Oral history interview with Twila M. Alber

Collection

Identifier: SR 9303

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This oral history interview with Twila M. Alber was conducted by Charles Digregorio on July 5, 1978, as part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library’s oral history program. A transcript is available.

In this interview, Alber discusses studying art late in life after raising a family. She talks about studying sculpting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, in the early 1950s, and about studying weaving at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She discusses her artistic process, talks about the difficulty of making art for a living, and closes the interview by briefly talking about teaching art.

Dates

1978 July 5

Creator

Alber, Twila M. (Twila May), 1888-1978 (Interviewee, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Joint copyright for this interview is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the estate of Twila M. Alber. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright – Non-Commercial Use Permitted, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-NC/1.0/

Biographical note

Twila May Alber, nee Twila Mayme Lautzenhiser, was born in North Manchester, Indiana, in 1888. In the 1910s, she and Noah Ray Alber were married; they later had four children. The family moved to Oregon around 1915. At age 55, Alber began studying sculpture at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts. She then studied weaving at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In the 1960s, she taught at Ohio State University. She later returned to the Portland area. She died in 1978.

Extent

0.1 Cubic Feet (1 audiocassette (57 min., 15 sec.) + transcript (25 pages))

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

Oral history interview with Twila M. Alber conducted by Charles Digregorio on July 5, 1978. Alber was a fabric artist and a sculptor in the Portland, Oregon, area.

Existence and Location of Copies

Audio and transcript available online in OHS Digital Collections.

Related Materials

Transcripts of interviews with Twila Alber are included in Mss 2362, the Lake Oswego Public Library collection of oral history transcripts on early Lake Oswego history, which is also held at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library.