Description:
Small oval-shaped, woven willow basket with solid wood handle. This basket is very similar in shape and weaving to the willow basket Franklin Thorn is making in a photograph by Ken Walker, reproduced in the Greenfield Recorder-Gazette, 1958. See Suzanne Flynt, Poetry to the Earth: The Arts and Crafts Movement in Deerfield, p. 191, fig. 5.7. The Thorn family of Deerfield had a long history of producing baskets for sale as part of the Arts and Crafts Movement that sustained the town in the 20th century. Dr. Edwin Thorn began producing baskets and taught his brother-in-law, Charles Franklin, a carpenter and contractor, how to make the willow baskets. Franklin then trained his nephew, Franklin Thorn. The craft supplemented Franklin Thorn's income as a carpenter and strawberry farmer for the rest of his life. Franklin showed his baskets at the Deerfield Valley Artists Association and at the Indian House Memorial. As a result of his mastery of and longevity in the craft, by the mid-20th century Deerfield willow baskets came to be known as "Thorn" baskets.

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