Help transcribe S. Ann Dunham's field notebook. Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995), mother of President Barack Obama, was an anthropologist who focused on traditional craft processes in Indonesia. In her notebooks, she made observations from her time with small-scale weavers, brickmakers, metalworkers and other artisans, and documented work-related travel, experiences as a consultant, and notes on coursework and readings.
Help transcribe S. Ann Dunham's field notebook. Stanley Ann Dunham (1942-1995), mother of President Barack Obama, was an economic anthropologist who focused on traditional craft practices, while also building a professional career as an international consultant with various non-governmental organizations. Born in 1942 in Kansas, Dunham attended high school in Mercer Island, WA and moved to Honolulu, HI with her family. She attended the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she received her BA in 1967, her MA in 1975, and her PhD in 1992, all in anthropology. Dunham's research and work dealt mostly with Indonesian artisans and small non-argricultural rural industries, including the study of economic and technical aspects that were important to enabling and sustaining development and village level microfinance programs. Her dissertation, Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving Against all Odds, was completed in 1992. The first half of her dissertation was published posthumously in 2009. She died on November 7, 1995 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Dunham's field notebooks include notes from her years of fieldwork in central Java, work-related travel, experiences as a consultant, and notes on coursework and readings. They also include many observations from her time with small-scale weavers, brickmakers, metalworkers and many other artisans. The notebooks are mostly written in English, but also contain some words in Indonesian and Javanese. Funding for the digitization of Dunham's notebook, & its inclusion into the Transcription Center, was provided by the Smithsonian Women's Committee.
