# 3184g - 1998 32c Celebrate the Century - 1920s: Margaret Mead

US #3184g
1998 Margaret Mead, Anthropologist – Celebrate the Century (1920s)

• Part of the third sheet in the Celebrate the Century stamp series issued from 1998-2000
• Honors Margaret Mead
• Includes text on the back with historical details

Stamp Category: Commemorative
Series: Celebrate the Century
Value: 32¢ First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue: May 28, 1998
First Day City: Chicago, Illinois
Quantity Issued: 188,000,000
Printed by: Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd.
Printing Method: Offset, Intaglio
Format: Panes of 15
Perforations: 11.6
Tagging: Block Tagging

Why the stamp was issued: To commemorate Margaret Mead and her accomplishments in the field of anthropology during the 1920s.

About the stamp design: Pictures an illustration of Mead by artist David Meltzer. Includes the following text on the back “Anthropologist Margaret Mead explored the effect of culture on the behavior and personalities of children and adults, as well as the differences between men and women.”

First Day City: The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at Chicago’s Celebrate on State Street festival.

About the Celebrate the Century series: The USPS launched the Celebrate the Century series in 1998 to mark the end of the 20th century and herald the arrival of the 21st. The series includes 10 sheets of 15 stamps (150 in total), with each honoring important moments from a different decade (1900s, 10s, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s). At the time of completion, it was the longest and most ambitious commemorative stamp series in US history.

History the stamp represents: Born in Philadelphia in 1901, Margaret Mead was raised to be a social scientist. At the age of eight, she was assigned to observe and record her sister’s speech patterns. She later trained at Barnard College in New York, and received her doctorate from Columbia University. She then went on to become director of research in contemporary cultures, and eventually adjunct professor of anthropology at Columbia.

Known for her study of controversial social topics and her plain English style of writing, Mead soon endeared herself to up-and-coming anthropology students. Many of her studies dealt with the different child-rearing patterns of other cultures. At the beginning of her career in 1925, Mead spent several months in Samoa studying the lives of adolescent girls in three coastal villages. She then compared the experiences of these girls with those of American girls in the book Coming of Age in Samoa, possibly her most famous work.

Although Coming of Age in Samoa was one of Mead’s most famous studies, she was the author of several other books. Some of her other well-known works include Growing UP in New Guinea, Male and Female, and Soviet Attitudes Toward Authority. The final study she published actually chronicled her own aging process.