Augusta Holmes Clawson (June 23, 1903[1] - May 13, 1997) was an American civil servant, and writer of Shipyard Diary of a Woman Welder, a diary about welding in World War II.
Clawson was a graduate of Vassar. In 1943, she was assigned by the United States Office of Education to work undercover as a welder at the Swan Island Shipyard in order to discover the difficulties faced by women workers and the reasons many women welders were leaving the job shortly after completing training.[2] Her book based on her experiences there, Shipyard Diary of a Woman Welder, was published in 1944 by Penguin Books. She retired from government service in 1973.[3]
Clawson gave a collection of items from her time as a welder, including her welding helmet, to the Smithsonian Institution.[4]