Woodlands Bast Fiber Reference Collection

Description

Some images of plant fibers in the FRIL Database are from the Woodland Plant Fiber Reference Collection as the National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI). Pre-Columbian clothing, baskets, pouches, cords and mats were often made from the inner layers of bark and plants. In the northern and eastern regions of North America, the most commonly used fibers were basswood, elm, nettles, dogbane and milkweed. A table containing a comparison of these fibers can be found here.