Ia tusi se faaauauga o lenei palakalafa - Na fanau Armstrong i Winchester, i Massachusetts. Na lesitala o ia i le Kolisi o Hampshire i Amherst, Massachusetts ma le faamoemoe e avea ma se tusiata, ae na suia i le talafaasolopito o faatufugaga ma suʻesuʻega faaleaganuu, ma maua ai se BA i Amerika Suesuega i le 1974. Ina ua uma ona faauu, sa galue o ia o se fesoasoani tau tupe i le National Endowment for the Humanities (1976<unk>9) ae leʻi ulufale i le aoga faauu i le Iunivesite o Kalefonia Berkeley e maua ai se MA i le History of Art i le 1982. A o i ai i Berkeley, sa galue o ia o se fesoasoani suʻesuʻe mo le San Francisco Museum of Modern Art ma o se fesoasoani fesoasoani mo le Lowie Museum of Anthropology, lea na ia fesoasoani ai i le 1983 lolomiga <unk>The Anthropology of World Fairs: San Francisco's Panama Pacific International Exposition
o le 1915". O se tusitusiga e faavae i luga o le autu o lana galuega faʻataʻitaʻi, "American Scene as Satire, the Art of Paul Cadmus in the 1930s", na aliali mai i le "Arts Magazine" ia Mati 1982.