Lila O’Neale
Notebook on Yurok/Karok basketry designs
1929
Material culture was documented by ethnographers from both technical and aesthetic perspectives. For example, these sketches indicate the colors and design elements used by traditional basketweavers in northwestern California, while notes elsewhere in the notebook describe the manufacturing process. From these researches, O’Neale produced a highly regarded work, Yurok-Karok Basketweavers (1932), praised for its detailed description and analysis of native and non-native weaving techniques and design elements, and “the relationship between the weavers and their craft…. Such documentation makes the museum’s Yurok and Karok basket collection unique,” according to the Hearst Museum website.