Lila Morris O'Neale | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1886-11-02)November 2, 1886 |
| Died | February 2, 1948(1948-02-02) (aged 61) |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | university professor |
Lila Morris O'Neale (November 2, 1886 – February 2, 1948) was an American anthropologist and historian of textiles. She was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship in 1931 for her research onprehistoric textiles in Peru.
Lila Morris O'Neale was born inBuxton, North Dakota, the daughter of George Lester O'Neale (an immigrant from Ireland) and Carrie Higgins O'Neale. She moved with her family toSan Jose, California as a girl. She trained as a teacher, like her mother before her; she attended thestate teachers college in San Jose, and earned an A. B. at Stanford University (1910); she completed a bachelor's degree fromColumbia University in 1916. In 1926, she left a university job to pursue graduate studies in decorative arts at theUniversity of California at Berkeley. She earned a master's degree in 1927 with a thesis on ancient Peruvian fabrics, and in 1930 was granted a Ph.D. inanthropology from Berkeley, at age 44, for a fieldwork study of the basketry methods of California Native American women weavers.[1] Her dissertation project, "Yurok-Karok Basket Weavers", was overseen by anthropologistAlfred L. Kroeber, who remained a supportive colleague.[2]
O'Neale taught school in Oakland, and worked in higher education at San Jose State University and theStout Institute. She taught Household Art atOregon State University inCorvallis.[2] In 1922, she taught two courses in the summer session at theUniversity of Southern California.[3]
After a break for graduate studies, she returned to academic employment, as a professor in Household Art (later renamed the Department of Decorative Art in 1939) at Berkeley.[4] She became a full professor in 1941.[5] She taught courses on the history, design, and analysis of textiles and costumes. She also served as Associate Curator of Textiles at the Museum of Anthropology on campus.[6][7] She was the first woman to teach an anthropology course at Berkeley, when she covered courses forEdward Winslow Gifford, while he was on leave in 1931.[8]
Monographs by O'Neale includeTextile Periods in Ancient Peru (1930),Yurok-Karok Basket Weavers (1932),[9]Papago Color Designations (1943, withJuan Dolores), andTextiles of Highland Guatemala (1945). On both historical and anthropological topics, she was a hands-on scholar, determined to recreate the patterns and textures of the works she studied.[10]
TheParacas textiles had been found in the 1920s in Peru.[11] O'Neale was awarded aGuggenheim Fellowship in 1931 to support travel toLima, Peru for her work onInca and pre-Inca textiles in South America.[12][13]
O'Neale was "life-long companion" of Martha Thomas, a fellow scholar of Household Art, who taught in San Jose.[1] They hosted social gatherings together at O'Neale's house, and traveled together. O'Neale died from pneumonia in 1948, aged 61 years, just three days after giving her last examination.[14] Her papers are at the Bancroft Library at Berkeley.[15]
