Loom Set
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Jun 1981
name: label: Collector
content: N/A
label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Marjorie M. Post
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Working loom, not a curio, late 1890's - early 1900's; written in ink on top cross piece: "Owned by Vaughn's Indian Store." (Albuquerque?) [sic]. Set consists of: yarn beam; top & bottom cross poles; heddle rod; wooden batten stick (69 cm. L.), a piece of hard wood with slanted ends & thin blunt edges; & skeins of red-dyed homespun wool."
label: Notes
content: Design motifs on partially completed sampler blanket on the loom include left-facing swastikas, arrows, and 6-pointed stars. Note: the swastika design is actually what is usually called the Navajo "whirling log" symbol. It is in no way related to the Nazi swastika. In 1940, in response to Hitler's regime, the Navajo, Papago, Apache and Hopi people signed a whirling log proclamation. It read, "Because the above ornament, which has been a symbol of friendship among our forefathers for many centuries, has been desecrated recently by another nation of peoples, therefore it is resolved that henceforth from this date on and forever more our tribes renounce the use of the emblem commonly known today as the swastika . . . on our blankets, baskets, art objects, sand paintings and clothing." Reference: The Swastika Symbol in Navajo Textiles by Dennis J. Aigner. DAI Press, Laguna Beach, California, 2000.
label: Notes
content: See p. 48, entry on Vaughn's Indian Store, in Messier, Pat & Kim Messier. Reassessing Hallmarks of Native Southwest Jewelry: Artists, Traders, Guilds and the Government. Atglen, Pa: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2014. It is noted there: "Reese Vaugh came to Phoenix [Arizona] in 1900, bought an established curio shop in 1918, and operated it as Vaughn's Indian Store. He built and expanded the business until it was "Arizona's largest curio store" in the early 1930s. At one point, five Indian [Navajo and Hopi] silversmiths were employed .... After selling the Phoenix store in 1936, Vaughn opened shops in Williams, Arizona, and in California on Hollywood Boulevard situated across from Grauman's Chinese Theater. ...Reese Vaughn retired to Phoenix in 1948."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 13 Jan 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 3
place: label: Place
content: Ganado Area, Navajo Reservation / Apache County, Arizona, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Navajo (Diné)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 318782
label: USNM Number
content: E418965A-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Loom / Blanket