Mag-win’-teg-wak: A Legacy of Penobscot Basketry highlights the impact of Penobscot basketmaker and tribal advocate Robert S. Anderson (1929-2020) and his lasting archival efforts to preserve Penobscot basketry. Referred to as mag-win’-teg-wak, or “choppy seas” in the Penobscot language, the Shay and Anderson families operated a business on Lincolnville Beach in Maine for almost seventy years and created a marketplace and thriving community for Wabanaki basketmakers. This exhibition traces the rise of the family business, as well as their own basket making practices, and showcases extraordinary examples of styles and traditions of Penobscot basketry from the 1930s to today. 

Mag-win’-teg-wak: A Legacy of Penobscot Basketry is drawn from the Hudson Museum’s Robert Anderson and the Leo and Florence Shay Collection and complemented by other private and public loans. This project was guest-curated by Theresa Secord and Sarah Sockbeson with Gretchen F. Faulker, Hudson Museum Director, serving as a Curatorial Advisor. 

Sponsors:

This exhibition is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Cascade Foundation.

Image Credits:

Robert Anderson’s basket tent at Lincolnville Beach, chromolithographic print, ca. 1970s, Leo and Florence Shay Collection, Hudson Museum, University of Maine, HM9664.