Craft: An American History

by Glenn Adamson

At the same time, a parallel situation was unfolding more than sixteen hundred miles east of the Pueblos, near the intersection of Hamlin Road and U.S. Highway 17 in South Carolina. On this spot today stands another historic marker, not unlike the one near Maria Martinez’s home in San Ildefonso. This one reads, SWEETGRASS BASKETS. It explains that in this general vicinity, a craft has been HANDED DOWN IN CERTAIN FAMILIES SINCE THE 1700s, making it ONE OF THE OLDEST WEST AFRICAN ART FORMS IN AMERICA. The marker also relates a more specific, and more recent, history. In 1930, a woman named Lottie Moultrie Swinton set up a chair right at the edge of the highway and began to sell her baskets to passersby. It was simple but smart marketing. A bridge had just opened connecting this rural area, known as Mount Pleasant, to nearby Charleston. Just as the train brought tourists to Nampeyo, cars brought prospective buyers to Lottie Swinton. Others in the community followed suit and set up more permanent stands to display their baskets. Eventually, the road would be known as the “Gullah Highway.”16