Basket

basket, hood museum of art, aleksandra kudrin reinken
Maker Aleksandra Kudrin Reinken
Title Basket
Date of Creation 1905
Location Unalaska Island, Alaska
Materials Wild rye grass (Elyleymus aleuticus) and silk thread
Institution Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
Credit Line Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Bequest of Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill
Accession Number 46.17.9384
Photo Credit Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
Category Folk Art, Tools, and Instruments

This flared basket with embroidered pink rosebuds on green silk stems and zigzagging red motifs reflects the convergence of cultures on Unalaksa Island, one of the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. The basket maker, Aleksandra Kudrin Reinken, was born in 1861 to an Unangax̂ (Aleut) mother and Russian father. Around 1880 she married Adolph Henry Reinken, a German mariner. Reinken likely learned to weave from a close relative, perhaps her mother, and used her knowledge of traditional Unangax̂ weaving techniques to create baskets that would appeal to her colonial clientele. Looking to prints, magazines, newspapers, and perhaps even a Whitman’s Chocolate Sampler box, Reinken wove this basket in a shape inspired by Western influence and incorporated European-American figural decoration rather than more traditional stylized forms. This basket was purchased directly from Reinken by Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill in 1905 and given to Dartmouth College in 1946. In their records, the Churchills described watching Reinken weave baskets, noting how the silk decoration was “woven in as the woman is weaving the basket.” They ultimately purchased three of Reinken’s baskets, one of which was finished on the spot for the Churchills. Reinken sourced the wide rye grass locally, whereas the fine silk thread woven directly into the basket was likely purchased from a Chinese ship that traded on the island. As the maker of this basket, Reinken lived within a multilingual and multicultural Unangax̂ community that was part of a larger colonial web comprised of American, German, Russian, and Chinese influence.