Montana State University Library, Merrill G. Burlingame
Special Collections
P.O. Box 173320
Bozeman, MT 59717-3320
United States
Phone (406) 994-4242
Fax (406) 994-2851
http://www.lib.montana.edu/archives/
University Archivist
spcoll@www.lib.montana.edu
Collection 0530, MtBC, us
Atwater, Mary Meigs
Mary Meigs Atwater Letter to H. G.
Merriam
1936 February 5
1 item
The Mary Meigs Atwater letter to H. G. Merriam relates
Atwater response to Merriam's request by providing this detailed four page typewritten
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. Also included are Atwater’s printed weaving patterns designed or
presented.
Collection materials are in English
Biographical Note
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 by providing this detailed four page typewritten
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.
An original typewritten letter by Mary M. Atwater was donated to Montana State University
by Merrill G. Burlingame in 1967. A second folder of printed weaving patterns created by
Atwater formerly accessioned as Collection 2001 was added on March 26, 2012.
This collection was processed 2012 May 26
Atwater, Mary Meigs
Correspondence
Merriam, H. G. (Harold Guy),
1883-1980 Correspondence
Federal Writers'
Project
Correspondence schools and courses
Hand weaving--Study and teaching
Hand weaving--Therapeutic use
Hand weaving--Montana--Basin--Societies,
etc.
Women weavers--Montana--Basin
Correspondence
Fine
Arts
Woman
Montana