President Nixon's Straw Baskets

When one looks, one can find baskets in nearly every museum one visits.

About a decade ago, a friend and I attended a gathering of archivists held at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, and yes, I found a couple of Indigenous baskets on display.

They were in an exhibition that featured gifts given to the Nixons. The labels contained the names of the donors, but otherwise, additional information was sorely lacking.

Richard M. Nixon's presidency lasted from 1969 to 1974, so he presumably received the baskets during this period. The colors used in the baskets could be from commercial dyes. Yet the first basket, made by a Navajo artist, looks like it might have a bit more age to it. Closer inspection might indicate that natural dyes were used, such as mountain mahogany for the red color, and sunflower seeds for the black color.

 Navajo Wedding Basket

The first "Straw Basket, Handwoven," is a Diné or Navajo basket, a type commonly referred to as a Navajo wedding basket. It is a coiled basket with a herringbone rim, and is most likely woven of split and peeled sumac.

Hualapai Basket

The second "Straw Basket" fares better with its label, as it is described as having been made by a weaver in the Hualapai Tribe of Peach Springs, Arizona. This basket is diagonally twined of split sumac with an orange and black pattern, and it has  a wrapped rim. 

The Library is worth a visit, it encompasses Nixon's birthplace and childhood home, Army One Presidential Helicopter, and lovely gardens. I suspect these baskets are not currently on display. The Library's exhibition "America 250: A More Perfect Union" is open through January 31, 2027.

A Peace Rose in the Rose Garden.

South American Figural Baskets

With Venezuela in the news lately, I thought I'd investigate two basketry items in my home that were said to have come from there. My husband's aunt spent two years teaching in Venezuela in 1962-1963, and I inherited two whimsical basketry figurines from her. 

From what I have found on the internet, they are most probably from Ecuador, not Venezuela. I do know that she was able to travel to neighboring countries during her summer breaks, and she brought home various small keepsakes, including molas from the Kuna people of Panama and Guatemalan textiles. 

In the late 1980s, I purchased some similarly made basketry figures that are Christmas ornaments. Maybe next December I'll pull those out and compare them to these two, a elegant woman and her burden basket-laden donkey.

The woman basketry figurine stands 14.5 cm or 5.75" tall. She is plain twined with braided details and free-flowing hair. Commercial dyes were used for the vibrant pink skirt and attached hat, the purple design in her skirt, and her knotted green shawl. Her body and hat are most likely made from "toquilla straw" or "paja toquilla."

"Carludovica palmata (also known as Panama hat plant, toquilla palm,

calá, palmilla, palmero, pojom, jiraca, junco, soyacal, tepejilote and jipijapa) is a species of flowering plant in the family Cyclanthaceae. It is not a true palm, but its leaves are very similar compared to the leaves of some true palms, for example, to Chelyocarpus ulei. Unlike several true palms, C. palmata does not develop a woody trunk." [Quote and photograph, Wikipedia, 1/23/2026].

The straw is most prominently used in the manufacture of Panama hats.  "Panama" is a misnomer here, as the famous and familiar straw hats are actually products of Ecuador.  

An informative video about toquilla straw and how these hats are woven can be found on this UNESCO heritage website: https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-weaving-of-the-ecuadorian-toquilla-straw-hat-00729

As for the burden baskets on the donkey, they are not straw. These baskets are also plain twined, but they're made of a material (not grass nor palm fiber) that has been split. The warp is folded over to form the rim.

The donkey's body is solid, perhaps plastic, covered with a fuzzy substance. It has a felt saddle sewn on, cotton cordage tied on, painted details, and plastic hooves.

The basket woman and her donkey make a charming vignette.

A Couple of Caravaggio Fruit Baskets and Carlos

In my last blog "The Madonna of the Basket" posted on 12/25/25, I mentioned that I wasn't able to find much about Italian Renaissance basketry in my quick perusal of the internet. But what I did find were two more Italian Renaissance paintings that feature baskets in both images and titles. Both of these oil on canvas works were produced by artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Caravaggio, Boy With a Basket of Fruit
Galleria Borghese, Rome (photo: Wikipedia)

“Boy With a Basket of Fruit” (c1593) is part of the collection at Rome's Galleria Borghese in Rome.    

