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Mary Jane Bennett talks about selling baskets at fairs and shows.
Barbara McCormick
Basketry
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.
For further information about any of the artists featured on Digital Traditions, send your questions and comments to hallagan@mailbox.sc.edu.
More in this Series
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Grades
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Basketmaker from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina. Mary Jane and husband Jessie come from a long line of basketmakers. Mary Jane would make trips to Charleston as a young girl to deliver her mother's...
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Leroy Browne talks about the necessity of basketmaking.
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Resident of St. Helena Island, SC (Beaufort County). His father, George Brown, taught basketmaking at the Penn School on St. Helena Island in the early 20th Century. The school was founded in the...
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3
Researcher Dale Rosengarten reads a passage from a Penn School program dating the first year that basketmaking was taught at the school.
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4
Leroy Browne explains where to find materials for the baskets.
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5
Leroy Browne talks about when his father gathered bulrush.
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Leroy Browne explains the process of curing bulrush.
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7
Leroy Browne talks about gathering materials for class.
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8
Leroy Browne explains that pine needles in the area are the short needle pine and are not that good for basketmaking.
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9
Leroy Browne explains how the bulrush was dried, but the palmetto was kept green.
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Leroy Browne explains the modern restrictions on gathering bulrush. He can no longer freely go in the creek and marsh to gather materials since the lands are protected.
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11
Leroy Browne explains the story of how baby Moses was found in a bulrush basket.
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Louise White talks about why her basket stand is on a particular side of the highway.
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Louise White talks about the "Bone," the tool used to make baskets.
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Louise White talks about the best time to sell baskets.
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Louise White hopes younger people will take up basketmaking.
Audio
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Henrietta Snype shares how long it takes her to make baskets.
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Henrietta Snype occasionally gives baskets as gifts.
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Henrietta Snype talks about her dependence on her basketmaking tool.
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Henrietta Snype talks about the purse basket.
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Basketmaker from Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.
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John Derrick talks about where to find the ideal white oak for splitting.
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Derrick discusses how to make rims for baskets.
