Native American basket, Buckland, Mass., circa 1866
Native American basket, Buckland, Mass., circa 1866
Item Information
Title:
Native American basket, Buckland, Mass., circa 1866
Description:
Hand-crafted, round, handled basket with lid believed to have been made in 1866 in one day by a Native American family in Buckland, Mass. The basket is approximately 14-1/2 inches in diameter. The bottom is about 7-3/4 inches deep and the domed lid is about 5 inches high from the rim to the top. The overall height from the bottom of the basket to the top of the handle is 17 inches. A card accompanying the basket provides an interesting story of its origin:In 1866, a Buckland Indian family made this basket in one day. Mrs. Augustine Phillips, in need of a copious basket for the approaching Church picnic, sent her nine-year-old son Stanley to an Indian family for the basket. Stanley left home at nine in the morning and it was nine in the evening before he returned. During the course of the day, he had seen the selection of the material in the woods, the careful preparation of the stock, the skillful weaving, and the artistic decoration. Truly, here was one of the earliest demonstrations of service-while-you-wait and, incidentally, a wonderful education for a nine-year-old boy. It should be noted that the Indian family lived on the road-now abandoned-which led from the Clock Hollow road uphill to a point near the then active town farm which was managed by Mr. and Mrs. Augustine Phillips.Mrs. Augustine Phillips was Maria Nutting, born 30 June 1822. She married Augustine W. Phillips on 28 of November 1845. Their son, Stanley A. Phillips, was born in Buckland on 15 May 1857 and would have been nine years old in 1866.No further information has been found about this basket or how it came to be in the Buckland Historical Society's collections.