(photo: Wikipedia)

"The basket looks extraordinarily real and vivid," a L.A. Times review explains. 

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-ca-cm-caravaggio-getty-20171220-htmlstory.html

Below: detail of the basket held by the boy.

Caravaggio, The Basket of Fruit
Ministero dei Beni e delle Attivita
 Culturali e del Turismo — Galleria Borghese

Caravaggio created "The Basket of Fruit” a few years later, and reportedly it has been in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan since then (c1597-1600).  This same website gives a glowing description of the painting, but the description of the basket itself is very short – “realistically painted wicker braiding.”

https://www.visit-milan-italy.com/museums/ambrosiana/caravaggio-basket-of-fruit-ambrosiana-milan-italy.html

 Detail, rim of the basket of fruit.

About these basketry descriptions. Real and vivid, yes. Realistically painted? Sure, but it makes me wonder what the comparison was - where are the actual Italian Renaissance baskets hiding, do any exist in museum collections?  

These "braided" baskets look like wicker to me. The website of Museo dell'Intreccio Mediterraneo - Castello dei Doria (Museum of Mediterranean Weaving - Doria Castle) in Sardinia, Italy, describes plaiting with two, three, and multiple weavers. But no illustrations of these techniques are provided. Caravaggio's boy's basket looks like three weavers, or wefts, were used. The fruit basket looks like four wefts, which were split into pairs to complete the rim. 

https://www.mimcastelsardo.it/en/index.html

As to what they are made out of, I found a couple of websites that discuss modern Italian baskets. Museo dell'Intreccio Mediterraneo provides materials including cane, dried wheat culm, dwarf palm, myrtle, oak, olive, willow, sea and lake hay. Elm, hazel, oak and reeds are listed on other websites.  As with basketry world-over, local baskets are made with locally available materials. My guess here would be that Caravaggio painted willow baskets, based on comparisons to similar willow baskets made in the Pueblos of the American Southwest and northern California.

How are these types of baskets actually woven? Sometimes, actions speak louder than words. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico, created a very informative video of artist Carlos Herrera, a Cochiti Pueblo weaver, creating a plaited willow basket. Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__mzqSMitRU

Willow Basket by Carlos Herrera,
Cochiti Pueblo, 2021
lower side view

Although I don't have an Italian Renaissance basket photo to share, I do have a photo of a basket made by Carlos Herrera that I purchased from him at the Santa Fe Indian Market in 2021. It is made of willow.  Willow baskets such as these are made by various Pueblo tribes, and by tribes in Northern California. Yet again, a topic for a future blogpost.

Willow Basket by Carlos Herrera,
Cochiti Pueblo, 2021
top view

The Madonna of the Basket

Renaissance painter Antonio Allegri da Correggio is also known as Correggio, which is the name of the Italian town where the artist was born in 1489. Pertinent to this Christmas Day blogpost is his painting The Madonna of the Basket.

The Madonna of the Basket by Antonio Allegri da Correggio
circa 1524, oil on wood
National Gallery of London, inventory number NG23

The painting's entry on the website of the National Gallery of London calls the basket a "work basket with its iron shears and ball of grey wool," seemingly equating Mary to an ordinary person with ordinary tasks. As is her husband Joseph, seen toiling as a carpenter in the background.  https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/correggio-the-madonna-of-the-basket

About the basket itself, I found little other descriptive information on my quick survey of websites. 

Helpfully, Artera tells us "The 'basket' refers to the container on the lower left of the painting."  https://www.artera.ae/artworks/abd8f87a-31b2-4086-90b3-2a58c8777257

The basket certainly is tucked into the corner! It's interesting that this minor player earned the title role.

The Web Gallery of Art is a bit more descriptive, letting us know that "Sitting outdoors under a tree, the Virgin, workbasket at her side, is trying a jacket she has just made on the Christ Child."  https://www.wga.hu/html_m/c/correggi/madonna/basket.html

Nowhere did I find a description of the weave nor potential  materials that may have been used in the basket. It looks like it's braided.

