Pierreville / Belmar, Quebec / New Jersey, Canada / United States, North America
Accession Date:
5 Sep 1900
Collection Date:
1900
Notes:
COLLECTED BY O.T. MASON FROM THE "PIERREVILLE, CANADA" ABENAKI INDIANS WHO LIVED WITHIN THE BOROUGH OF BELMAR, NEW JERSEY (FIVE MILES SOUTH OF ASBURY PARK). BASKET MADE BY CAROLINE MASTA, AN ABENAKI WOMAN, OF PIERREVILLE, CANADA.
LEDGER SAYS SENT TO D.C. CHILDREN'S MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D.C. 1942, HOWEVER IT IS STILL IN THE COLLECTIONS. MAYBE E206397 IS THE ONE THAT WAS SENT, AS IT WAS NOT LOCATED DURING THE INVENTORY.
See p. 374 in "Aboriginal American Basketry" by Otis Tufton Mason, in the U.S. National Museum Annual Report for 1902, Part 2. Mason talks about Caroline Masta and her basketry. He says that she used black ash (Fraxinus nigra) and sweet grass (Hierochloe odorata) to make her basketry. The black ash was "worked out by machinery in Canada" and the sweet grass was "gathered and braided by her relatives, and sent to her all ready for the last step in manufacture." He noted that Masta had a thriving basket-making business in Belmar, New Jersey. Some of her baskets are illustrated in Plate 119, and Plate 120 shows a photo of her in her workshop in Belmar (the plates are after p. 548 in the publication.)
