Being captured by queer kinship: Margaret Lowenfeld and Margaret Mead

Margaret Lowenfeld (1890-1973) and Margaret Mead (1901-78) met in 1948. This eventful first meeting in London was the start of a fascinating working friendship, albeit a somewhat uneven one. The two women share particular similarities across their careers, including their positions as women in their respective fields of psychology and anthropology, though Mead was notably more renowned. They also both had substantial and long-lasting relationships with other women. In this article, I draw primarily upon archival resources of interviews with both Mead and Rhoda Métraux conducted about Lowenfeld following her death. In doing so I argue how such material not only reveals the type of relationship between Lowenfeld and Mead, but also raises questions about how lesbian relationships are historically understood. In recognising the queer worlds of these women, it is possible to extend historical thinking about the lesbian relationships they had. Crucially, it also demonstrates what a lesbian feminist historical approach uniquely provides. In addition to this, by likewise recognising myself as a queer feminist, it is possible to reveal the reflexive and emotional queer kinship which extends between historian and subject.