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

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