Eggan, Joan Rosenfels, 1906-1999

Joan Rosenfels Eggan (1906-1999) photographer and psychotherapist, well known for her photographs of anthropologists. As the wife of University of Chicago Professor of Anthropology Fred Eggan, she accompanied her husband on research trips to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and England where she photographed many local people. The majority of the photographs in this collection are of children and families, as Eggan was particularly interested in the psychology of children.

Joan Rosenfels Eggan was born in 1906 to Russian Jewish immigrants. She received a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Chicago in 1934, and continued her education at the Smith School for Social Work, where she studied with the psychologist Bruno Bettelheim. She also studied at the Tavistock and Anna Freud clinics in London, and worked with several renowned Chicago psychoanalysts, including George Mohr, Lionel Blitzen, Lucia Tower and Paul Craig. Eggan practiced psychotherapy for over twenty-five years, as a therapist with the students of the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago, and as a psychological consultant to the school’s administrators and pediatricians.

Eggan studied photography in the 1960's believing that it would allow her to learn more about her patients. She became well-known in anthropological circles for her remarkable photographs of anthropologists, some of which are in the Royal Anthropological Institute in London.

In 1969, Joan Rosenfels married the noted anthropologist and University of Chicago professor Fred Eggan (1906-1991). The marriage was her second. Joan accompanied her husband on several of his research trips to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and England.

In Santa Fe, where the couple moved upon Fred Eggan's retirement, Joan served as a psychological consultant to two private schools. Her private practice was mainly limited to adults in the arts. Joan Eggan died in Santa Fe on February 19, 1999.