John Collier (anthropologist) - Early Life and Family

Early Life and Family

John Collier, Jr., born May 22, 1913 in Sparkill, New York, was the son of Lucy Wood Collier and John Collier (reformer). His father is famous as the head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs during the New Deal. John Jr. grew up largely in Taos, New Mexico and the San Francisco Bay Area in California. While living in Mill Valley, California, John suffered injuries in a car accident at age 8 that resulted in major brain injuries and associated learning disabilities and hearing loss that prevented him from successfully completing schooling beyond a third grade level, although he attended school sporadically into his teens. When it became evident that he could not perform in school, his family permitted to him spend considerable time, when in New Mexico, living with family friends at Taos Indian Pueblo. During the periods he was in California, he came under the influence of Capt. Leighton Robinson, a retired English master in sail, who provided seamanship training to John.

He was also informally apprenticed to the Western painter, Maynard Dixon, who was then married to the photographer Dorothea Lange. He spent considerable time in the Dixon/Lange household in San Francisco during his early and mid teens and was trained in a wide range of painting techniques and skills. When in Taos he also received informal training from the artist Nicolai Fechin. This training largely ended in 1930, when he signed on as seaman in the four masted bark Abraham Rydberg for a voyage from San Francisco around Cape Horn to Dublin, Ireland, an experience arranged by Capt. Robinson. On his return from the voyage he continued to divide his time between Taos and the Bay Area, and in 1934 he established a home in Talpa, New Mexico, which would remain an important anchor place throughout his life.

In 1943, he married Mary Elizabeth Trumbull, who became a long term partner in his photographic and anthropological work. Their son, Malcolm Collier (not to be confused with the anthropologist, Malcolm Carr Collier born 1908), also became an anthropologist who eventually collaborated with his father on a new edition of Visual Anthropology (1986). Other sons include Robin Collier, Vian Collier, and Aran Collier.