From 1932 to 1966, nine (9) accessions and seven (7) boxes of documentation/media pertaining to Lila Morris O'Neale's anthropological research were received by PAHMA. O'Neale primarily studied Peruvian, Guatemalan, Mexican, and Californian material culture--including textiles and basketry--while teaching and curating at the University of California-Berkeley. The accessions contain a variety of textiles, looms, and baskets from indigenous cultures across North, Central, and South America. In addition, the O'Neale (Lila M.) Research Archive (DOC1930.1) houses an extensive collection of black-and-white photographs, photo-negatives, textile analyses, and supplementary documents. The attached finding aid provides further information regarding the accessions and Research Archive.

Lila Morris O’Neale (1886 - 1948) was born in Buxton, North Dakota on November 2, 1886 and died from pneumonia on February 2, 1948 at the age of 61. Prior to obtaining her academic degrees, O’Neale was a teacher in San Jose, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University in 1910. Then in 1916, O’Neale received a Bachelor’s in Household Art from Columbia University. In 1927, O’Neale began studying decorative arts in the Design Department at the University of California-Berkeley, where she received her masters degree and then, in 1930, her PhD in Anthropology at the age of 44. After graduating, O’Neale became a professor at the University of California-Berkeley teaching history, design, and analysis of textiles and costumes. In 1931, O’Neale became the first female professor of Anthropology. In addition to teaching, O'Neale served as the Associate Curator of Textiles at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California-Berkeley, now the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology. That same year, O’Neale was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship that funded her research in Peru concerning Inca and pre-Inca textiles. O’Neale completed four monographs throughout her life encompassing her work: Textile Periods in Ancient Peru (1930), Yurok-Karuk Basket Weavers (1932), Papago Color Designations (1943, with Juan Dolores) and Textiles of Highland Guatemala (1945). Following her death in 1948, O’Neale was succeeded by Anna H. Gayton, an anthropologist and folklorist at the University of California, Berkeley. Throughout the 1950s, Gayton compiled and interpreted a significant portion of O’Neale’s scholarship, and therefore her legacy is undoubtedly relevant to the history of the Research Archive.

The O'Neale (Lila M.) Collection contains nine (9) accessions (Acc.677; Acc.1064; Acc.1947i; Acc.1948i; Acc.1949a; Acc.1950e; Acc.2234; Acc.3032.03; Acc.4308); six (6) banker boxes and one (1) oversized box (DOC1930.1)

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