: "Navajo Blankets of the Nineteenth Century: Selections from The
Textile Museum Collections" will be on view September 5 to March
14.
The exhibition features 16 blankets made between 1800 and 1890
that highlight the powerful aesthetics and significant trends
characteristic of Nineteenth Century Navajo weaving. The
exhibition also explores how experts today analyze Navajo
blankets' materials, structures and designs to assign dates to
each textile. It is the first exhibit of Navajo textiles at the
museum in more than ten years.
Using upright frame looms and basic hand tools, Navajo weavers
created colorful wool blankets that served many purposes such as
clothing, cloaks, bedding, saddle pads, baby wraps, furnishings
and trade goods. Throughout the Nineteenth Century, Navajo
weavers refined the blankets' designs and layouts as they drew
inspiration from native basketry patterns and neigh-boring
Pueblo, Mexican and Spanish American weaving traditions. The
blankets in the exhibition represent some of the most notable and
dynamic styles developed - chief's-style blankets, women's-style
blankets, a poncho, wedge-weave blankets and smaller serapes.
"Navajo Blankets of the Nineteenth Century" is curated by Ann
Lane Hedlund, director of the Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry
Studies at the Arizona State Museum in Tucson. The Textile
Museum's presentation of the exhibition is supported by endowed
funding made possible by the late Gloria F. Ross and the Gloria
F. Ross Foundation.
While the Navajo weaving tradition became established around
1650, weaving prior to 1800 is not well known. Navajo weaving of
the Nineteenth Century can be divided into several distinct
periods: Classic, 1800-1865; Late Clas-sic, 1865-1880;
Transitional, 1880-1895; Rug, 1895-1950 and Modern 1950-present.
"Navajo Blankets of the Nineteenth Century" will include examples
from the Classic, Late Classic and transitional periods of Navajo
weaving.
Six Classic and Late Classic chief's-style blankets,
characterized by wide horizontal bands often overlaid with bold
geometric motifs, are featured in the exhibit. The name "chief
blanket" is a misnomer, as local family heads rather than chiefs
governed the Navajos. Such blankets were valued as trade goods
among the Plains Indians to the north and east and were often
worn by high status men and women from Plains tribes. Over the
course of the Nineteenth Century, the chief's style evolved
through several phases, from basic stripes to elaborate layers of
geometric motifs.
"Navajo Blankets of the Nineteenth Century" includes a rare first
phase chief's-style blanket along with later second and third
versions, and two second phase women's-style blankets.
The Late Classic period of Navajo weaving was an intense time of
cultural change for the Navajo people. Perhaps the most
cataclysmic event of this period was Kit Carson's 1863 forced
removal of the Navajo people to Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner, N.
Mex.), where they were interned until 1868. Starting with the
captivity at Bosque Redondo and continuing to 1879 the US
government supplied the Navajos with goods, including yarn,
fabric, blankets and weaving tools. This exposure to new
materials, and also to stimuli such as Spanish American and
Mexican patterned blankets, influenced Navajo design and led to
textiles of the Transitional period. During this time, production
shifted from traditional blankets to smaller textiles and rugs
with brilliant colors and designs largely intended for the trade
market.
Six Late Classic serapes in the exhibition come from these
turbulent times, while two wedge-weave blankets in the exhibition
represent the end of the Late Classic period and Navajo weaving's
entry into the Transitional period.
Changes in wool quality, yarn composition and dyestuffs occurred
frequently in Navajo weaving during the Nineteenth Century. Such
dynamics inherent in the weaving materials now allow scholars to
reconstruct a more precise timeline for southwestern textile
types.
The late Joe Ben Wheat, former curator of anthropology at the
University of Colorado Museum in Boulder, used technical
analyses, chemical dye tests and archival records in his
pioneering work on southwestern blankets. Using Wheat's methods,
including the scientific identification of red dyes, the
exhibition "Navajo Blankets of the Nineteenth Century" presents
new research relative to dating The Textile Museum's collection.
Micrographs (close-up photographs) of yarns in the exhibition's
blankets illustrate the kinds of materials that allow analysts to
date each textile more accurately. Charts of the dye analyses and
examples of raw materials and tools will also be on display.
The Textile Museum, 2320 S. Street NW, is open Monday through
Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday, 1 to 5 pm. For information,
202-667-0441.
