Home > Artist Database > Bio-bibliographic Database > WEBSTER, Jessie
Artist Database
WEBSTER, Jessie
- Born
- Ahousat, British Columbia, 1909
- Died
- , ?
- Biography synopsis
- Jessie Webster was a First Nations artist who grew up in the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Ahousat (also spelled Ahousaht), British Columbia. At the age of seven, Webster began to learn the traditional art of basket-weaving from her mother and other talented women living in her village. Under the mentoring of the late Nellie Jacobson, a fellow basketmaker, she wove fine cylindrical baskets covered with images of whales, thunderbirds and other prominent West Coast icons. Some of her works include nobility hats (also known as Whaler's or Maquinna hats) made of grass, which are worn by high-ranking members of the Nuu-chah-nulth community. Webster received commissions for these traditional works from the Museum of Anthropology in British Columbia, among others.
- Media used
- Basket making
- File & Archive locations
- British Columbia Archives
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- Black, Martha; Royal British Columbia Museum. HuupuKwanum Tupaat: Out of the Mist: Treasures of the Nuu-chah-nulth Chiefs Royal British Columbia Museum, 1999
- Carey, Frances ed.. Collecting the 20th Century London, England: British Museum Press, 1991
- Coe, Ralph T. Tradition Lost and Found Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1986
- Efrat, Barabara S. Langlois, W.J. eds. Nutka The History and Survival of Nootkan Culture Sound Heritage, 1978
- Garvey, Charlene. Who Shall Remain Nameless? Makers and Collectors in MOA's Nuu-chah-nulth Basketry Collection Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, (Dec. 1993)
- Hoover, Alan L.; Royal British Columbia Museum. Nuu-chah-nulth Voices, Histories, Objects & Journeys Royal British Columbia Museum, 2000
- Jonaitis, Aldona. Art of the Northwest Coast Seattle: University of Washington, 2006
- Kirk, Ruth. Wisdom of the Elders: Native Traditions on the Northwest Coast: The Nuu-chah-nulth, Southern Kwakiutl, and Nuxalk Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1986
- Macnair, Peter L. and Hoover, Alan L. and Neary, Kevin. The Legacy: Continuing Traditions of Canadian Northwest Coast Indian Art Victoria, British Columbia: The British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1980
- Reno, Dawn E. Contemporary Native American Artists Brooklyn, New York: Alliance Publishing, 1995
- Stelzer, Ulli. Indian Artists at Work North Vancouver: J.J. Douglas, 1976
- Suttles, Wayne ed. Handbook of North American Indians: Northwest Coast, Volume 7 Washington: Smithsonian Institute, 1990
