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This white oak split basket with oak handle was made in a traditional way—the first step of the process was to chop down a tree. White oak is one of the strongest and most durable basket materials available, lasting roughly 70 to 100 years with proper care.

The long Hart County (Kentucky) tradition of white oak basket making originated around the community of Cub Run, where numerous families, including the Childresses, have been associated with the craft. Families often worked together to create baskets, with parents and sometimes grandparents splitting out the timber and constructing the handle, hoops, and ribs framework that children would fill out with thin split-oak weavers.

By the mid-1800s, many families were producing baskets to supplement their incomes and for barter at the local general store. By the 1880s these baskets were being sold to itinerant peddlers who traveled to Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and Tennessee. In the early 20th century, as tourism in the area increased, many basket makers set up stands along the Dixie Highway, catering to tourists traveling to visit Mammoth Cave. Today, basket making continues in the region as a fine craft tradition. The Mammoth Cave Basket Makers Guild was founded in 2001 to preserve and promote traditional basket making of the Southcentral Kentucky region.

About the Artists

Ollie and Lestel Childress are third- and fifth-generation white oak basket makers from Park City, Kentucky. Lestel, recipient of the 2003 Governor’s Awards in the Arts Folk Heritage Award, is considered a “master artist,” and his work was included in the “Living Traditions” exhibit sponsored by the Southern Arts Federation. In 1998, Lestel and Ollie received the Sarah Gertrude Knott Award at the Kentucky Folklife Festival—the highest honor given to Kentucky artists whose work reflect the state’s living cultural traditions.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: What practical reason would lead people to make baskets? How might basket making change as plastic and metal containers supplant baskets to fulfill practical needs? Look at a variety of baskets. What elements of art and principles of design do basket makers make choices about in creating a basket?

Visit the Mammoth Cave Basket Makers web site and view a variety of baskets. What distinctive qualities do you notice? How are these baskets similar and different from other baskets you have seen?

Activity: Baskets come in different shapes and sizes for different tasks. As its name suggests, this basket is made for collecting eggs. There are also baskets especially for bread, picnicking, and other uses. Look at a variety of basket types and then design your own basket. What would it be used for? How big would it be? What color? What would it be made out of? Draw out your idea for your basket and present it and how it is to be used to the class.

Links

Read about the history of Hart County basket making and see numerous images of past and present basket makers and their works at the Mammoth Cave Basket Makers web site.
[www.mammothcavebasketmakers.com]

See a photo of Lestel Childress on the web page about the national Living Traditions touring exhibit.
[www.basketmakerscatalog.com/LivingTraditions/]

Virginia Tech’s Non-Timber Forest Products web site includes a fact sheet about oakwood basketry (PDF file).
[www.sfp.forprod.vt.edu/factsheets/baskets.pdf]