After meeting Mark and Linda Winter while attending Mark’s lectures “Taos Trade through Textiles” as part of the 2018 NMAM Conference, I hoped to have them consult on the Luther Bean Museum’s collection of Rio Grande and Navajo textiles. I emailed Mark and Linda and they responded that they would be happy to come view our collection! We arranged the visit for Thursday January 3, 2019 and wished for good winter weather.

Mark and Linda Winter at the Luther Bean Museum

Mark and Linda drove up from outside Taos, NM. Mark gave us a brief history of Rio Grande textiles and then we began viewing the textiles. Because there were 25 textiles in all, each view was necessarily brief. We viewed and discussed 10 textiles before breaking for lunch, and then viewed the remaining 15 textiles. We finished up late in the afternoon and gave Mark and Linda a short tour of the museum after which they headed back to New Mexico. It was a whirlwind of a day and we did gather a lot of information on our collection.

Mark and Linda brought an early Rio Grande blanket from their own collection to show us, as well as a number of books and articles that are good reference materials. They also kindly donated several books to the museum.

We deeply thank Mark and Linda Winter for their pro bono consultation and are very grateful for their willingness to come to the Luther Bean Museum and provide their knowledge and insight on our collection of Rio Grande and Navajo textiles.