Sunday Funday
Family-Friendly Crafts Activity at a Historic House Museum
Paper Basket Weaving
August 6, 2023 | 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM CST
A-tisket. A-tasket. Let’s make a paper basket!
The Neill-Cochran House Museum welcomes children of all ages to a creative craft activity inside the Museum. Join us as we explore the wonderful craft of basket weaving using colorful paper.
All supplies will be provided, as well as staff, to help with instructions. This event is perfect for families with small children.
Reservations are not required. Participation in Sunday Funday is free for kids with an adult’s Museum admission, and NCHM members are always free. Drop in anytime between 11:00am and 2:00pm to enjoy the activity. The Neill-Cochran House Museum is open for touring for throughout the activity.
Background Information about the Significance of Basket Weaving to the NCHM:
This month's Sunday-Funday activity has a direct historical link to our site. The Neill-Cochran House Museum was built in 1856, and some of the first tenants who lived here were the students and teachers of the newly established Texas Asylum for the Blind (now known as the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired). The school occupied the Neill-Cochran House Museum site through 1858.
The Asylum for the Blind was a progressive initiative, but it functioned within the framework of 1850s Texas, which was a slave state. The state did not own slaves, but they leased out enslaved people from Austinites to work at the school. One enslaved boy named Lam, who was 10-12 years old at the time, taught basket weaving to the visually impaired students.
This activity - basket weaving - honors the memory of Lam and other enslaved workers who lived and worked on the property. It also reminds us that a disability such as blindness, then as well as now, presents overwhelming challenges but that the human will to survive and thrive can also create beauty.
Learn more about the Neill-Cochran House Museum Slave Quarters and the people who lived and worked in this historic structure here.