When The Ahwahnee Hotel opened its doors in 1927, the public spaces were decorated with flat woven Persian kilims and all manner of decorative and utilitarian Indian baskets placed on shelves, ledges, and mantles. In the decades that followed, many of those precious baskets were lost, stolen, or badly damaged. The ones that remain have been carefully catalogued by National Park Service historians and protected in display cases.
We had researched and studied early photographs of the hotel’s interiors in the National Park Service archive and, to honor the intent of the original designers, Pope and Ackerman, we removed Chinese baskets, vine balls, and other inappropriate décor from the fireplace mantles, committed to replacing them with a selection of authentic, hand woven Indian baskets. After conferring with our friend, legendary weaver and National Park Service Cultural Specialist Julia Parker, we traveled to Fresno to shop for baskets at The American Indian Shop. We then arranged our selections of the newly acquired antique California baskets atop those fireplace mantles, and created an illustration for guides and guests.