 Without seeing the painting in person, and relying on online photos, I think it's more likely a wicker basket. More on this in my next blogpost...soon.

The painting is in the public domain   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_of_the_Basket_(Correggio)

Now: Notable Nevada Niceties, Number 2

Louisa Keyser, 1902,
Our Ancestral Hunters,
LK29

 Located a few miles south of Reno in Carson City, the Nevada State Museum has an exhibit that is not to be missed, Under One Sky: Basketry Gallery: Waší:šiw Guwa – the Work of the Washoe People.” 

According to the museum’s website, “This rare exhibition brings together the iconic work of famed weaver Louisa Keyser (known as Datsolalee) and other talented Washoe artists—on display at Nevada State Museum, Carson City for the first time in nearly two decades.” 

https://www.carsonnvmuseum.org/exhibits/under-one-sky/

“Louisa Keyser: A Woven Legacy “ celebrates a talented woman and her amazing basketry. Label text notes that she preferred the name Louisa Keyser, adopted when she married Charlie Keyser in 1888. She was dubbed Datsolaee  in 1899 and is probably familiar to more people by this name. She was interred in 1925 at the Stewart Indian Cemetery in Carson City, with Dat-So-La-Lee inscribed on her marker. The cemetery is located near the Stewart Indian School Cultural Center and Museum, another very good museum to visit, which occasionally has baskets for sale in its small shop.                      https://stewartindianschool.com/     But I digress.

Lizzie Toby Peters c1902    

Lizzie Toby Peters c1902

Scees Bryant Possock c1900

Basket Water Bottle,
willow coated with pine resin

At the Nevada State Museum, “Rooted in Washoe Tradition” was conceived and curated with input from Washoe tribal members. From photos of contemporary people to text written in the Washoe language, the hands, hearts, and voices of the people were encouraged and are evident.  It’s fun to see a huge gathering basket twined of willow, a small egg-collecting bag woven of tule, a 10,000 year old sandal.  The Nevada State Museum has a large collection of prehistoric basketry, some of the oldest in North America.

Repaired ancient twined basket

Ancient coiled willow basket

Curated by Dr. Anna Camp, Nevada State Museum’s curator of anthropology and tribal liaison, "Waší∙šiw Guwá: The Work of the Washoe People" is the featured exhibit in the permanent gallery.

A lovely and informative book accompanies the exhibition.  The Art of Native American Washoe Basketry, by Ann M. Wolfe, JoAnn Nevers, Catherine S. Fowler, Darla Garey-Sage and Marvin Cohodas (2025) is available in the Nevada State Museum Store. 

I encourage you to visit this grand institution to enjoy beautiful basketry that spans thousands of years in northwestern Nevada.  Now is a good time to go.

Now: Notable Nevada Niceties, Number 1

Now is a fine time to view baskets in Nevada. Two of these exhibitions will close on November 16, 2025. The other is a permanent display. 

The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno is showing “Of the Earth: Native American Baskets and Pueblo Pottery” that features baskets recently donated by Larry Dalrymple and Steve Moreno. The text included with many of these remarkable baskets, several hundred amassed over decades, includes the names of the artists who created them, as well as photos of some of the artists, which were taken by Mr. Dalrymple. From the late 19th through the late 20th century, the names of basketweavers were often not recorded, so this information is a pleasure to have. The text is accessible through several touch screens in the gallery. An extraordinary collection and a magnificent gift, Mr. Dalrymple and Mr. Moreno are to be commended for their generosity. Larry Dalrymple is the author of numerous articles and three books: Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin, Indian Basketmakers of the Southwest, and Their Heritage, Their Tradition: The Resilience of Native American Basket Artists. I recommend all of these publications as important contributions to the corpus of basketry literature.

