Baskets Find A New Home in Anchorage

On April 19, 2022, the New York Times ran an article about the closing of the Wells Fargo Museum in Anchorage, AK.  Over 1,700 items from that museum have transferred to the Alaskan Native Heritage Center, "a museum that focuses on Indigenous culture and is operated by Alaska Natives," and is also in Anchorage, according to Zachary Small's article. Some items were transferred to the Anchorage Museum as well. (https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/19/arts/design/alaska-heritage-center-gift.html).

I was fortunate to be able to visit the Wells Fargo Museum in 2019, and here are a few my photos of the exhibits there.

Unangan Aleut twined baskets, late 19th - early 20th centuries.

Cukiq, grass socks worn with mukluks.

More Unangan Aleut fancy baskets and a painted wooden hat.

A wooly mammoth's tusk is highlighted in the now-defunct Wells Fargo Museum's gallery.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center is a vibrant place where artists from throughout Alaska demonstrate their arts, from basketry to dance. It is well worth a trip if you are ever in Alaska. It will be interesting to see what new exhibits might feature items from the Wells Fargo Museum. (BBP photo 2012)

Seen at the Anchorage Museum, 2019:

Left, sewn and beaded detail on a fur dance parka.  

Below: a basketry dance fan in the hand of a dancer.

The Alaska Native Heritage Center and the Anchorage Museum both have shops where authentic arts such as baskets can be purchased.

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Viking Baskets

 A trailer for the new movie The Northman depicts, of all things, a scene with Anya Taylor-Joy in what appears to be a basketry workshop. She is next to an unfinished basket, people behind her are weaving, and a basket which might be a fish trap is seen on the left.  They are open twined, and could be made of unpeeled willow or a number of other plant materials.

The Viking Age lasted from about 789 to 1066. The Vikings were wide-ranging people, but their home was the area now known as Scandinavia: Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.   Here's a short tour of some baskets from this area.

The National Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen has several archaeological baskets on display. When I visited in 2016, I took this rather poor photo of a crushed fish trap basket. It is open twined, and has some reinforcing rods on the exterior. The label text describes it as a "Trap of bound twigs for catching small fish and eels." It is from Lille Knabstrup in western Zealand, and dates to 4500 B.C.  This definitely predates the Viking Age, but is a good example of an early Danish basket.

The Hanseatic Museum in Bergen, Norway, contains items from the period of the Hanseatic League, from the 13th to 15th centuries. Definitely post-Viking. The Norwegian baskets in the photograph below, taken of an exhibit there in 2016, may not be that old.

 

The Ringkøbing-Skjern Museum in Denmark's Jutland region has this work basket in its collection. It is open coiled with a foundation of a bundle of straw and is woven with an unidentified woody material. It dates from the 20th century.

The Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde, Denmark, has some more contemporary baskets on display.

 

At this museum, modern artisans create Viking craft, from baskets to longboats. The photo to the left is an exhibit which shows a model chicken in a basketry cage nestled in a longboat.

The Tycho Brahe Museet in Ven, Sweden, uses contemporary Swedish baskets in their hands-on program. These handled carrying baskets on the lawn hold gaming pieces.

This gathering of Scandinavian baskets dates from 6500 years ago to the present. From this limited selection, it seems that the basketry props seen in The Northman trailer may indeed reflect the type and manufacture of baskets used by the Vikings.