Cherokee Boarding School: weaving

This 1940s photograph by Vivienne Roberts shows young women participating in a weaving class at the Cherokee Training School. Classes in traditional Cherokee arts and crafts were taught at the Cherokee Training School to provide vocational training to students. Regular academic classes were held in the mornings, and for young women, the afternoons were devoted to learning trades and home skills such as weaving, basketry, sewing, and needlework. The training school for the Eastern Band of Cherokee was instituted as a boarding school in the 1880s and was operated for many years by the Society of Friends (Quakers) under the auspices of the United States government