June 24th, 2021 - Ganado Red: Weavings 1890-1950

In 1878 Juan Lorenzo Hubbell bought the trading post at Ganado, and over the next fifty years exerted enormous influence on the region. He had wholesale accounts with Fred Harvey curio shops across the Southwest and produced mail order catalogues of Navajo weavings to be sold across the country.

Hubbell worked with hundreds of weavers and thousands of weavings. Thought to be one of the first traders to promote Navajo blankets as rugs, he encouraged weavers to produce larger, heavier pieces, to take special orders and produce unusual designs. His stylistic preferences tended towards reds, greys, blacks and whites, and he had a penchant for design elements such as Spiderwoman crosses and serrated edges. Weavers, in turn, responded to his tastes and produced more rugs incorporating these designs.

J.L. Hubbell was hugely influential in promoting, marketing and commercializing Navajo weaving, but the true originators of what we now consider Ganado style were the weavers themselves. Laboriously produced by hand, over many months, the weavings and designs are the result of the imagination, creativity and master artistry of Diné weavers.