Kate Peck Kent (1914 – October 28, 1987), born Kate Stott Peck, was an American anthropologist who studied the history of Pueblo and

Navajo The Navajo (; British English: Navaho; nv, Diné or ') are a Native American people of the Southwestern United States. With more than 399,494 enrolled tribal members , the Navajo Nation is the largest federally recognized tribe in the United ...

textiles.

Early life and education

Kate Stott Peck was born in Washington, D.C. in 1914, and raised in Denver, the daughter of Allen Steele Peck and Jessie Peck. Her father was an officer in the

U. S. Forest Service The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages of land. Major divisions of the agency inc ...

. Peck earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Denver, and pursued graduate studies at Columbia University. She completed a master's degree at the University of Arizona in 1949, with a thesis titled "An analysis and interpretation of the cotton textiles from Tonto National Monument." In retirement, she continued her studies at the

School of American Research The School for Advanced Research (SAR), until 2007 known as the School of American Research and founded in 1907 as the School for American Archaeology (SAA), is an advanced research center located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. Since 1967, the s ...

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

Career

In the late 1930s, Kent was assistant to curator

Frederic Huntington Douglas Frederic Huntington Douglas (born October 29, 1897 in Evergreen, Colorado; died April 23, 1956) also known as Eric Douglas. "was one of the first scholars to recognize the artistic achievements of American Indians as well as the arts of Africa a ...

at the Denver Art Museum. She taught anthropology at Barnard College and the University of Denver, and was senior research associate at the Museum of International Folk Art. After she retired from the University of Denver in 1976, she was an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico. She also served as an officer of the Southwestern Association of Indian Affairs. She wrote a short book, ''The Story of Navajo Weaving'' (1961), for the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

in Phoenix, Arizona. Kent's later books were ''Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest'' (1983), ''Pueblo Indian Textiles: A Living Traditions'' (1983), and ''Navajo Weaving: Three Centuries of Change'' (1985). "I'll bet there's not one archaeologist who's read my books," she said in a 1987 interview. "But weavers ''love'' my books. They are my most loyal supporters. I've talked to a lot of weavers' guilds and given workshops prehistoric techniques. Weavers love to experiment." Hopi weaver Ramona Sakiestewa was inspired by Kent's work to explore historical techniques for her Ancient Blanket Series. She wrote an introduction to H. P. Mera's rediscovered ''Spanish American Blanketry'' (1984). She contributed an essay on Southwestern weaving to ''I Am Here'' (1989), a book published to mark the opening of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Personal life and legacy

In 1937, Kate Peck married educator Arthur Tufnell Sabine Kent. They had three children, Hilary, Stephen, and Jonathan. Kate Peck Kent died in 1987, aged 73 years, at her home in El Rito, New Mexico. In 1988, the

Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian is a museum devoted to Native American arts. It is located in Santa Fe, New Mexico and was founded in 1937 by Mary Cabot Wheelwright, who came from Boston, and Hastiin Klah, a Navajo singer and medici ...

held a memorial exhibit, "Living Traditions: Kate Peck Kent and the Study of Historic Pueblo Textiles". Her papers and library were donated to the Wheelwright Museum after her death.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kent, Kate Peck 1914 births 1987 deaths American women anthropologists University of Denver faculty University of Denver alumni People from Washington, D.C. University of Arizona alumni 20th-century American anthropologists 20th-century American women 20th-century American people American women academics