Project MUSE®: The Textile Museum Journal - Latest Articles
https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883
Project MUSE®: Latest articles in The Textile Museum Journal.daily12026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00text/htmlen-USVol. 44 (2017) through current issueLatest Articles: The Textile Museum JournalTWOProject MUSE®The Textile Museum Journal2475-88250083-7407Latest articles in The Textile Museum Journal. Feed provided by Project MUSE®Polynesian Tapa Cloth
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979569
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As Austronesian peoples—the ancestors of modern-day Polynesians—populated various islands of the South Pacific through long, perilous voyages in outrigger canoes, they carried cuttings of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) and breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis) trees as well as the skills and knowledge required to transform the inner bark of these plants into cloth (fig. 1).1 Each culture in Polynesia created its own distinctive types of barkcloth with their own local names, but today these fabrics generally are referred to as tapa.2 For several thousand years, until the introduction of woven fabrics after European contact in the late eighteenth century, tapa played a variety of practical, social, and economic
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallPolynesian Tapa Cloth2025-12-25text/htmlen-USPolynesian Tapa Cloth2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®601782026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25Velvets and Towels: Piled Fabrics from the Ottoman Empire to Manchester to New Jersey
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979568
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In its most familiar form, terrycloth—a type of loop-pile fabric used in towels—is made of cotton.1 This defining characteristic has persisted from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The longer history of terrycloth has been part of broad discussions about the Industrial Revolution, in particular those focused on cotton manufactory. At the fore are issues of workers, labor, and slavery; proprietary technology; mechanization and handwork; and consumption and consumer habits. From a world-history perspective, the case of terrycloth neatly illustrates what Giorgio Riello has described as the European engagement with cotton, a phenomenon of the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.2 For this article, the
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallVelvets and Towels: Piled Fabrics from the Ottoman Empire to Manchester to New Jersey2025-12-25text/htmlen-USVelvets and Towels: Piled Fabrics from the Ottoman Empire to Manchester to New Jersey2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1219972026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25An Interpretation and Analysis of a Khipu in The Textile Museum Collection
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979567
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Among The Textile Museum’s renowned collections of fine Andean textiles are three Inka khipus (quipus) (91.111, 91.508, and 2002.33.43). This article will present khipu 91.111 (fig. 1), acquired by George Hewitt Myers in 1932.1 Due to the length of the study, the text is published in two parts. The main text consists of a description of the khipu, including the methodology used to analyze it and a summary and discussion of major findings. The appendix contains a technical description of the khipu, along with tables presenting the knots found in the khipu and a summary of the attributes of each cord: .Khipu, Inka Style, Late Horizon, c. 1450–1534. Cotton and unidentified vegetal fiber, 140.0 × 58.5 cm (55 ⅛ × 23
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallAn Interpretation and Analysis of a Khipu in The Textile Museum Collection2025-12-25text/htmlen-USAn Interpretation and Analysis of a Khipu in The Textile Museum Collection2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1284162026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25Highlights from the Korean Textile Collection at The Textile Museum
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979564
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In 2022, The George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum presented Korean Fashion: From Royal Court to Runway, an exhibition that celebrated the artistry of Korean textile traditions and craftsmanship across time (fig. 1). The exhibition brought together historical treasures—such as costumes sent by the Korean Royal Court to the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893—and contemporary reinterpretations from period dramas and haute couture runways. Alongside these masterpieces from international collections were The Textile Museum’s own objects, together unfolding a rich narrative of Korean textiles and their complex history. This article continues the conversation by highlighting select pieces from The
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallHighlights from the Korean Textile Collection at The Textile Museum2025-12-25text/htmlen-USHighlights from the Korean Textile Collection at The Textile Museum2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1022902026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25The Mizo Thangchhuah Puan
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979563
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In Barbara G. Fraser and David W. Fraser’s article “The Mizo Thangchhuah Puan,” which appeared in volume 52 of The Textile Museum Journal, an error was printed in the figure captions. The following corrections to the article were made post production: Page 106, figure 3 caption, the weaver credited is incorrect, and “woven by Mitinchhingi” should be removed. Page 108, figure 7 caption, replace “Mizo man’s mantle woven by (thangchhuah puan)” with “Mizo man’s mantle (thangchhuah puan) woven by Mitinchhingi” to correctly attribute the weaver of this piece. The editors regret this error.Click here to view the updated PDF.
