About
Henrietta Snype is a native of Mount Pleasant, South Carolina — the historical home of Lowcountry sweetgrass basketry. She learned the art of weaving at the age of seven from her mother, Mary Mazyck, and her grandmother, Elizabeth C. Johnson, in a tradition the family traces back "since before the Middle Passage."
She graduated from high school at seventeen and pursued an education and career in business. In the early 1980s — after returning home when her grandmother fell ill — Henrietta registered as an artist and master sweetgrass basket weaver and began working in schools. She has taught ever since: K–12 programs across Charleston, Berkeley, and Dorchester counties; university lectures and demonstrations from the College of Charleston's Avery Research Center to the Minneapolis Institute of Art; and the Mount Pleasant Sweetgrass Cultural Festival, which she has participated in since its inception.
Her skill is recognized nationally. Her work has been exhibited at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina, the Henry Ford Museum, and the Birmingham Arts Festival. In 2018 she received the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award from the South Carolina Arts Commission. In 2019 she was the November honoree of the South Carolina African American History Calendar.
She is also a pioneer of sweetgrass basket jewelry — pendants, earrings, and scarf holders that extend a centuries-old utilitarian art into wearable form.
The Rice Fanner
The Rice Fanner is a traditional style Sweetgrass Basket that has been in production since before the introduction of enslaved Africans to the plantations. It was used to separate the rice from the husk during harvesting. Many Blacks brought to the “New World” came from areas where rice cultivation was a perfected artform. Of the many crops that brought riches to Charleston, none brought more wealth than rice. In its prime, rice made Charleston the richest county in the world. The Fanner continues to be a well-sought-after artifact of the serious collector.
"I wanted to preserve the culture and history while aiming higher." — Henrietta Snype, Mount Pleasant Magazine, 2023
Five Generations
The Five Generations is a collection of baskets representing five generations of sweetgrass basket making in Henrietta's family. It is not a commissioned work — it is a body of pieces that has been featured in exhibitions and publications as a testament to the unbroken line of hand-to-hand transmission of the craft.
Awards & Recognition
Conferred by the South Carolina Arts Commission and McKissick Museum, presented at the SC Arts Awards in the State House.
A partnership of the South Carolina Department of Education and South Carolina ETV.
Community advocate for sweetgrass basket makers across the Lowcountry.