Some Southwestern Stunners

According to the Nevada Museum of Art’s website, 

“To commemorate this special occasion, the exhibition also features 15 newly commissioned Native American baskets from weavers in the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, including Leah Brady (Western Shoshone), Loretta Burden (Northern Paiute), Sue Coleman (Washoe), Norma Darrough (Western Shoshone), Gracie Dick (Northern Paiute), Julia Parker (Coast Miwok | Kashaya Pomo), Lucy Parker (Kashaya Pomo | Yosemite Miwok | Mono Lake Paiute | Coast Miwok), Melanie Smokey (Western Shoshone | Washoe), Sandra Eagle (Northern Paiute), Rebecca Eagle (Northern Paiute), Nila Northsun (Shoshone | Chippewa), and Jacqueline Rickard (Walker Lake Paiute).”  Highlighting these artists proves that the art of basketry remains alive and well in our contemporary world.

https://www.nevadaart.org/art/exhibitions/of-the-earth-native-american-baskets-and-pueblo-pottery/

There’s more to see down the hall from this exhibit. Pass a lovely mural and watch a video on your way. Some of the vibrant paintings showcased in the exhibition “The Art of Judith Lowry” include basket images. Within “The Lowry & Croul Collection of Contemporary Native American Art,” Ms. Lowry’s personal art collection which she donated, is another contingent of baskets.  It’s a treat to see baskets made by Maidu artist Shiwaya Peck and others.

Tap tablet for text

Central California Charmers

Co-curators Melissa Melero-Moose (Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe) and Ann M. Wolfe, the Museum’s Andrea and John C. Deane Family Chief Curator and Associate Director, are to be commended for these three excellent exhibitions.

 Be sure to step outside to the rooftop deck, a celebration of basketry plants in three separate gardens.  Plants include devil’s claw (which I had never seen growing before), willow and redbud. Plus other delights, such as bracken fern and dogwood. Hats off to the landscape architects and staff who envisioned and created this oasis. Majestic views of the Sierras and the city below make a nice respite, and a museum staff member mentioned future plans to incorporate contemporary sculptures into this space.

Rooftop garden with devil's claw at the front right.

If you’re thinking of visiting, do so soon. “The Art of Judith Lowry” and “The Lowry & Croul Collection of Contemporary Native American Art” will both close on November 16, 2025.

“Of the Earth: Native American Baskets and Pueblo Pottery” is a permanent display.

                                                                 

Weaving with Goodness - Ulana Me Ka Lokomaika’i

Reporting from Oahu, Hawaii, Patricia Leigh Brown wrote a wonderful article on the resurgence of Hawaiian basketry: In Hawaii, Weaving New Life Into a Nearly Vanished Art Form. The article was published by the New York Times on July 31, 2024.  The subheading reads "The age-old practice of turning tree leaves into mats has been revived on the islands. 'It teaches you how to weave relationships, past and present,' one master artisan says."  

Unfortunately I can't repost the article, but I can supply the  link and encourage you to read it: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/31/arts/design/hawaii-weaving-trees-leaves.html

Woman Weaving Lauhala Weaver. Hawaii: Organization of American States. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021669824/>.

Brown reports that the basketry is woven out of the leaves of the pū hala plant (Pandanus tectorius), which is plaited into lauhala mats, containers and other items including hats. Brown's article focuses on the importance of weaving and the Pu‘uhonua Society, "a group dedicated to reviving age-old Hawaiian practices, like weaving..., that were on the verge of vanishing."

For tourists to the Hawaiian Island of Oahu, one place to perhaps see baskets woven, and maybe even weave something yourself, is the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The Center is divided into areas celebrating various Polynesian Islands. In the Hawaiian Village, sometimes the art of lauhala weaving is featured. My family and I visited in 2016, and watched a basket being woven from coconut palm fronds in the Center's Samoan Village. The artist gave the fresh green basket to someone in the crowd.

Later in the day, we met up with the recipient of the basket, and I admired it.  She said she didn't know how she would get it on the plane, would I like to have it?  You bet! I traded our shell leis for it, and I had no problems making that my carry-on on my flight home. 

Above are two photos of the same basket, one on the day it was made (12/31/15) and today (8/5/2024).  In the book Baskets in Polynesia by Wendy Arbeit (1990, page 6), this type of basket is identified as a single-strip, 2-braid coconut frond basket, and it is noted that "nearly identical baskets are made throughout most of Polynesia."

Two basketry fish can be seen dangling over the edge of today's photo of the basket, which has dried and mellowed to a soft greyish color.  My husband and I each made one fish in a hands-on weaving class at the Center. We enjoyed this immensely.