Collected and published here for the first time, the powerful images in this book tell an important story. They illuminate the history of Native American textile art.

Speaking the language of color, pattern, and texture, these rug designs document the interesting period, about a century ago, when Juan Lorenzo Hubbell's Ganado trading post was a center of Southwestern culture as well as commerce. Hubbell's many visitors included several artists who obliged their host by painting "portraits" of the Navajo weavings that Hubbell bought, sold, and often influenced. By showing them to weavers, Hubbell used these painting to inspire a remarkable artistic collaboration that crossed cultures and genres and probably still affects Navajo weavings and American art today.

A few of the paintings remain on display at the Hubbell Trading Post, now a National Monument and still a weaving center. But Navajo Rug Designs brings the entire collection together for the first time. 106 photos and illustrations.

About the series : Look West: What do you find? Wide, wild landscapes...extraordinary plants and animals...rugged people rich in history...ghost towns and working ranches...ancient pueblos and ultramodern urban areas. In the West, coyotes howl. Native Americans endure and flourish. Kokopelli, the mythical humpbacked flute player, prances across the cliff dwellings and into popular culture—and thousands of curio shops. Every small, handsome book in Rio Nuevo Publishers' Look West series presents a unique aspect of the American West. Using words and pictures, each volume explores a special Western topic or phenomenon, and all have been written and illustrated by regional experts. Each of these attractive 6 x 6-inch hardcover books contains 64 pages of text, illustrations, and photographs. And each one allows the reader to capture the spirit of the West in the palm of a hand.