Kate Peck Kent

In the late 1930s, Kent was assistant to curator Frederic Huntington Douglas at the Denver Art Museum.^[10][11] She taught anthropology at Barnard College and the University of Denver,^[8] and was senior research associate at the Museum of International Folk Art.^[9] After she retired from the University of Denver in 1976, she was an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico.^[9] She also served as an officer of the Southwestern Association of Indian Affairs.^[12]

She wrote a short book, The Story of Navajo Weaving (1961), for the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona.^[13] Kent's later books were Prehistoric Textiles of the Southwest (1983),^[14] Pueblo Indian Textiles: A Living Traditions (1983),^[15] 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."^[11] Hopi weaver Ramona Sakiestewa was inspired by Kent's work to explore historical techniques for her Ancient Blanket Series.^[16]

She wrote an introduction to H. P. Mera's rediscovered Spanish American Blanketry (1984).^[17] 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.^[18]

In 1937,^[1] Kate Peck married educator Arthur Tufnell Sabine Kent.^[19] They had three children, Hilary, Stephen, and Jonathan.^[6] Kate Peck Kent died in 1987, aged 73 years, at her home in El Rito, New Mexico.^[20][21]

In 1988, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian held a memorial exhibit, "Living Traditions: Kate Peck Kent and the Study of Historic Pueblo Textiles".^[22] Her papers and library were donated to the Wheelwright Museum after her death.^[23]