(c) Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, Deerfield MA. All rights reserved. Contact us for information about using this image.
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Madeline Yale Wynne (1847-1918) introduced women in Deerfield, Massachusetts, to raffia basketry when she began living in Deerfield in 1885. The basket makers of Deerfield's Arts and Crafts movement at the turn of the century used a variety of natural materials in their baskets. These included raffia and palmetto palm, native sweet grass, willow, reeds, rushes, pine needles and common grasses. This raffia-lidded example has woven-in designs of black and orange cats and jack-o-lanterns, created with natural dyes. These designs led its owner to call it her "witch basket."