Weaving a Foundation: Cornerstones of the Textile Arts Collection

Throughout the Denver Art Museum’s history, textile arts have played a fundamental role in the development of its collecting philosophies and exhibition programs. The first textile entered the museum almost one hundred years ago, and since that time, textile arts have been regular additions to the collection. Among the handful of early patrons, the Douglas Family of Evergreen, Colorado, emerged as the most steadfast donors of textiles. 

This union of two civic-minded families, Dr. Josepha Williams Douglas (1860–1938)—one of Colorado’s first women physicians—and Canon Charles Winfred Douglas (1867–1944), built upon Josepha’s family homestead, Camp Neosho (now Hiwan Homestead Museum). They fostered in their son, Frederic (Eric) H. Douglas (1897–1956), a deep appreciation for the art and cultures of Indigenous peoples. Eric would eventually become the inaugural curator of Indian Art at the Denver Art Museum in 1929. An examination of their early donations reveals how the museum developed its collecting and programming philosophies and how the founders envisioned the role of the museum. This exhibition highlights a selection of the family’s donations that demonstrates their celebration of traditional and living cultures and the value of exhibiting them together. 

Weaving a Foundation features sixty objects from the museum’s permanent collection, two-thirds of which have never been shown. Though the Douglas family’s commitment to the Native Arts of North America is well documented, this exhibition reveals their interest in diverse world cultures and textile traditions. Weaving a Foundation demonstrates the Douglas family’s evolution as collectors, inspired by their travels to India and Southeast Asia and Eric’s time stationed in the Pacific during World War II. These life events, in turn, informed the direction of the museum’s textile arts collection, which foregrounds the work of women artists and recognizes living artistic traditions. Douglas’s curatorial approach, supported by his wife and parents, laid the cornerstones for a strong foundation from which the Textile Arts and Fashion Department continues to build. 

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