

The Museum has been established to promote increased appreciation for the historic weaving art of indigenous weaving cultures located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the adjacent areas known as the Caucasus Mountains and Southwestern Turkmenistan.

Notwithstanding more than 100 years of investigation and the collection of a significant amount of data, little positive provenance information has yet emerged to pinpoint the origins of most Oriental carpet designs.
Shawls of Kashmir
Kashmir shawls have long been treasured for their luxurious materials and splendid evocative designs. Their softness, ability to warm the body and brilliant coloration were revered throughout the Near East for centuries...
Mystery Tapestries Identified
During the last two decades appreciation for all types of flat-woven textiles has grown immensely and no longer are these documents of warp and weft placed on the back shelf of art history.
Archaeology and Slit-Tapestry
Long before the invention of the modern loom, perhaps as early as the middle of the Neolithic period c.7000BC, extremely simple but highly functional warp weighted looms created patterned tapestries.
Classic Weaving of the Caucasus
Prior to the mid-19th century exemplary flat-woven bags and larger weavings were produced in the area known as the Caucasus.
From Tent and Town
Turkmen weavings, like the Turkmen themselves, are as little understood today as they were at the end of the last century. It was at that time, circa 1875, the Czarist Russian government finally succeeded in conquering the various groups...