WINSLOW, Ariz. — After 40 years in storage, the world's largest Navajo rug is finally back on display.
The exhibit displaying the rug officially opened Saturday at the Affeldt Mion Museum, located in the 1930 depot at the historic La Posada Hotel, off Route 66 in Winslow.
The rug, which measures 21'4" by 32'7" and weighs roughly 250 pounds, was created by Navajo weaver Julia Joe and her family back in 1932.
Lorenzo Hubbell, owner of the Hubbell Trading Post, commissioned the rug to draw attention to his business and the unique goods it offered.
"He was having trouble getting people into his Winslow trading posts," museum Creative Director Lori Law said. "So it really was created as a marketing tool to create the world's largest Navajo rug.”
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It took Joe and her family five years to weave. They did everything from shearing the sheep and dying the wool to weaving the rug itself. It was so large it needed a custom-built loom, Law said. And then it needed a custom-built house built around the loom.
Hubbell had his tourist attraction and displayed it in Winslow until he went bankrupt and sold the trading posts. The rug stayed with the trading post as its ownership changed, Law said, before finally being put in storage and almost forgotten in the 1970's.
But a photograph of the La Posada Hotel lobby featured the rug, and Tina Mion and Allan Affeldt -- the hotel's current owners -- just couldn't let it go.
"At that time it was known as the Hubbell Rug, and had not been seen for many decades – like so much of Winslow history, the rug was abandoned and forgotten," Affeldt said at the exhibit's opening on Saturday.
Eventually the couple met then-owner of the Hubbell Trading Post, Patricia Smith, who still had the rug in storage. After years of negotiation, she agreed to sell them the rug as part of her estate. When Smith passed away, Tina and Allan purchased the rug and donated it to Winslow Arts Trust.
"Buying it was just the beginning of our journey. Where and how could you display such a masterpiece?!"
The rug is roughly three stories long, and its presentation posed a unique challenge for the museum. They had to use a cantilever wall, a special type of reinforced architecture, to properly display Joe's stunning work.
The pattern of the rug represents the stars in the sky above, Law said.
"It really is an extraordinary pattern," she said.
And it is also extraordinary that Joe's descendants can see the rug again. The museum invited them for a special viewing of the exhibit before it opened.
"It is very emotional," Janice Mithcell, Joe's great-granddaughter said. "I felt, you know, the touch and I can feel her spirit. She's with us today. I felt it."
The Hubbell-Joe Rug Exhibit and the Licher Collection of Historic Navajo Weavings are officially open to the public. You can visit the Affeldt Mion Museum website for visiting hours and more information.
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