The Native American Basket Collections
The Michigan State University houses significant
collections of Native American basketry. The largest and most important
of the historical collections is the Frank M. Covert/R.E. Olds Native American
Basket Collection (see separate description) which has been augmented by
items acquired primarily through other donors.
Beginning in the 1970s, Michigan State University Museum began documenting
and collecting examples of contemporary Native American basketmaking as
part of surveys. The collection expanded with the addition of examples
of baskets produced by recipients of Michigan Heritage Awards, Michigan
Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Awards, participants in the Sisters of
the Great Lakes project, and participants in the 1998 and 1999 Great Lakes
Indian Basket and Boxmakers Gatherings. The collection is now expanding
with the initiation of the MSU Museum's documentation and exhibition project,
Carriers of Culture: Contemporary Native Basket Traditions. The project
focuses on contemporary Native basketry traditions that exist in Hawaii
and North America at the turn of the twentieth century.
Collectors/Fieldworkers:
Dr. Marsha MacDowell and Dr. C. Kurt Dewhurst, Mrs. Frank Covert, Numerous
donors.
Related Collections:
"Sisters of the Great Lakes/Nokomis Collection"
Frank M. Covert/R.E. Olds Native American Basket
Collection
Michigan Heritage Awards Collection
Exhibitions:
"Gatherings: Great Lakes Native Basket and Box Makers," Nokomis Learning
Center, Okemos, Michigan, February - August 1999.
"Sisters of the Great Lakes: Art of American Indian Women," Nokomis Learning
Center, Okemos, Michigan, September, 1995 - December, 1996; Hall of Ideas,
Midland Center for the Arts, Midland, Michigan, January, 1997 - March,
1997; The Field Museum, Chicago, Illinois, December 20, 1997 - July 5,
1998; Forest County Potawatomi Cultural Center & Museum, Crandon, Wisconsin,
September - December, 2000; Fort Miami Heritage Society, St. Joseph, Michigan,
May - September, 2002.
Publications:
Marsha MacDowell, ed. Gatherings:
Great Lakes Native Basket and Box Makers. East Lansing, Michigan:
Michigan State University Museum in collaboration with the Nokomis Learning
Center, 1999.
Marsha MacDowell and Jan Reed, eds.
Sisters of the Great Lakes: Art of American Indian Women.
East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan State University Museum in collaboration
with the Nokomis Learning Center, 1995.
Otis Tufton Mason, American Indian Basketry (1904); reissued, Dover
Publications, 1989.
--compiled by Lynne Swanson and Marsha MacDowell, 2003
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