Baskets, Basketry, Basket-making

Kentucky Historical Society Video Interviews

• KCHEA Craft Luminaries (see KCHEA Craft Luminaries) :

  • Dr. James Middleton (Hart Co.: Munfordville) 

  • Leona Waddell (Hardin Co.: Cecilia) 

Western Kentucky University Folklife Archive Interviews

• Transcribed Oral Histories

Kentucky Museum / Western Kentucky University Exhibit (Bowling Green, KY) 

• Standing the Test of Time: Kentucky's White Oak Basket Tradition (2017 Exhibit, videos) 

• Basket Weaving in South Central Kentucky (Background about Beth Hester and the Kentucky Museum's 2017 Exhibit)

BASKET CRAFTERS:

• 2 K's Baskets — Kay Ragland (Nicholasville: 859-885-7780), Karen Higdon (Lexington: 859-296-9877)

• Baskets by Kimberly (Gallatin Co.: Glencoe)

• Bluegrass Basket Case (Michelle Lane - Fayette Co.: Lexington)

• Bluegrass Handmade Designs (Cynthia Riffe - Allen Co.: Scottsville)

• Bountiful Baskets by Jan  (Jan Treesh - Fayette Co.: Lexington)

• Cedar Creek Farm (Micah Wiles - Pulaski Co.: Somerset)

• Designer Baskets by Derek (Derek Downing - Fayette Co.: Lexington)

• Emily Ridings [baskets; wearable art] - (Fayette Co.: Lexington)

• Gin Petty (Madison Co.: Berea)

• Herb Goodman (Madison Co.: Richmond)

• Hillcrest Baskets & Greenhouse (Karen O'Nan Martin - Henderson Co.: Henderson)

• Kyle's World of Baskets (Kyle Tipton - Madison Co.: Berea)

• Jennifer Zurick Willow Bark Baskets (Madison Co.: Berea)

• Mary and Robin Reed (Estill Co.: Irvine, KY); KCHEA Craft Luminary

• Scott Gilbert & Beth Hester (Allen Co.: Scottsville)

• Uniquely Kentucky (Edith and Pam Hillard - Marion Co.: Lebanon)

SHOPS/STORES:

• Basketmaker's Catalog (Allen Co.: Scottsville)

• Kentucky Artisan Center (Madison Co.: Berea) 

• Piney Creek Baskets (Nancy Tucker - McCreary Co.: Whitley City)

Organizations/Guilds:

• Bluegrass Area Basketmakers Seminar

• Bluegrass Basket Guild (Spencer Co.: Taylorsville)

• Kentucky Basket Association (Pulaski Co.: Somerset)

• Woven Together in Western Kentucky Basket Guild (Daviess Co.: Owensboro)

History:

• Childress, Lestel (1927-2010) & Ollie Childress (1930-2003) - white oak basketmakers 

• Everidge, Cordelia "Aunt Cord Ritchie" (1861- death date unknown) - Knott Co.: Hindman)

Ritchie, a self-taught craftswoman who "made up" both the dyes and classic shapes she used for her Highland baskets, preferred working with willow, although she also employed oak and hickory splints. Once married to Uncle Solomon Everidge (1822-1903), a founder of the Hindman Settlement School, she was said to have instructed all the weavers of willow baskets then active in Knott County. 

• Wallace, Andy, "Baskets and Folklife in Edmonson County, Kentucky," Smithsonian Folklife Festival Booklet, 1973, pp. 12-14. 

• Tom Bates, Basketweaver (Article about a Breckenridge Co. basketmaker, by folklorist Roby Cogswell, published in Back Home in Kentucky, 7:2 (Mar-April 1984), 36-37.  

• 31W Basket Makers Project--Comprehensive Report  (Written report by Folklife Fieldworker Tony N. VanWinkle, offering a detailed history of the west-central Kentucky basket-making traditions in Hart and Hardin Counties, along the north-south route of Highway 31W.) 

• Basket Making Traditions in South Central Kentucky (Kentucky Historical Society)

Marketing: 

• A very detailed specific study of the historic marketing of baskets in the Mammoth Cave Region of Kentucky was included in the 2001 report prepared by folklife fieldworker Tony VanWinkle.