 Out of concern for her family life, Tanner never completed a Ph.D., despite having accumulated additional graduate credits, and that lack may have slowed her promotion to full professor; Emil Haury, the department chair through the mid 1960s, regarded her as influential in the department, for having achieved "recognition through her writing".She was the author of some eight books and more than 100 articles published in scholarly journals, magazines, and newspapers.Reviewing her book "Southwest Indian Craft Arts" in 1969, archaeologist Neil Judd noted her expertise in the handicrafts of approximately two dozen ethnic groups of the region, and found that the book, with its meticulously accurate illustrations, successfully conveyed the changes in crafts over two generations.