Leicester’s global and colonial history explored through a basketry collection

The international history of basketry will be explored in a new exhibition at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery. 

The exhibition will display the personal collection of Leicester pioneer in craft-practice education, Harry Hardy Peach, who founded the Dryad ‘Handicrafts’ Company around 1918. He had already established a cane and wicker furniture business in 1907, demonstrating an early interest in the raw materiality of basketry. At its peak, the company employed 200 workers and supplied cane deck loungers for the HMS Titanic.

The collection is made up of artefacts gathered between 1918 and 1936 from British colonies in Africa, South Asia, the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well as from Central and Eastern Europe, and the Americas.

The Dryad ‘Handicrafts’ Company was based at 42 St Nicholas Street in Leicester. 

During the First World War, Peach donated unused materials to the 5th Northern General Hospital in Leicester. Wounded and disabled soldiers used the materials to make baskets as a form of occupational therapy. 

The 5th Northern General Hospital would later become the University of Leicester’s Fielding Johnson Building. 

Peach built a global and diverse collection of items because of a substantial network of relationships around the world. This included Christian missionaries, colonial administrators, educators, and private dealers, all interested in the emerging science of anthropology. 

The collection was acquired by Leicester Museums in 1969. Although part of the collection has been displayed at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery in the broader ‘world gallery,’ this exhibition is the first time the collection will be displayed with a dedicated coherent history. Around 40 objects will be displayed from the Dryad ‘Handicrafts’ collection, which comprises around 1800 objects.

The Dryad ‘Handicrafts’ collection contributes to the position of the city of Leicester within its global and colonial contexts.

Professor of History at University of Leicester, Clare Anderson said: “I am thrilled to see the opening of this exhibition at Leicester Museum & Art Gallery. The Museum has been an incredible research partner in this collaborative PhD project, and it will be great to see the Dyrad objects on display. Maria’s research has produced a new history, not just of the collection, but of Leicester’s global connections at the start of the 20th century.”

The exhibition has been curated by University of Leicester PhD student, Maria Chiara Scuderi as part of a 4-year AHRC-funded doctoral research project.

Dryad Basketry: a Global Collection will be on display from 21 September 2024 and 9 March 2025. More information about the exhibition can be found here.