Interview with Seminole basketmaker Marion Bowers

General Note/Comment

• One reel to reel. Bowers discusses basket making - - including when and how she learned the craft; patterns and designs; the choice of colors and materials (usually pine needles and/or palmetto fronds); and the basketry process. She also discusses chickees and the uses of the baskets. The recordings were created for the Florida Folklife Program's Seminole Slide and Tape Project, a program sponsored by the American Express Company in 1982-1983 to create two educational slide/tape programs for use by schools, community groups, and other educational outlets. One program dealt with sweetgrass basket making; the other on traditional Seminole patchwork. Recordings of the finished program tapes can be found in S 1576, Box 10. Teacher guides, program scripts, and documentation of the project can be found in S 1595, Box 1.