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Textile Museum

Washington, DC can be a magical place for needleworkers. Besides the needlework exhibit at Woodlawn Plantation, there is also the Textile Museum. The Textile Museum's mission is to "expand public knowledge and appreciation of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world's textiles". It was founded in 1925 by George Hewitt Myers with a collection of 275 rugs and 60 related textiles.

Besides exhibits to be visited in person, the Textile Museum has several on-line exhibits at their website. One of the online exhibitions is "Ahead of His Time: The Collecting Vision of George Hewitt Myers." This exhibition helps you learn about the founder of the museum and the history of it. On the website you can view what the current exhibitions are at the museum (and look at the various programs being offered on their calendar). You can also get a preview of their upcoming exhibitions.

For those of us unable to visit the museum in person, they have also made available many items for the "virtual" visitor. These consist of the ability to look at information about past exhibitions, information about the collections, and to visit unique online exhibitions.

On the previous exhibitions page of the website, there is a description of the various exhibitions that have been at the museum (and the time periods they were at the museum) over the last several years. Some of these include links to very detailed information about a previous exhibition. One of these exhibitions that include a gallery and education resources is the past exhibition "Flowers of Silk and Gold: Four Centuries of Ottoman Embroidery." This exhibit was at the museum in 2000 but the website allows visitors to continue to visit it. This can also be reached from the current exhibitions page of the website under online exhibitions.

On the collections page of the website, there is a description of the various types of items within the collections; a link to learn more about the terminology used to describe handmade textiles; and links to the textile of the month archives.

On the current exhibitions page of the website are descriptions of the current exhibition at the museum now; information about the Textile Learning Center which is a permanent activity gallery; and four online exhibitions (two of which are discussed above). The other online exhibitions are "Common Threads: Unraveling the World of Textiles" and "Pieces of a Puzzle: Classical Persian Carpet Fragments."

The "Pieces" exhibition can be accessed by either the current exhibitions page or by going directly to it. This exhibition is broken down into five major areas: overview, Khorasan, technique, design and carpets. The overview area gives an overview description of the exhibition. The Khorasan area discusses the province of Khorasan, which is long been renowned for its carpets. The technique area highlights the various techniques used to make the various types of Persian carpets. The design area discusses the various types of designs that were used in Persian carpets. The carpets area shows the specific carpet fragments that are in the exhibition. The "Common Threads" exhibition can be accessed by either the current exhibitions page or online. This exhibition "invites you to unravel the world of textiles through exploration and examination of two objects from The Textile Museum's collections". The two objects are Bhutan rainclock and a Mayan overtunic from Guatemala. To explore these objects, the "virtual" visitor learns about function, artisty, design, environment, and cultural identity. While learning about each item, the "virtual" visitor can also view the entire garment (360 degree view), can zoom into any portion of it to see the design details, and can view related textiles.

This is a wonderful resource to learn more about the history, culture and wonderment of textiles around the world.