Puberty Basket (1890): Art, History and Details

Puberty Basket (1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This finely woven basin is based on a traditional form that young Pomo women used to wash themselves after ceremonial seclusion following their first menses. The example on display, however, was made for the outside market.

Object facts

• Title: Puberty Basket
• Date: 1890
• Culture: California, Pomo, late 19th century
• Type: Basketry
• Technique: coiled, quail and woodpecker feathers, shell, abalone
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.5 x 45.5 cm (8 7/16 x 17 15/16 in.)
• Collection: AA - Native North America
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1917.501

Collection credit

Presented by William Albert Price in memory of Mrs. William Albert Price

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 4 (1917): 64-67.
• Crawford, Virginia. “Artistic Basketry of the North American Indian.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 7 (September 1986): 278–297.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.