This is the first publication on a remarkable collection of sixty-six outstanding Pueblo and Navajo textiles donated to the Peabody Museum in the 1980s by William Claflin, Jr., a prominent Boston businessman, avocational anthropologist, and patron of Southwestern archaeology. Claflin bequeathed to the museum not only these beautiful textiles, but also his detailed accounts of their collection histories--a rare record of the individuals who had owned or traded these weavings before they found a home in his private museum. Textile scholar Laurie Webster tells the stories of the weavings as they left their native Southwest and traveled eastward, passing through the hands of such owners and traders as a Ute Indian chief, a New England schoolteacher, a renowned artist, and various military officers and Indian agents. Her concise overview of Navajo and Pueblo weaving traditions is enhanced by the reflections of noted artist and Navajo textile expert Tony Berlant in his foreword to the text.

Collecting the Weaver's Art: The William Claflin Collection of Southwestern Textiles (Peabody Museum Collections Series)

Arts & Photography

Webster, Laurie D.

Berlant, Anthony

Burger, Hillel

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Peabody Museum Press

Textiles and clothing provide critical clues to ethnic and social identity, relationships, and trends. The editors' introduction to a dozen papers situates the prime role of textile research in modern American archeology, and overviews types and locations of the textile record and diverse methodological and theoretical approaches. Includes cases studies; numerous b&w illustrations and tables on such parameters as photographic and electron micrograph details of prehistoric fabrics, the amount of fiber specimens required for different radiocarbon testing methods, and the distribution of particular textiles; a glossary; and 44 pages of references. Drooker is with the New York State Museum in Albany. Webster works at the Arizona State Museum at the U. of Arizona in Tucson. Based on a 1997 Society for American Archeology symposium. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Beyond Cloth and Cordage: Archaeological Textile Research in the Americas

Drooker, Penelope B.

Drooker, Penelope Ballard

History & Criticism

University of Utah Press

Navajo Textiles provides a nuanced account the Navajo weavings in the Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature &amp; Science—one of the largest collections of Navajo textiles in the world. Bringing together the work of anthropologists and indigenous artists, the book explores the Navajo rug trade in the mid-nineteenth century and changes in the Navajo textile market while highlighting the museum’s important, though still relatively unknown, collection of Navajo textiles.
In this unique collaboration among anthropologists, museums, and Navajo weavers, the authors provide a narrative of the acquisition of the Crane Collection and a history of Navajo weaving. Personal reflections and insights from foremost Navajo weavers D. Y. Begay and Lynda Teller Pete are also featured, and more than one hundred stunning full-color photographs of the textiles in the collection are accompanied by technical information about the materials and techniques used in their creation. An introduction by Ann Lane Hedlund documents the growing collaboration between Navajo weavers and museums in Navajo textile research. 
The legacy of Navajo weaving is complex and intertwined with the history of the Diné themselves. Navajo Textiles makes the history and practice of Navajo weaving accessible to an audience of scholars and laypeople both within and outside the Diné community.

Navajo Textiles: The Crane Collection at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science

Stiver, Louise

Begay, D. Y.

Pete, Lynda Teller

University Press of Colorado

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