Donald Page (1917- ) was born and brought up in Denver, Colorado. He entered Black Mountain College, Black Mountain, N.C. in September, 1936, where he studied art under Josef Albers and weaving and textile design under Anni Albers. During the summer months Page found employment in order to help pay his college expenses. During one summer, upon the recommendation of Mrs. Albers, he worked with the WPA, teaching weaving to local women in Charlotte and Wilmington, N.C. During the course of another summer he worked as a designer for the Callaway Mills in Georgia. After his graduation in May, 1941, Page returned for postgraduate studies at Black Mountain College in the fall of 1941, and the spring of 1942 before entering the U.S. Air Corps. After World War II he studied in the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.

Black Mountain College was an experimental school located in Black Mountain, N.C. Established in 1933 by John A. Rice and others, the purpose of the college was to educate the whole person, with an emphasis on the role of the arts and creative thinking. Despite the fact that Black Mountain College could rarely offer faculty more than room and board, a number of important teachers and artists were drawn to the school as part of the regular faculty or to participate in the school's Summer Institutes. Josef and Anni Albers, John Cage, Robert Creeley, Merce Cunningham, Max Dehn, Joseph Fiore, Buckminister Fuller, Edward Lowinsky, Robert Motherwell, Charles Olson, M.C. Richards, and Xanti Schawinsky were only a few of those who taught at Black Mountain College. In addition, the success of several of the college's students helped to further the college's reputation in the area of the arts and the avant garde.

The character and focus of Black Mountain College shifted over time, according to the make-up of the faculty and students. Personal and ideological conflicts were common and sometimes lead to major changes in the college community. Lack of funds added to the stress of the situation, as did the school's physical isolation and its sometimes strained relations with the local population. Eventually, the student enrollment and available funds dwindled until the college was forced to close in 1956.