Montana State University Library, Archives and Special Collections, Manuscript Collections
Mary Meigs Atwater letter to H. G. Merriam
Atwater, Mary Meigs
0530
Collection 0530, MtBC, us
1 item
1936 February 5
Mary Meigs Atwater was a weaver who lived in Basin, Montana, in the early twentieth century. Her letter to H. G. Merriam is Atwater's response to Merriam's request by describing her guild, her weaving correspondence courses, her promotion of weaving for therapeutic work in rehabilitation and mental hospitals, and some personal information on her family. Also included are Atwater's printed weaving patterns as designed or presented.
Collection materials are in English
Mary Meigs Atwater was born in Rock Island, Illinois on February 28, 1878. She received her early education by private tutors, and studied design in France around the turn of the twentieth century. She married Maxwell W. Atwater, a mining engineer, in 1903 and the couple had two children, Montgomery and Elizabeth. She organized a hand loom weaver's guild while living in Basin, Montana, around 1916 and eventually offered correspondence courses for the craft based on her research of various designs. Atwater wrote numerous articles and books on weaving during her career, and she died in 1956.
In early 1936 Mary Atwater was contacted by Harold Guy Merriam, an English professor at Montana State University in Missoula, for information on her weaving school. Merriam had been appointed state supervisor of the Federal Writers' Project and his work would culminate in the publication of
Montana, A State Guide Book in 1939. Atwater responded to Merriam's request with this letter describing her guild, her weaving correspondence courses, her promotion of weaving for therapeutic work in rehabilitation and mental hospitals, and some personal information on her family. A second folder of printed weaving patterns designed or presented by Atwater is included.
This collection is open for research.
The Atwatter letter was donated to Montana State University by Merrill G. Burlingame in 1967. A second folder of printed weaving patterns created by Atwater, and formerly accessioned as Collection 2001, was added to this collection on March 26, 2012.
This collection was processed 2012 May 26
[Creator Name], [Date of Creation], [Brief Description of Object], Folder [#], Box [#], [Collection Name], [Collection #], Montana State University (MSU) Library, Bozeman, MT
Atwater, Mary Meigs--Correspondence
Merriam, H. G. (Harold Guy), 1883-1980--Correspondence
Federal Writers' Project
Montana
Hand weaving--Study and teaching
Hand weaving--Therapeutic use
Hand weaving--Montana--Basin (Mont.)--Societies, etc.
Women weavers--Montana--Basin--Correspondence
Fine Arts
Women
Montana
Correspondence
Mary Meigs Atwater letter to H. G. Merriam
1
Notes on Card-Weaving - Plate No. I through Plate No. XIII
2
Blueprints of weaving patterns
1917
3