Florence Powdermaker

Born in Philadelphia in 1896, Hortense Powdermaker studied at Goucher College before working as a labor organizer. She later went to the London School of Economics, where she studied with Bronisław Malinowski and earned a Ph.D. in anthropology.

She became known for immersive fieldwork and for choosing subjects that challenged narrow ideas about what anthropology should study. Her research took her to Lesu in Melanesia, to Indianola, Mississippi, to Hollywood, and later to Northern Rhodesia, and she wrote influential books including Life in Lesu, After Freedom, Hollywood, the Dream Factory, and Stranger and Friend.

Powdermaker's work connected personal experience with larger social systems, especially around race, class, and mass culture. She is still remembered as a bold, wide-ranging anthropologist who helped expand the field's methods and subjects.