Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Basket |
Catalog Number |
2002.36 |
Date |
ca. 1940 |
Material(s) |
Wood; |
Dimensions |
H-4.5 W-40 D-41 inches |
Description |
This is an oak warehouse tobacco basket made of interlaced wooden lathes secured with clinched wire nails. The rim is made of two pieces of bent wood and it has been sprayed in white and red paint. Black stencil marking has been applied to the paint. The remainder of the wood is untreated. |
Notes |
This basket is from the Duke Tobacco Warehouse in Maysville, Kentucky. Tobacco baskets were used until the 1980s to display and handle tobacco taken to market. After sorting and grading, the leaves were tied into "hands," a group of leaves tied together at the stem end. The end was wrapped in another cured leaf. The tying of a hand of tobacco was a very individual thing. No two people tied their hands exactly the same size or in the same manner. The hands were laid in the basket in a circle with the stem ends pointing out. The baskets were loaded and taken to the tobacco warehouse where they were sold at auction. The open spaces in the center of each side are to allow room for a hook to be attached. A duckbill tobacco dolly was used to move the basket around the warehouse floor. Beginning in 1978, farmers began baling their tobacco, a practise which revolutionized the process of processing cured tobacco for the market. |
Collection |
Mary Duke Ford Collection |
Subjects |
Tobacco industry Tobacco Baskets Agricultural equipment Agricultural products |
Search Terms |
Agriculture Tobacco Tobacco culture Tobacco Industry tobacco leaves |
Physical Holder |
Kentucky Historical Society - KHS |