ELIZABETH CONRAD HICKOX (1873-1947)
AND HER DAUGHTER LOUISA HICKOX (1896-1962)
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O’Neale claimed all her work was sent out of the area, but it has also been claimed her caps were not among the bountiful exports. Probably
neither is true. Nicholson’s ledger books at the Phoebe Hearst Museum in Berkeley document that caps were included among the baskets sold
to Nicholson. Several are now in the collection of the Museum of the American Indian in New York. Probably caps were also made for local
dances by Elizabeth and Louisa and were not exported. Nicholson did detailed drawings of the lidded trinket baskets in her ledger but seldom
illustrated Elizabeth’s caps. Nor were the prices of the caps as elevated. The distinctive bold cap at the Southwest Museum is probably not
typical of most of the caps Hickox wove. The photograph of Elizabeth wearing a cap shows her with a dignified flint pattern cap that is the most
common and admired pattern. In comparison the looming black of the Southwest Museum’s cap is weighty and more innovative. It is not the
older tight fitting style and in date is probably about 1914, at the transition point just before Elizabeth begins weaving all black background
baskets. The shape of this cap is such that it would fit the wearer at the rim. She says the "Whole secret of shape in caps is gradual adding of
sticks in (the) right places." The black and white cap was more highly prized than the red and white and Elizabeth reiterated the often told
prohibition to O’Neale to never combine red and yellow. O’Neale says her informants regarded the innovation and experimentation of fancy
trinket baskets as outside tradition because they were woven for tourist export. This was not true for basket caps where tradition needed to be
observed. This probably accounts for the more traditional approach to caps and why Elizabeth’s caps are less radical than her lidded baskets.
Elizabeth’s caps have not been studied as well as her fancy trinket baskets.
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