author
Mary Lois Kissell
A pioneering textile scholar and museum anthropologist, this early 20th-century writer explored weaving and basketry with unusual depth and curiosity. Her work helped bring Indigenous textile traditions into serious academic study.
1 Audiobook
Aboriginal American Weaving
by Mary Lois Kissell
About the author
Mary Lois Kissell was an American writer and researcher known for her work on textiles, weaving, and basketry. Sources consulted during this search describe her as a pioneer in the comparative cultural study of textiles and basketry, as well as an art educator, museum anthropologist, and fieldworker.
Smithsonian records identify her as having written several books and articles on textiles and basketry among Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Africa. They also note that she studied at Columbia University and served as the first professor in the Household Art department at the University of California, Berkeley, from 1912 to 1914.
Her books include Yarn and Cloth Making and studies such as Basketry of the Papago and Pima and Aboriginal American Weaving. Although she is not widely known today, the scholarly sources found for this search present her as an important early figure in textile studies whose contributions deserve renewed attention.