Western Native Basketry
 So Prized, So Rare March 13, 2008 - March 29, 2009 Over one hundred years ago, a group of Portland women invited those with “fine specimens of Indian work…from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska to Arizona” to kindly loan baskets for a benefit exhibition at the Portland Library. The exhibit displayed over 150 American Indian baskets from 73 lenders. About the Collection All baskets in So Prized, So Rare are from the collection of the Oregon Historical Society. Although we can not know if these baskets were part of the 1896 Portland Library display, many were given to the Society by members of families who were lenders to the original exhibit. A Universal Language From their first contact with Native people of the American West, explorers, missionaries, soldiers and settlers admired fine regional basketry. A Klickitat basket lent to the 1896 exhibit by the wife of U.S. Senator Levi Ankeny from Walla Walla was purchased in Oregon City by her mother in 1845. Another basket displayed was acquired by Capt. John H. Couch when he first visited Portland in his ship, Chamanic, in 1847. Although the native people themselves were not clearly understood, their arts were part of a universal language. |