Image: History of Inventions USNM 28 Zuni Indian Weaver

Description: We'wha demonstrates blanket loom weaving on the grounds of the United States National Museum while on a visit to Washington, DC in 1880. Plate 28. Zuni Indian woman weaving. — Plaiting with the fingers, as well as the simplest loom work, is done by persons sitting or stooping. The feet are not used, either in decussating the warp or in throwing the shuttle, A simple harness of wood is provided, or one is made by seizing each alternate warp thread and attaching it to a rod. The figure here shown represents a Zuni Indian woman, of New Mexico, weaving with the blanket loom. The attachment of the warp to an upper and lower beam is an ingenious provision for the tension. The shuttle is a short stick and the batten is a wooden sword. Patterns are wrought by a process of darning the alternate sheds.
Title: History of Inventions USNM 28 Zuni Indian Weaver
Credit: Walter Hough, 1880, https://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_389209
Author: United States National Museum (Smithsonian Institution), Washington D.C.
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No