscripts
151 South Independence Mall East
Philadelphia, PA 19106-3386
215-440-3400
(The Society also has Margaret Mead correspondence among its various collections.)

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY RESEARCH IN CONTEMPORARY CULTURES
Georgetown University Library
Special Collections
3700 O Street NW
Washington, DC 20057

LAWRENCE KELSO FRANK PAPERS
National Library of Medicine
Modern Manuscripts Division
National Institute of Health
8600 Rockfille Pike
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-594-5983
Additional Lawrence Frank papers are housed at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in New York City and the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University in Detroit.

MARGARET MEAD ADMINISTRATIVE CORRESPONDENCE,
INTERVIEWS (1925-1980)
American Museum of Natural History
Department of Anthropological Archives
79th Street and Central Park West
New York, NY 10024

DON D. JACKSON ARCHIVE,
INCLUDING GREGORY BATESON WORK AT MRI
Mental Research Institute
555 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto, CA 94301
650-321-3055
www.mri.org
Controlled access for scholarly and research purposes to master copies of MRI materials may be obtained by contacting the Mental Research Institute. For information and controlled access to the Jackson Archive Project, contact Wendel A. Ray, PhD, at the ULM Marriage and Family Therapy Program, waray@bellsouth.net, 318-547-4539.

EDWARD SHERWOOD MEAD CORRESPONDENCE, PUBLICATIONS (1889-1941)
University of Pennsylvania
University Archives and Records
North Arcade, Franklin Field
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6320

COLIN MCPHEE COLLECTIONS OF MUSICAL MANUSCRIPTS,
BOOKS & SCORES (1929-1962)
University of California in Los Angeles
Music Library, Special Collections
405 Hilgard Avenue
1102 Shoenberg Hall
Los Angeles, CA 90024-1490
310-825-1665

BARBARA HONEYMAN ROLL
PAPERS AND ORAL HISTORY
Smith College
Northampton, MA 01063
413- 584-2700

Publishing Permission or Literary Rights

As of December 2009, the rights in the unpublished papers, correspondence, and field notes of Margaret Mead and many of her colleagues, now archived in the Library of Congress, including the pre-war notes and photographs of Gregory Bateson, are now in the public domain (or, as the Library puts it, donated to the people of the United States of America).

With the dissolution of IIS at the end of 2009, the rights in publications of Margaret Mead are being donated to the American Anthropological Association which has a Publications Department managing and giving permissions for its various journals and monograph series, to manage for the benefit of the profession and to provide income for their continuing work.

For works under contract and in print, existing contractual rights continue, and journal articles are often copy righted by the publishing journals. For permissions, contact the AAA by mail at 2200 Wilson Blvd, Suite 600, Arlington VA 22201, Attention: Permissions, or by e-mail at permissions@aaanet.org. The copyrights in all publications of the Institute are also being transferred to the AAA at this time.

As of December 2009, the rights in publications of Gregory Bateson will be handled by Nora Bateson, the daughter of Gregory Bateson and Lois Camack. She is in the process of forming a non-profit corporation to be called the Bateson Ideas Group, which will take over the management of Bateson's post World War II writings, both published and unpublished, now archived in California at UC Santa Cruz and elsewhere. The notes, films, and photographs from his pre-war ethnographic work remain in the Library of Congress. To inquire about permissions, contact Ms. Bateson at norabateson@aol.com.

ACCESS TO MEAD/BATESON ARCHIVES

Inquiries on consulting archival materials should be addressed to the various institutions.

Audiotapes of Margaret Mead Interviews, Lectures and Speeches

Audiotapes of Margaret Mead interviews, lectures and speeches dating from 1958 through 1978 months before her death are available from:

Pacifica Radio Archives
3729 Cahuenga Blvd. West
North Hollywood CA 91604 (
Phone) 800-735-0230 ext. 265 (
Fax) 818-506-1084
Archives Director: Brian DeShazor
Email: bdeshazor@pacificaradioarchives.org

