Basketmaking in South Carolina reflects the blending of Native American, European and African traditions to create two predominate types of baskets - the coiled baskets of the Lowcountry and woven baskets of the Piedmont and Blue Ridge. Native Americans used river cane to plait baskets, mats and fish traps. Europeans maintained Old World techniques and forms, adapting them to new materials like white oak to weave their harvest baskets and clothes hampers. On the coast, enslaved Africans brought their knowledge of rice production and introduced coiled basketry using local sweetgrass, bulrush, palmetto, and pine needles. Today, traditional basketmakers have adapted their forms to a changing market and most baskets are made for decorative use.
Content is provided by McKissick Museum, University of South Carolina.
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Interviewed by Dale Rosengarten Florence Mazyck discusses the amount of time it takes for bulrush to dry.
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Interviewed by Dale Rosengarten Florence Mazyck talks about why she prefers weaving with bulrush.
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Elbert Brown of Pendleton crafted split-oak baskets for over eighty years. He carried on a tradition that has been in his South Carolina upcountry family since the mid-nineteenth century. Brown...
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Billy Hammond and his wife Mary offer some biographical information.
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Hammond recalls how he began making smaller baskets after retiring
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Hammond recalls how he began making smaller baskets after retiring.
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Grover "Billy" Hammond, a native of Clarks Hill in McCormick County, exemplified the important craft of split-oak basketmaking in South Carolina. The thin strips – or splits – that can be riven from...
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Native of Donalds, SC (Abbeville County), Mr. Hagan made split-oak baskets, axe handles, and turkey calls while Mrs. Hagan is an accomplished quilter. Mr. Hagan learned to make split-oak baskets as a...
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Basketmaker from Mt. Pleasant, SC (Charleston County). After quitting her job to sew full time, Middleton was soon making baskets that were especially adventuresome. She turns out huge, heavily...
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Basketmaker from Seneca, SC (Oconee County). Washington learned basketmaking from his father, who sold his baskets for around fifty cents each. Though he learned when he was eleven years old...
