Pecan Day, in a Nutshell...

Today marks the anniversary of the planting of pecan trees in 1775 at Mount Vernon by George Washington.

To celebrate this nutty holiday, we present this fabulously carved cane, made of pecan wood, from our folk art collection.

Today, handmade canes are appreciated for their decorative features. Condensed along their slender shafts and handles have been a wide range of designs—stained, painted, and carved, intricately or broadly rendered—according to their maker's skill or inclination. For the carver, however, the object's purpose and execution have traditionally overshadowed its aesthetic dimension. Each walking stick has an obvious function to fulfill; its hard wood and design must sustain weight and wear, and its length must comfortably fit that of its user's arm. Carving canes has usually been the domain of men, often with a familial or local history of carving, whittling, or woodworking. Fashioning handmade canes would help pass their maker's time productively and often define the maker's interaction with his family and communities.

Source: Lynda Roscoe Hartigan. Made with Passion: The Hemphill Folk Art Collection in the National Museum of American Art (Washington, D.C. and London: For the National Museum of American Art by the Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).

Pictured top: Unidentified artist, Cane with Indian, Entwined Man, and Snake and Diverse Animals,around the late nineteenth century, carved, painted, and varnished hickory and pecan with metal, 37 x 4 x 1 1/2 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.

Pictured bottom: Unidentified artist,Cane with Indian, Entwined Man, and Snake and Diverse Animals(detail).