May Pohut (Foothill Yokuts, 20th century) Polychrome Basket Deaccessioned from the Hopewell Museum, Hopewell, New Jersey
"bundle coiled of grasses with two horizontal design bands of black diamonds separated by two diagonal zigzag bands. Basket with eight lanes of twisted fiber stitched from bottom center and up flaring walls for two and a half inches, height 9.25 in. x diameter 17.25 in.
Basket with original label reading:
Made by May Pohut, Reservation just back of Wood Lake--3 families left Yokut Tribe of Indians #68 DMXZ. Photo of Mary Pohut, (possibly May) a Foothill Yokuts Indian in Heizer, H., ed., 1978,
Handbook of North American Indians, California, v. 8, p. 477. Today this group lives on the Tule River Reservation in California.
second quarter 20th century
Dr. David Blackwell Hill (1887-1979)
Dr. Hill purchased American Indian art long before it was fashionable, in fact long before there were books written to educate the public about the beautiful objects America’s first peoples made. We can only speculate about how Dr. Hill knew to purchase some of the best of the best. Perhaps, as a Manhattanite, he saw the successful 1931 Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts at the Grand Central Art Gallery in New York City. This was the first exhibit designed specifically to show Indian cultural material (pottery, weavings, beadwork, etc.) as “Art.” Amelia Elizabeth White was one of the organizers of this watershed exposition and, at that time, already owned an Indian shop, Ishauu, later named the Gallery of American Indian Art, on Madison Avenue. One wonders if some of the items might have come from her store.
Hill was born in Hopewell, Mercer Co., NJ. After graduating from medical school in 1910, he married Janet A. Hurd and worked as a physician in New York City until 1952. The Hills resided on the Upper West Side, later moving to the Upper East Side. Upon Hill’s retirement the couple moved to Altadena, CA, where Hill died on May 9, 1979. Hill gave his American Indian art collection to the Hopewell Museum in 1966. "
Provenance: Deaccessioned from the Hopewell Museum, Hopewell, NJ; Collected and Donated by Dr. David B. Hill (1887-1979)
Condition
Basket demonstrates use, hence interior for lower third has worn stitches; exterior with only minimal wear. Coiled rim missing stitches for roughly 4 inches total.
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