Lila Morris O’Neale (1886-1948)
Lila O’Neale and Nellie Cooper, Yurok basketweaver
Klamath River region, 1929
After receiving undergraduate degrees from Stanford and Columbia, O’Neale came to the University in 1926 as a graduate student in household arts, a department focused on the history and design of textiles and clothing, jewelry and metalwork, pottery and implements, and interior design. Her interests led her to graduate work in anthropology where she initially studied the ancient textiles gathered for Hearst by Max Uhle in Peru. Her dissertation treated the basketry of the Yurok and Karok tribes. She received the Ph. D. in 1930 and served as Professor of Decorative Art and Associate Curator of Textiles in the Museum.