Sweet-Grass (Wa-U-Li-Mer-Kway)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Sep 1899
label: Collection Date
content: 1899
name: label: Collector
content: Otis T. Mason
label: Donor Name
content: National Museum of Natural History
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "THIS GRASS IS NOW GATHERED IN LARGE QUANTITIES AND SOLD COMMERCIALLY TO INDIAN BASKET MAKERS. CAROLINE MASTA WORKED UP 600 POUNDS IN ONE SEASON."
label: Notes
content: 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 MATERIAL USED BY BY CAROLINE MASTA, AN ABENAKI WOMAN, OF PIERREVILLE, CANADA, TO MAKE BASKETS.
label: Notes
content: 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.)
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Feb 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Pierreville / Belmar, Quebec / New Jersey, Canada / United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Abenaki
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 035583
label: USNM Number
content: E203654-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Botanical