The Woven U.S. Southwest

is a research project that explores the holdings of the University of Texas at Austin’s Art and Art History Collection’s (AAHC) Southwestern U.S. textiles arts, distinguishing between Navajo, Hopi, Chimayo, and Pueblo textiles. From weaving techniques and dyeing technologies to their social meaning and economic and political value, these textiles are a visual archive of the experiences of the people who created them. The site we have created provides a platform from which a discussion can be initiated on the history, styles, and methods used by Southwestern Native American cultures. Our site intends to be a resource for researchers by providing images taken ourselves, as well as a full catalog of the Southwestern Native American textiles in UT’s Art and Art History Collection (AAHC), which are otherwise only available to view with a UT eid. We feature a selection of textiles from the Navajo, Hopi, Chimayo, and Pueblo, digitized paper records, and research into the subtle nuances captured in detailed photographs that we have taken which are undetectable in the thumbnail images taken by the Visual Resources Center. In presenting these images of the textiles alongside the research, we aim to provide insight to the complex aspects of collections and databases in the visual arts concerning the place of indigenous Southwestern U.S. textiles in our contemporary society and within the context of the societies that created them.  In addition, we have formed chronological catalogs of the various cultures that can be found under the Textiles Catalog tab. On account of the bulk of the collection being attributed to the Navajo, the chronology presented under the Unfolding Tradition tab has been arranged by Classic (1650s-1865), Transitional (1865-1895), and Rug (1895-present) periods (Kent 1985: 3). Although not all of the textiles have attributed dates, and in some cases, there are possible misidentifications of culture and type of textile/ garment, we seek to present these soft tableaus to the public in order to unpack this “hidden” collection and contribute to its visibility.