Anne-Louise Schaffer program on Inca Textiles

by | Mar 19, 2010

On March 18, Anne-Louise Schaffer gave a slide presentation on Inca textiles before and after the Spanish Conquest. Included was their manufacture, uses, and decoration and how these changed when the two very different cultures met. Afterwards she gave a brief show-and-tell of 20th century traditional Quechua textiles from her own collection. The Quechua are the direct living descendants of the Inca, and the weavings are the present-day versions of some of the items discussed in the talk.

Anne is a Pre-Columbian specialist who served for 14 years as the Curator of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her interest in ancient Peruvian textiles began during her 9 years as Assistant Curator in the Pre-Columbian Center at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., which has a collection of them.