Come explore the online Joe Ben Wheat Southwest Textile Database! This treasure trove represents several centuries and many generations of handweaving in the American Southwest. The contents are derived from Dr. Wheat’s long term research, which resulted in his award-winning book, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest (University of Arizona Press, 2003). Originally created and sponsored by the Arizona State Museum, the database is now presented through a pair of independently developed websites. We hope that the information and images presented here will encourage researchers, weavers, artists, collectors, and others to pursue further studies of indigenous textiles of the American Southwest.
The site you’re presently viewing is the public portal to the online Joe Ben Wheat Southwest Textile Database. This website contains information about the database and can be accessed from any browser, including phones and tablets. The button below takes you to a specialized interactive site where you can search and view hundreds of Navajo, Pueblo and Spanish American textiles.
The JBW Southwest Textile Database contains analytical data and images compiled by Wheat for about 1,300 Pueblo, Navajo and Hispanic textiles from more than fifty museums and public collections. (No private collections are included.) With few exceptions, the information, attributions and interpretations are Wheat’s own and so, in a sense, this is a frozen “work-in-progress.” The database site is easier to view from a larger computer or tablet screen. Optimized browsers for the database include Safari 13+, Chrome, Microsoft Edge 44, and New Microsoft Edge 80. If you are trying to view the database on a phone, try viewing the presentation sideways for improved results (still not perfect, and for that we apologize).
We invite you to visit the database site and see what your searches reveal. Depending on your interests, your queries may be quite broad or very specific.
Note: Only 5 users at a time are able to access the database; please try again later if you can’t enter now.
If you’re on hold for the database, you still have full access to our static image galleries anytime. From these non-interactive visual previews of most textiles in the database, you can look up each item’s Textile ID number later through the database site’s Advanced Search form. When working in the database, if the program times out, click on the icon and/or “Sign In as Guest.” (You do not need an account name or password.)
In addition to the galleries, you can always access the Users’ Guide plus other resources: an introduction to Wheat’s research and our project, a glossary of Southwest weaving terms, further reading, copyright and proper site use, credits and acknowledgments, and other relevant features.
We are interested in your comments, reactions and ideas about this website and the database. By clicking Contact, you may give us suggestions for how the site works or doesn’t work for you. Using your responses, we hope to continue improving the search and display mechanisms and, most importantly, to expand everyone’s knowledge about the textile traditions of the American Southwest. Let’s share!
The revision and relaunch of this website are made possible by generous funding from Joshua Baer & Co. (Santa Fe, NM), and from Edgar O. Smith (New York, NY). We couldn’t have done this without support from these enthusiastic donors!
More About this Database:
Introduction | Notes on Content & Format | Credits | Copyright & Site Use