Mary Jane Manigault
{{short description|American sweetgrass basket maker}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Mary Jane Manigault
| image = Mary Jane Manigault 1984.jpg
| caption = Manigault in 1984
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1913|06|13}}
| birth_place = Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, US
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|11|08|1913|06|13}}
| occupation = Basket weaver
| spouse = Arthur Manigault
| children = 4
}}
Mary Jane Manigault (June 13, 1913{{cite book |editor-last=Govenar |editor-first=Alan |year=2001 |chapter=Mary Jane Manigault: African American Basket Maker |title=Masters of Traditional Arts: A Biographical Dictionary |volume=2 (K-Z)|location=Santa Barbara, CA |publisher=ABC-Clio |pages=387–389|isbn=1576072401|oclc=47644303}} – November 8, 2010) was a sweetgrass basket maker from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. She began sweetgrass basket-weaving at a young age, and the tradition has been continued by her children and grandchildren.{{Cite book|title=American Folk Art|last=Congdon|first=Kristin|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2012|isbn=978-0313349362|pages=321–322|chapter=Mary Jane Manigault}} The art of sweetgrass basket-weaving is an important tradition in the Gullah culture and has been a prominent practice in communities brought over to the United States as early slaves.{{Cite news|title=Weaving history into a growing area; Town, county help preserve important craft|last=Findlay|first=Prentiss|date=December 13, 2006|work=Proquest|id = {{ProQuest|373984179}}}}
She was a recipient of a 1984 National Heritage Fellowship awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts, which is the United States government's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.{{cite web |url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984|title=NEA National Heritage Fellowships 1984 |author= |website=www.arts.gov |publisher=National Endowment for the Arts |access-date=November 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810221411/https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/year/1984 |archive-date=August 10, 2020 |url-status=dead}}
Early life
Manigault was born in 1913 in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, to Solomon and Sally Coakley.{{Cite news|url=https://www.postandcourier.com/news/basket-artisan-dies/article_a6103dcc-3251-537f-bd4f-14f8df528cff.html|title=Basket Artisan Dies|last=MacDougall|first=David|date=November 11, 2010|work=The Post and Courier|location=Charleston, SC|access-date=May 3, 2019}} She learned sweetgrass basket-weaving at a young age from her mother, saying "My mother taught me how to make baskets when I was eight years old".{{Cite web|url=https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/mary-jane-manigault|title=Mary Jane Manigault: African-American Seagrass Basket Maker |author=|website=www.arts.gov|publisher=National Endowment for the Arts|access-date=November 25, 2020}}
Sweetgrass basket weaving
Sweetgrass basket weaving is an art form that gained popularity among African-Americans living off the coast of the southeastern United States during the 17th century.{{Cite journal|last=Rosengarten|first=Dale|date=1986|title=Row Upon Row: Sea Grass Baskets of the South Carolina Lowcountry|url=http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc08-6_003|journal=Southern Changes: The Journal of the Southern Regional Council|volume=8|issue=6|access-date=September 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714195623/http://beck.library.emory.edu/southernchanges/article.php?id=sc08-6_003|archive-date=July 14, 2010}} Sweetgrass baskets were originally woven for the cultivation of rice. Europeans depended on the enslaved African's knowledge of agriculture to create specialized tools. As time passed, the uses for sweetgrass baskets pivoted from field use to a variety of other uses such as picnics, sewing baskets, church collection, laundry, and many more. Sweetgrass baskets often vary in design but regularly use materials such as bulrush, oak, hickory, and palmetto.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thecharlestoncitymarket.com/main/sweetgrass-baskets|title=Sweetgrass Baskets, Charleston City Market|last=Media|first=Colophon New|website=www.thecharlestoncitymarket.com|access-date=2016-11-15}}
Career and legacy
Manigault was a successful basket-weaver at a young age, and ran a basket stand in 1962 on U.S. highway 17 just north of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. In the mid-1970s, Manigault moved her basket-weaving enterprise to Charleston's City Market. In the later years of her career, Manigault continued to weave magnificent baskets at her family home in Hamlin Beach. In 1984, Manigault was named a National Heritage Fellow by the National Endowment for the Arts.{{Cite book|title=South Carolina Women: Their Lives and Times|last=Spruill|first=Marjorie Julian Littlefield|publisher=University of Georgia Press|year=2012|pages=301–320|chapter=Mary Jane Manigault: A Basket Maker's Legacy}} The award recognizes outstanding American folk artists. Mary Jane Manigault suffered a stroke in late 2000, but stated, "I'm going to keep making baskets, as long as I can".
Manigault's sweetgrass baskets have been displayed in many museums, including the Santa Fe Folk Art Museum, the William Mathers Anthropology Museum at Indiana University, the American Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina. Mary Jane Manigault's children and grandchildren continue the tradition of making and selling sweetgrass baskets. Manigault's eldest daughter, Mary Jane Habersham, runs a basket stand on Highway 17 saying, "I will keep the tradition going on".
Death
Mary Jane Manigault died on November 8, 2010, in her Hamlin Beach home after suffering a seizure, at the age of 97. Manigault had been suffering from sporadic seizures for a year prior to her death and was hospitalized numerous times. Manigault's daughter-in-law, Shirley, recalls her strength in her final months stating "every time she would get sick and go to the hospital, when she came home, her mind was fine".
References
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Category:American women basket weavers
Category:American basket weavers
Category:Artists from South Carolina