Margaret Bourke-White was born on June 14, 1904 in The Bronx, New York. As A child, she had dreamt of becoming a great biologist. She studied Herpetology (the study of reptiles) in high school and had hopes to become good enough to go on an expedition. She attended many universities where she began to pursue her degree in Herpetology. These universities included Columbia University in New York, the University of Michigan, Purdue University in Indiana, Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, and she received her degree in 1927 from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She began to study photography as a hobby when she was very young. Her father was somewhat of a camera lover and exposed her to the wonders of photography as well. .
Margaret's father, Joseph White was an inventor and an engineer. He invented the first Braille press so blind people could read by touch. Her Mother, Minnie Bourke was just as adventurous as Margaret would become. She took up the hobby of riding bikes when it still was not acceptable for women to do so. Margaret had a sister, Ruth, who was three years older than her and a brother, Roger, who was 3 years younger. When her family moved from The Bronx to Bound Brook, New Jersey when she was four years old, she began to run away during the day to explore. She was quite the lover of nature and showed it but in order to make sure she wouldn't get lost, her mother dressed her in a red sweater with a sign on the back: "My name is Margaret Bourke-White. I live at 210 North Mountain Avenue. Please Bring me home." When Margaret was eighteen, she met a man named Everett Chapman who was six feet tall, handsome, and a senior majoring in electrical engineering. He liked photography, too, and knew more about its technical aspect than she did. He asked her to become engaged and she declined, determined to finish her college education. He offered to wait. Margaret began to see a psychiatrist and found that she had an inferiority complex because of her recent findings of her secret Jewish roots.
