Persian rugs: The Complete Guide to Persian Rugs

Notes on the Textile Museum

The Textile Museum is a small private museum in Washington DC in two old houses formerly owned by George Hewitt Myers.

It is best to call first and find out what the exhibits are. At one point the museum focused primarily on carpets but now has shifted it's focus to include fiber art, quilts, kimonos, fabric sculpture, and all sorts of crafts.

The Textile Museum

2320 S St NW, Washington, DC 20008

2320 S Street, NW, Washington
DC 20008-4088, USA,
Tel: (202) 667-0441, fax: (202) 483-0994,
www.TextileMuseum.org

Seidman and Keshishian at the Textile Museum

Long time Trustee John Sommer on Kyrgyz felt at the TM

Perhaps the best part of the museum is the Saturday morning programs. It is best to call the museum and check the schedule for upcoming events. The dean of the Saturday morning speakers is Harold Keshishian. Here is a 5 part article that I did on just one of his programs. Any one Keshishian "Rug Morning" may easily eclipse everything else on display in the whole museum.

HK's "Rug Morning" The Introduction

HK's "Rug Morning" The Persian Collection

HK's "Rug Morning" Explosion of Red

HK's "Rug Morning" The Mediterranean Collection

HK's "Rug Morning" Parting Shots

The new Director is Daniel Walker formerly of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
John Russell Pope was the architect of the newer of the two buildings that make up the TM.
"From Kuba to Kars," at the Textile Museum in 1994. Major show of flatwoven bags including some from the collection of Wendel Swan.
The Textile Museum's Rug Convention1997
Carol Bier was Curator of Eastern Hemisphere Textiles at the Textile Museum in Washington DC. Carol is now a Research Associate at The Textile Museum and a faculty member, Maryland Institute College of Art.
Professor Walter Denny was formerly a trustee.
Long time Trustee John Sommer on Kyrgyz felt at the TM
Dragon Rugs: Prototypical Dragon Carpet Dated 1592
Notes on Harold and Melissa Keshishian

Sheila at the front desk is always a very welcome face

Textile Museum RTAMs (Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning)

About 40 years ago the TM started a series of Saturday morning programs. I always used to call them Rug Mornings but recently they call them RTAMs for Rug and Textile Appreciation Morning. The way I heard the story was that the Museum needed to increase the number of visitors to qualify for Federal Grants. Harold Keshishian stepped up with an idea to have a series of Saturday morning programs as a community outreach

The guiding principle has been to interesting non-commercial programs. Many of the presenters are dealers but they are honor bound to keep it non-commercial. The audience is supposed to follow the same rules but there is one old eastern European woman who tries to do business there but she is generally ignored.

Here we have Virginia Delfico and the Honorable Harold Keshishian in front of the portrait of the founder George Hewitt Myers over the fireplace in his former dining room. Virginia ran the education Department for years and organized such things as the Rug and Textile Mornings that are so successful. Of course Harold was the one who came up with the idea and has been a mainstay of the program since the beginning.

Louise W. Mackie Curator of Textiles and Islamic Art at The Cleveland Museum of Art. Mackie is (past) president of the Textile Society of America and formerly a curator in the Textile Department of the Royal Ontario Museum. Mackie co-authored a number of TM classics such as Mackie & Thompson; Turkmen and "Masterpieces in the Textile Museum" by Mackie And Ann P. Rowe