In Mary Allen’s Handicrafts in Old Deerfield, published in 1901, she described the display of baskets at the Annual Summer Exhibition in Deerfield, Massachusetts: “Others were of raffia, a kind of long, soft grass, in most beautiful tones whether in its native color or dyed, which lends itself to as beautiful decorative effects as the weaver is capable of inventing … The baskets give scope to that free expression of individuality which gives all Deerfield products their charm and value.”