• BB4758: Why Can't We Communicate with the Russians? / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (40 min.) Noted anthropologist provides a cultural analysis of United States-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics diplomatic relations. BROADCAST: KPFK, 29 Jan. 1962.
• BB0693: With Margaret Mead in New Guinea / Lenora Forestal interviewed by Larry Birns. 1 reel (29 min.) Discussion of Forestal's year in New Guinea with the famous anthropologist Margaret Mead, who specialized in studying Pacific Islanders. RECORDED: WBAI, 8 Aug. 1964. BROADCAST: KPFA, 25 Sept. 1964.
• BB1705: Coming of Age in America / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (78 min.) Talk on the pressures of adolescence in America from an anthropological perspective. RECORDED: Diablo College. BROADCAST: KPFA, Apr. 1965.
• BB2124: The Generation Gap / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (48 min.) Mead speaks on the implications of the generation gap for personality development. RECORDED: at New School, New York, 20 Feb. 1969. BROADCAST: WBAI, 21 Sept. 1969.
• BB4791: Margaret Mead Talks about the Generation Gap. 1 reel (35 min.) Anthropologist speaking about the current generation gap and the need for commitment in the post-college generation. RECORDED: at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 15 Mar. 1971. BROADCAST: KPFK, 197-.
• BC1487: Can We Survive the Present? Margaret Mead ; introduced by Barry Commoner. 1 reel (71 min.) Anthropologist assesses the social and political changes needed to insure human survival. RECORDED: at University of California, Berkeley. BROADCAST: KPFA, 9 Mar. 1973.
• BC2243.07: Dr. Margaret Mead / hosted by Paul McIsaac. SERIES: Science and the quality of life ; no.7. l reel (61 min.) Anthropologist discusses anthropology and the science of life at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference. BROADCAST: WBAI, 30 Jan. 1975.
• BC2945.02: Dr. Margaret Mead / interviewed by Anne Freemantle. SERIES: P.E.N. report ; no.2. 1 reel (24 min.) Mead discusses how pre-literate people face death. Produced by L.Harris| Recorded on April 10, 1976. CONTENT: Anne Freemantle interviews Dr. Margaret Mead. Freemantle Introduces herself and describes P.E.N.which exists to provide friendship and freedom to writers, poets and artists. Introduction to Dr. Margaret Mead, leading anthropologist in the world. Dr. Mead discusses how primitive people react to death and how life and death are fundamental mysteries to many peoples. Dr. Mead also talks about teaching children about the concept of death and makes a few comments on funerals. Recorded on April 10, 1976. Broadcast on April 11, 1976. BROADCAST: WBAI, 11 Apr. 1976.
• BB0030: American Marriage Mores / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (60 min.) Anthropologist analyzes America's values and norms governing marriage RECORDED: at Stanford University, 22 May 1960. BROADCAST: KPFA, 28 May 1960.
• BB1647: Margaret Mead on Sexual Freedom and Cultural Change. SERIES: The Pill and the Puritan ethic. 2 reels (79 min.) Anthropologist discusses sexual morals in America. RECORDED: San Francisco State College. BROADCAST: KPFA, 10 Feb. 1967.
• BB1812: Limits of Loyalties / Margaret Mead. 2 reels (101 min.) Speech by noted anthropologist. RECORDED: Human Values Under Pressure Forum, First Unitarian Church in San Francisco, 3 Apr. 1968. BROADCAST: KPFA, 22 Nov. 1968.
• BB1851: Childhood Basis of Creativity / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (50 min.) Anthropologist talks on the roots of creativity. RECORDED: Asilomar, California. BROADCAST: KPFA, 1 Apr. 1958.
• BB3126: Man and the Culture of Tomorrow / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (29 min.) Anthropologists speaks on the transformation of modern society BROADCAST: WBAI, 25 Feb. 1968.
• BB4061: Culture and Human Interdependence / Margaret Mead. 1 reel (50 min.) The noted anthropologist Margaret Mead speaks about the pan-human experience of interpersonal relations. RECORDED: Unitarian Center, San Francisco, 24 Nov. 1968. BROADCAST: KPFA, 17 Mar. 1969.
• BC1042.06: Coming of age in America / Margaret Mead. SERIES: National council of the teachers of English ; no. 6. 1 reel (45 min.) RECORDED: in Minneapolis, Minnesota. BROADCAST: KPFA, Nov. 1972.
• BC1508.01: Our Future in a Cosmic Perspective / Margaret Mead. SERIES: The Next Billion Years ; no. 1. 1 reel (54 min.) Anthropologist discusses our future. RECORDED: at California State University, San Francisco. BROADCAST: KPFA, 3 Oct. 1973.
• KZ0416.09: Social Decline / Margaret Mead. SERIES: Explorers of humankind conference ; no. 9. 1 reel (31 min.) Anthropologist talks about her career, ERA, the race model vs. women's and gay liberation, New Directions Foundation, Proposition 13, the 70's, alternatives to world government, abortion, the family, TV, and social decline. RECORDED: in Los Angeles, June 1978, by Roy Tuckman. BROADCAST: KPFK, 27 June 1978.
• IZ0782: MARGARET MEAD INTERVIEWED BY GIL JARDINE 29 min. Gil Jardine interviews anthropologist Margaret Mead about the generation gap, the subject of her new book, Culture and Commitment. Mead also speaks about other subjects such as love, pot, Woodstock, protest, and the population explosion. October 30, 1970