Alice Henson Ernst (September 3, 1880 – February 12, 1980) was an American playwright, professor and author. She conducted anthropological work among the Native Americans in Oregon. Ernst was also well-known for her history and research of pioneer theater in the northwest. Ernst taught English and drama at the University of Washington and the University of Oregon. Biography Alice Henson was born in Washburne, Maine. She grew up as an only child in Port Angeles, Washington, where her mother ran a restaurant after her father, a shoemaker, left the family to pursue business in other parts of Washington. She earned a bachelors of arts, magna cum laude, from the University of Washington (UW) in 1912, and then went on to receive her master's degree in 1913. Further graduate work was completed at Radcliffe in 1919 and 1920, and also at Yale University. Ernst met her husband, Rudolph H. Ernst, at UW. Career From 1920-1923 she was a professor at UW. She later became an English professor at the University of Oregon (UO) from 1924-1950. She also taught drama at UO. Between 1952 and 1953, she had a research grant at UO and also did freelance writing. The grant allowed her to visit historic areas of Oregon. In 1936, she studied mask-making among the Native Americans in Klamath Falls. She published her research on Native Americans and mask-making and rituals using the masks in a paper called "Masks of the Northwest Coast." The La Grande Observer called her an authority on "northwest Indians." The Wolf Ritual of the Northwest Coast (1948) was published using research from interviews of Native Americans in the northwest and on Vancouver Island. She also displayed collections of masks she had obtained at UO. Ernst was also interested in "primitive theater" and wrote about early theater in the Pacific northwest in Trouping in the Oregon Country (1961). The Eugene Register-Guard called her "a leading authority on the history of theater in the Northwest." Ernst was a member of Beta Sigma Phi, and the Eugene chapter of the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW). She was also a charter member of the Eugene Very Little Theatre (VLT). Writings Ernst's first plays were written in at Radcliffe in George Pierce Baker's "47 Workshop." She later wrote more while she attended the Yale School of Drama. Her play, Spring Sluicing (1927), won a first prize in a national Drama