Elizabeth Hickox

Elizabeth Hickox

Elizabeth Conrad Hickox (1872- July 19, 1947) was a Wiyot master basket weaver. Her baskets differ from other Lower Klamath baskets through her own unique use of shape, technique, color scheme and design.[1][2] Her work is in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian,[3] the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art,[4] Harvard's Peabody Museum,[5] the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the Field Museum of Natural History, the Southwest Museum of Los Angeles,[6] the Denver Art Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.[7]

Biography

Hickox's mother was Wiyot and her father, European-American.[8] It was reported that Hickox's mother, Polly, had been abducted by her later husband, Charles Conrad.[9] When Elizabeth was in her teens, she married Frank Merrill, a part-Karuk man, and they had two children together, Jessie and Bruce.[10] She later married Luther Hickox in 1895.[10] Luther Hickox owned a gold mine, was a part owner of a sawmill and later became a justice of the peace.[8] The couple enjoyed a high social status among the Karuk people, as well as financial security.[10]

Hickox died on July 19, 1947.[11]

Work

Hickox used various materials to weave her baskets including grape root twining, white bear grass (Xerophyllum tenax), dyed wooodwardia fern, black maidenhair fern and dyed porcupine quills.[12] She tended to use the fern Adiantum aleuticum, a dark material in contrast to the quills of the porcupine dyed yellow with Letharia vulpina.[3] The choice to mostly use dark materials contrasted with the yellow was her own choice, and not subject to marketplace demands.[13] She made about five baskets a year between 1911 and 1934.[3]

Hickox and her daughter, Louise, sold their baskets to Grace Nicholson, who continued to buy their work even during the Great Depression.[14] Though Hickox was Wiyot, Nicholson marketed her baskets as "Karuk" because they lived in the Karuk area.[8] Before Hickox met Nicholson, she had already chosen to create fine-art baskets.[15] After Nicholson stopped purchasing baskets in 1934, Hickox continued to weave "for pleasure, utility and gift-giving."[16]

References

Citations

  1. Cohodas 1999, p. 143.
  2. Delia Sullivan, Heritage Capital Corporation, 2009, Heritage Auctions American Indian Art Auction Catalog #6029, Dallas, TX, Retrieved August 25, 2016, see page 42
  3. 1 2 3 Rentz, Erin. "Elizabeth Hickox (Wiyot/Karuk, 1875–1947), lidded baskets". Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  4. "LRMA Collection and Programs". Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  5. "Two Women: The Native Basket Weaver and the 'Curio' Dealer". Inside the Peabody Museum: March 2012. Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology at Harvard University. 2012. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  6. Cohodas 1999, p. 152.
  7. Cohodas 1999, p. 153.
  8. 1 2 3 Cohodas 1999, p. 150.
  9. Cohodas 1997, p. 83.
  10. 1 2 3 Cohodas 1997, p. 89.
  11. Cohodas 1997, p. 111.
  12. Cohodas, Marvin (2009). Heritage Auctions American Indian Art Auction Catalog #6029, Dallas, TX. Heritage Auction Galleries. p. 42.
  13. Cohodas 1999, p. 157.
  14. Marks, Ben (1 July 2014). "How Railroad Tourism Created the Craze for Traditional Native American Baskets". Collectors Weekly. Retrieved 23 August 2016.
  15. Cohodas 1999, p. 158.
  16. Cohodas 1997, p. 110.

Sources

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/26/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.