The dress of the chiefs is the same as the common people, except on occasions of ceremony
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallThe Mizo Thangchhuah Puan2025-12-25text/htmlen-USThe Mizo Thangchhuah Puan2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®410772026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25The Pegasus Cloth: Unveiling a Masterpiece from the Abbasid Caliphate
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979560
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The Textile Museum Collection at The George Washington University Museum holds an exceptional example of one of the earliest extant embroideries from the Islamic world made with gold and silver alloy (electrum) thread: the so-called Pegasus Cloth (figs. 1 and 2). Preserved in fragmentary condition, the textile has a base of silk and cotton—a type of fabric known in Arabic sources as mulham. Metal threads are laboriously applied to the ground, while various tones of colored silks are embroidered to the surface of the plain-weave ground fabric, creating depictions of confronted winged horses facing alternately left and right, each with outstretched wings and turned heads. The horses’ bodies are dotted in different
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallThe Pegasus Cloth: Unveiling a Masterpiece from the Abbasid Caliphate2025-12-25text/htmlen-USThe Pegasus Cloth: Unveiling a Masterpiece from the Abbasid Caliphate2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1353202026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25A Contemporary Mughal Patka: Recreating a Technology
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979561
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Contemporary and Mughal used together are terms that imply a contradiction, exemplifying the significance of a textile purchased by The Textile Museum while still being woven on a loom in Delhi, India, in 1993 (fig. 1).1 Its rectangular format with two end panels references a Mughal patka, or sash, while the multiplicity of its compound weave structures and use of gold-wrapped silk yarns represent an attempt to reconstruct the lost technologies of courtly Mughal textiles. The design of irises in each end panel (fig. 2) and the scrolling vine in the border reflect the influence of Safavid designs; this style also characterizes silk weavings of the Mughal era.Rahul Jain, contemporary Mughal patka: obverse (A) and (B)
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallA Contemporary Mughal Patka: Recreating a Technology2025-12-25text/htmlen-USA Contemporary Mughal Patka: Recreating a Technology2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1618802026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25Andean Traditions in the Making of Discontinuous Warp (and Weft) Textiles
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979566
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Basic tenets of weaving involve the use of a warp and a weft. In the Andes, the warp—the first set of yarns on the loom—is measured for its intended use as weavers, for the most part, create one textile at a time, rather than crafting long lengths of fabric to be cut and tailored, as artisans in many other cultures do. The creation of one complete unit of cloth—referred to as a four-selvedged cloth—implies that the warp is not cut from the loom, and its edges remain intact. The integrity of the cloth, as such, has apparent meaning.Generally, wefts interlace through the warp in perpendicular alignment and can be used as a continuous yarn reaching from edge to edge of the space delimited by the warp yarns, or they
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallAndean Traditions in the Making of Discontinuous Warp (and Weft) Textiles2025-12-25text/htmlen-USAndean Traditions in the Making of Discontinuous Warp (and Weft) Textiles2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®1101062026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25The Composition and Use of Indigenous Women’s Headcloths from the Viceroyalty of Peru
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979565
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This article considers the structure and composition of three small Andean textiles, originally used by women as headcloths and woven in warp-faced weave structure, in the Western Hemisphere Collection of The Textile Museum (1985.43.2, 1985.43.24, and 1985.43.1) which have not been previously published.1 This is a preliminary study with the goal of publishing the textiles in detail, highlighting their significant features, and outlining how these features, with future examination, can be used to expand knowledge of the evolution of elite Indigenous garment construction in the highland regions after the Spanish invasion.The basic composition and weave structures of these three textiles are the same as those used in
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallThe Composition and Use of Indigenous Women’s Headcloths from the Viceroyalty of Peru2025-12-25text/htmlen-USThe Composition and Use of Indigenous Women’s Headcloths from the Viceroyalty of Peru2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®689732026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25Much Ado About Knotting
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979562
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It ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.—Niccoló Machiavelli, The PrinceThis article will describe a novel way to measure a regularly woven part of a knotted pile textile in order to estimate its overall or global knot density, even when the weaving has random local density variations throughout. These knot density fluctuations will also be characterized for the first time. The new approach constructs a global estimate from the average of thirty measurements of local samples, taken randomly from different locations, covering a total area of 22.5 in2
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallMuch Ado About Knotting2025-12-25text/htmlen-USMuch Ado About Knotting2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®791262026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25Mysteries from an Egyptian Oasis: Reevaluating a Group of Archaeological Textiles
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/979559
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The Textile Museum boasts an important collection—both in size and scholarship—of late antique and medieval textiles from the Eastern Mediterranean. Spanning several centuries from the early third to the fifteenth century, these textiles were often linked to findspots in Egypt. They were a vital part of the textile geography of medieval Egypt, although many were not necessarily produced there.George Hewitt Myers, the founder of The Textile Museum in Washington, D.C., was a passionate collector of these textiles, building a collection of about 1,500 late antique and medieval textiles from the Eastern Mediterranean by the time he died in 1957. While his interest in so-called non-Western textiles might have been
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Project MUSE®https://muse.jhu.edu/2026-05-12T00:00:00-05:00https://muse.jhu.edu/journal/883/image/coversmallMysteries from an Egyptian Oasis: Reevaluating a Group of Archaeological Textiles2025-12-25text/htmlen-USMysteries from an Egyptian Oasis: Reevaluating a Group of Archaeological Textiles2025-12-252025TWOProject MUSE®723932026-05-12T00:00:00-05:002025-12-25