Elsie Watty

Elsie Watty

Artisans

Basket makers

Cherokee baskets

Cherokee women

Handicraft

Manners and customs

Elsie Welch Watty (1935-2016) was a master Cherokee basket weaver who specialized in making white oak baskets and was known for creating her own designs. She lived and worked on the Galamore Branch in the Big Cove community near Cherokee, North Carolina. While she was an active basket weaver, she is said to have made 100 baskets a year. In this photograph, Watty (left) is showing her work to members of a delegation that accompanied Joan Mondale, wife of Vice President Mondale. The photograph was made on June 7, 1977 when Mrs. Mondale attended the ground breaking of the Folk Art Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Asheville, NC. Mondale was accompanied by the wife of the U.S. Senator from North Carolina, Robert B Morgan, and Mrs. Lana Gudger, wife of Vonno Lamar Gudger, a U.S. Congressman from North Carolina's 11th District. The photographer's name is unknown.

Unknown

Photograph Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1977-06-07

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

11136

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/11136

2010-04-06

All rights reserved. For permissions and use, contact Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual, Inc., Cherokee, NC 28719;

Buncombe County (N.C.)

Appalachian Region, Southern

10" x 8"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions