Like John H. Vanderpoel, Else Regensteiner's experiences as a working artist and a teacher inspired her to write art manuals. Regensteiner, who had studied design under Josef Albers, taught weaving at the School of the Art Institute from 1945 until 1971. Simultaneously, she designed textiles with her partner, Julia McVicker, at the reg/wick studio, which provided award-winning fabrics to prominent designers and architects.

As an instructor and as an artist, Regensteiner was interested in textile traditions around the world. She encouraged her students to explore examples of traditional Peruvian weaving at the Field Museum, and assigned them reading in books held by the Ryerson & Burnham Libraries, such as Textiles of Ancient Peru. Her courses were popular, and they fit the School of the Art Institute's post-war mission to “teach understanding rather than manner, to guide students in the development of their own ideas, and to assist them in mastering whatever technical problems may confront them” (Mayer, Christa C. “Rooted in Chicago: Fifty Years of Textile Design Traditions.” American Craft. Vol. 57.3 (June/July 1997) page 55).

Regensteiner's manuals were written in this same spirit. The Art of Weaving, published in 1970, contains technical information on looms, materials, patterns, and techniques, but also encourages students to be inspired by materials and designs used in non-Western cultural traditions. Regensteiner intended the manual to allow “invention [to] start together with learning,” and to provide “a guide … to open doors to as many faces of weaving as knowledge, imagination, and inspiration can conceive” (page 7). Weaver's Study Course: Ideas and Techniques (1975) follows the same model; described by a reviewer as “a sourcebook of ideas and inspiration,” it also contains detailed technical information. Both books discuss weaving techniques from South America and Asia in addition to North American and European traditional styles. Regensteiner kept scrapbooks of weaving samples that she used in her courses, and these also influenced and appear in her printed texts.

 
1. [Portrait of Else Regensteiner]. Else Regensteiner Collection, Series 1, Box 1, Folder 1. Ryerson & Burnham Archives.
2. Regensteiner, Else. Art of Weaving. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., 1970.
3. Harcourt, Raoul d'. Textiles of Ancient Peru and Their Techniques. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1962.
4. “Projects for Weaving – Senior Students.” Else Regensteiner Collection, Series 3, Box 4, Folder 9. Ryerson & Burnham Archives.
5. “Color Patterns.” Else Regensteiner Collection, Series 10, Box 28, Folder 1. Ryerson & Burnham Archives.
6. Regensteiner, Else. Weaver's Study Course: Ideas and Techniques. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Co, 1975.