San Diego Museum of Man

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Visit our Tour Destination: Southern California page to see the entire tour of the area’s Save America’s Treasures sites.

The San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man

San Diego Museum of Man:  The Textile Collection
1350 El Prado, Balboa Park

San Diego, CA

Website:  San Diego Museum of Man

The Treasure:  The San Diego Museum of Man’s remarkable collections of Native American textiles.

Accessibility:  The San Diego Museum of Man is open daily from 10 to 4:30. There is always plenty to see at the museum, but don’t go there expecting to see the Native American textile collections—they are currently in storage. To see digital images of the some of the conserved textiles, visit the museum’s Flickr site.

Navajo Blanket from the textile collections
of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego
Museum of Man.

Background:  The San Diego Museum of Man has vast collections of artifacts and photographic images, with a primary focus on Native Americans of California, the Southwest, Mexico, and western South America. The distinctive and handsome museum building dates back to 1915, when it was built for the Panama-California Exposition and showcased an exhibit, “The Story of Man Through the Ages.” Nearly a century later, the museum continues to explore human bio-cultural development and they do this through collecting, preserving, researching, and interpreting anthropological material. Textiles are one example of that anthropological material. The clothes, blankets, rugs, and even fabric toys of a culture can tell us much about the lives of a people.

Native Americans began working with woven fabrics early, developing thousands of different approaches to the art and craft of weaving. The variety of Native American textiles at the Museum of Man is astounding, and their colors and patterns can be dazzling. Key collections include: Southwest textile collections with Navajo weavings as well as handwoven dresses from the Hopi, Zuni, and Isleta people; 980 Guatemalan textiles from 110 villages representing 13 linguistic groups; 1,300 Oaxacan costume pieces collected from over 150 Oaxacan villages; and a Mexican textile collection with pieces representing the Maya of Chiapas and Yucatan, Nahua and Otomi, Hichol, Tarascan, Mayo, Yaqui, Tarahumara, and Tepehuan.

SPECIAL:  Instead of the usual “Notes from the Editor” section, Tour America’s Treasures welcomes guest blogger Molly Gleeson, the San Diego-based archaeological and ethnographic conservator who led the textile conservation project.

Navajo Rug, 1900s from the textile
collections of the San Diego Museum
of Man.  Photo courtesy of the
San Diego Museum of Man.

Notes from Molly Gleeson, Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservator:  The Museum of Man is one of the most recognizable and prominent buildings in San Diego—it’s actually become somewhat of a symbol for the city. Much less recognized, however, are this museum’s incredible collections, which include archaeological, ethnographic, physical anthropology, and photographic materials. A large percentage of the collection is stored underground and is not on display.

One of the perks of being a conservator is having access to museum collections like these and being able to examine objects up-close. During my time working on this Save America’s Treasures project, I, along with several other collections staff members, interns and volunteers, had the opportunity to spend a lot of “intimate” time with the textile collection, which ranges from massive woven Navajo rugs to tiny knitted handbags from Peru. This one is made from a recycled child’s mitten:

Handbag, Historical Peru, post 1871.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego
Museum of Man.

Textile cleaning in process.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Our work with the textiles included documentation of each item using standardized condition report forms that we created specifically for the project, minor surface cleaning using HEPA-filtered vacuums, and re-housing by replacing old, acidic storage materials with new archival materials, including acid-free corrugated board and tissue paper. Beyond knowing that this work was ensuring the long-term preservation of these objects, one of the most rewarding parts of this project was working with our devoted interns and volunteers and having a dialogue each day about these textiles—where they were from, who made them, how they were made and used, and how we could learn some of these things through close examination of each object. We all felt very privileged to be working with such an important collection.

For now, the textiles are packed away and awaiting a new storage space, but we are fortunate that all of these objects were photographed as part of this project. Many of them are on view on the museum’s Flickr site.

Hopi Ceremonial Robe from the textile collections
of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Western Apache Skirt, 1956, from the textile
collections of the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Other Recommended Sites:  The San Diego Museum of Man is one of 17 (!) museums in Balboa Park, a huge urban cultural park that has been encouraging the art of relaxation and tourism since 1835. Explore the Balboa Park website to learn about all the museums, attractions, gardens, theaters, play areas, and trails. And the acclaimed San Diego Zoo is there, too. After all… if you’re visiting San Diego for the first time, you can’t miss their world famous zoo!

Navajo Rug, date unknown, from the textile collections of
the San Diego Museum of Man.
Photo courtesy of the San Diego Museum of Man.

Tour America's History Itinerary

Thursday’s destination:  The Autry National Center

© 2012 Lee Price