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 1860s to teach former slaves skills and trades, but difficult economic times forced the school to close in the 1940s. (It later reopened and is now a historical landmark, the Penn Center.) It was during this time that Leroy Browne, who also attended Penn School, acquired many of the baskets his father and students had made for the school.
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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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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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Leroy Browne explains where to find materials for the baskets.
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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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Leroy Browne talks about gathering materials for class.
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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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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.
