Loom with Textile

From card: "with samples of work." see related objects cat. nos. 16495 and 16496. This is actually a curio loom with an american flag rug/sampler still on the loom. See national anthropological archives photo neg. #2391, photo of Juanita Paltito, wife of Manuelito, with cat. #16494, and also n.a.a. photo neg. #2405, photo of Juanita and W.F.M. Arny with cat. #16494. Based on these photos, Juanita is presumed to be the weaver of the textile. Arny accompanied the Navajo delegation of 1874 (Dec. 1874 -Jan. 1875) to Washington. Juanita (Navajo name Asdzáá Tl'ógí, "weaver woman", 1845-1910) accompanied her husband Navajo leader Manuelito (1816-1894), who was a member of the 1874 delegation. both photos were taken by Charles m. bell in bell's studio on Pennsylvania avenue, during the 1874 delegation visit to Washington, d.c. - f. Pickering and Paula Fleming 7-27-2000 see anthropology collections lab accession file for additional information on Juanita.

Information from "Textiles of the American Southwest" webpage entry on this artifact, http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/textiles/english/catalog/e016494.htm : Curio loom with unfinished weavings. Probably made by the Navajo weaver Juanita in New Mexico and brought from Fort Defiance with the Navajo delegation of 1874. Dimensions: 35.5 in. (warp including wooden rods) x 17.75 in. (weft). Technique: Tapestry weave. Thread count: Warp = 14/in.; Weft = 24/in. Fibers: Warp = 3-ply commercial wool yarn, natural white, light green, gold, and red, S-twist, Z-spin. Weft = 3-ply commercial wool yarn, natural white, light green, gold, red, blue, and black, S-twist, Z-spin. Selvages, warp and weft = 3-ply commercial wool yarn, gold, Z-twist, S-spin. Design: The upper weaving represents a U. S. flag with 13 red and whites stripes with 1 blue and 3 white crosses (stylized stars) floating on the red stripes. One corner is blue with 35 crosses (or stylized stars). The lower weaving has 7 red and white stripes along the bottom half and on top, a pattern of zigzags in black, gold, blue, white, light green, and red.
Blanket is described on p. 99 of Denetdale, Jennifer Nez. 2007. Reclaiming Dine' history: the legacies of Navajo Chief Manuelito and Juanita. Tucson: University of Arizona Press: "Textile scholar Kate Kent Peck [sic, should be Kate Peck Kent] names this textile as one of the first pictorials woven by a Navajo woman. Incomplete, half of the textile depicts the American flag; the other half is an "eye-dazzler," so named for its brilliant colors. Navajo women began weaving eye-dazzlers only after gaining access to brightly colored yarns manufactured after 1868." Denetdale is the great-great-great-granddaughter of Manuelito and Juanita.
Per the online exhibit "Navajo Weaving at Arizona State Museum: 19th Century Blankets; 20th Century Rugs; 21st Century Views", http://www.statemuseum.arizona.edu/exhibits/navajoweave/historic/eye_dazzlers.shtml, retrieved 1-30-2015: "During the Transitional Period ... from blanket-making to rug-weaving, Navajo weavers often applied bright commercial dyes to their handspun wool or used brilliantly colored commercial yarns in their rugs. Borrowing from the elaborate serrate diamonds of Mexican Saltillo sarapes, they created eye-dazzling geometric designs with this new color palette. Such "eye dazzlers" were popular with trading posts and tourist buyers."