Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 30).

Undergraduate honors paper--Mount Holyoke College, 2005. Dept. of Anthropology. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-127).

A note from Pfau Library: We stumbled across this long-buried piece of underwater basket-weaving research during our digitization project and are now proud to present it to the world and the audience it deserves. The Journal of Irreproducible Results is doubtless disappointed they didn't get hold of it first. The origins of this monument of scholarship are unclear. It may been produced by an education professor as a model thesis structure for his grad students to follow, or it may be the work of a librarian with too much time on their hands one long hot summer in the late 1980's. So the identity of author Ima Pfoul must remain a mystery for now.

The problem of investigating the adaptability of plant fibers for basketry was two-fold. The first part was the selection and preparation of the plants. Suitable collection time, drying methods, and processing and soaking procedures were determined through a series of experiments, performed during each season of the year. In the second part experimental samples were woven by using the basic basketry techniques to illustrate the usability and versatility of each plant fiber. The survey of forty plants proved that there are readily available plants suitable for basketry. The simplicity of the process, the ready availability of plants, the nominal cost of supplies, and the variety of visual elements obtainable were advantages realized from this investigation.

In the Adams Collection at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, there are 29 baskets that were probably made between 1880 and 1940. They are mostly of raffia, are somewhat faded from their original, bright, commercial colors, and are generally quite small. Despite the fact that these baskets are well-documented and were made by Tillamook women, they are the sort that have been overlooked by anthropologists and by collectors because of their non-"traditional" appearance. In order to determine what relationship these baskets have to Tillamook basketry made earlier, I analyzed them and 39 Tillamook baskets from four other museum collections for features of structural and.decorative techniques, shape, size, and stitch qualities, and noted the.materials used.