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Click on one of these examples from the collection to learn more about it.


Diversity in time, provenance, and technique characterizes the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection. Pre-Columbian and Coptic archaeological textiles are among the collection's earliest pieces. Other major holdings include 19th century American and European coverlets, quilts, and needlework, and sub-collection of ethnographic textiles with strengths in South and Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Turkey.

The collection features both handmade and industrially produced objects created from a wide range of weaving, printing, lacemaking, and embroidery techniques, including works of noted designers such as Jack Lenor Larsen and Dorothy Liebes. Fiber artists are also represented from early works by Peter Collingwood and Claire Zeisler to more recent works by Morgan Clifford and Mary Bero.

Fragment

Chancay culture
Peru, Central Coast
1000-1476
cotton with pigment
P.D.SA.1274
13.5 x 8 in.

Cotton Cloth Fragment

Bidang (woman's skirt)

Iban people
Malaysia, Sarawak
1940-1949
cotton
W.RE.PO.2497
43 x 21.5 in.

Bidang (Woman's Skirt) Pic

Chasuble Panel

Italy, Genoa
1450-1500
silk velvet with silk metallic embroidery
1994.10.1
43 x 26.5 in.
Chasuble Panel

"Chinese Lady"

by Mary Bero
United States, Wisconsin, Dane County, Madison
1986 cotton with cotton embroidery
1991.36.1
3.75 x 3.5 in.

Picture of "Chinese Lady"

"Gazelles"

Designed by Paul Poiret for Schumacher
United States
1925-1930
cotton
P.R.US.345
74.25 x 29.5 in.

Red and Black Gazelles

Huipil (woman's blouse)

Pocomchi people
by AJ Kemmol Women's Weaving Cooperative
Guatemala, Alta Verapaz, Tactic
1995
cotton
1996.8.1
38 x 41 in.

Goats on Cloth

Kanchali (woman's blouse)


possibly Harijan people
India, Gujarat, Kutch or Surindernagar District
1930-1963
silk and cotton with silk, cotton, and metal embroidery and mirrors
E.A.I.1397
29 x 22 in.

Kanchali (woman's blouse)

Lace Inset

Europe
1870-1929
linen
L.N.E.825
6.375 x 6.5 in.

Lace Inset


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