Mattie Phipps Todd

Mattie Phipps Todd is known for Hand-Loom Weaving: A Manual for School and Home, first published in 1902. Contemporary editions of the book identify her as being "of the Motley School, Minneapolis, Minn.," and later library and bookseller records continue to list the work as her principal publication.

Her book was written as a practical guide for teachers, students, and families, with detailed lessons on looms, materials, dyeing, and simple projects. The introduction and surrounding material present weaving as more than a craft: a way to teach patience, beauty, useful work, and coordination between hand and mind.

Reliable biographical details about her life outside that work are hard to confirm from readily available sources. What is clear is that her manual remained notable enough to be preserved by libraries, digitized by Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive, and remembered as part of the early school handwork movement in Minneapolis.