Basket
Object NameBasket
Datebefore 1940
OriginUSA
MediumWillow, sedge root, bulrush root
Dimensions3 3/4 × 5 in. diameter (9.5 × 12.7 cm)
ClassificationsDecorative Arts, Natural Substances
Credit LineTransferred from the Applied Arts Department. In the Farm House Museum Collection, Farm House Museum, University Museums, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa.
Object number78.21.7
Status
On viewCultureNative American - Pomo
Label TextThis basket is representative of the style and culture of the North American Washoe people of the Great Basin region who made their home around Lake Tahoe in what is now California and Nevada. The culture has existed for an estimated 9,000 years in the Lake Tahoe Basin and adjacent east and west slopes and valleys of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range.
Washoe baskets were not originally regarded as fine art by white observers, and the concept of “fine art” itself was unfamiliar to the Native Americans who wove them. Crafted from willow, redbud, and cat’s claw, these baskets served essential purposes: storing food and clothing, winnowing grain, and even carrying children. The notion that an object exists primarily for aesthetic appreciation emerged during the Enlightenment, a historical period rooted in a specific cultural context. Although Washoe baskets required extraordinary skill and artistry to create, they were fundamentally functional objects, intended for everyday use rather than display.
https://www.sbnature.org/uploads/pages/AmericanIndianBasketryCatalog01072019-1555019465.pdf
Locations
- (not entered) Iowa State University, Farm House Museum
