The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Extremely large baskets were useful for storing plant materials that would later be processed into food. Lids on these storage baskets protected the materials inside from moisture and insects. This basket is typical of many Hupa baskets, with repetitive geometric motifs divided into horizontal registers encircling the entire basket.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.

Panamint baskets are usually coiled and are traditionally decorated with geometric designs. Tick marks around the rim are another traditional element. By about 1920 the designs on Panamint baskets were becoming increasingly complex, incorporating figurative motifs such as humans, birds, animals, and butterflies.

Panamint baskets are usually coiled and are traditionally decorated with geometric designs. Tick marks around the rim are another traditional element. By about 1920 the designs on Panamint baskets were becoming increasingly complex, incorporating figurative motifs such as humans, birds, animals, and butterflies.

This basket is a round-walled variety of the Washo fancy basket (it is called degikup). The design on the basket is organized by a meandering band of patterns known as matcati le'lup (arrowhead opposed), referring to the triangles on the corners of the zigzag band. This band isolates large open areas that are filled with free-floating designs: eight-pointed stars, checkerboard diamonds, and notably, a standing figure with a hat and large hands.

Annie Poole McBride, a master Paiute basket maker, lived around Bishop, California. This finely coiled basket is identified as her creation by the six-pointed star often used on her baskets. Many Paiute basket makers entered their works in competition at local fairs, which not only gained fame and financial reward for the winning artists but also stimulated ever-increasing quality of workmanship and complexity of design.

The Elizabeth Cole Butler Collection.