Textile Museum (Washington, D.C.)

The Textile Museum reopened in March 2015 as part of the George Washington University Museum and The Textile Museum on GW's main campus in Foggy Bottom. The museum was founded by collector George Hewitt Myers in 1925 and was originally housed in two historic buildings in D.C.'s Kalorama neighborhood: the Myers family home, designed by John Russell Pope, and an adjacent building designed by Waddy Wood.

The museum's mission is to expand public knowledge and appreciation – locally, nationally and internationally – of the artistic merits and cultural importance of the world’s textiles. The Museum is now housed at the George Washington University.

History

The Textile Museum was established in 1925 by George Hewitt Myers, a rug and textile collector and connoisseur — and is still housed in the building his family called home. At the time of its founding, the museum’s collection included 275 rugs and sixty related textiles, a collection Myers had built since the 1890s. Myers, a pioneer in the appreciation of handmade textiles as art and collectable objects, was drawn to the fact that non-Western textiles were the products of anonymous artists, and therefore not judged by the name or reputation of a particular person. The first objects that Myers purchased were late-nineteenth century Turkish and Caucasian village rugs, vibrant pieces with geometric designs and strong colors. As time passed and his finances allowed, Myers began to acquire a broader range of textiles, from Ottoman carpets to archeological textiles from Peru. By the second decade of his collecting, Myers methodically set out to create a comprehensive assemblage of non-Western textiles for the purpose of increasing public knowledge and appreciation of textile traditions worldwide. His intentions came to fruition in 1925, when he transformed his family home into public institution, and his private collection into a public one.

Textile Museum (Jakarta)

The Textile Museum (Indonesian: Museum Tekstil) houses a collection of textiles from various islands in Indonesia. The museum is located in Jakarta, Indonesia.

History

The Textile Museum building was constructed in the early 19th century. Initially it was a private house of a Frenchman. The building was later sold to Abdul Aziz Al Mussawi al Musa Khadim, a Turkish consul for Batavia. In 1942, the building was sold again to Karel Cristian Cruq.

The building had been used as the headquarters of Barisan Keamanan Rakyat ("Front of People's Safety") during the struggle for independence period. In 1947 it was owned by Lie Sion Phin who rented it to the Department of Social Affairs which modified it into an institution for elderly people. Afterwards the building was handed over to the city's government and on June 28, 1978 it was inaugurated as the Textile Museum by Madame Tien Soeharto.

Collections

The textile museum exhibits many kinds of Indonesian traditional weaving such as Javanese batik, Batak ulos, and ikat. There are also displays of traditional weaving instruments and equipment for textile production.