Ancient Looms Revisited
Margrethe Hald and the tubular loom around the world
In 1967, the Danish textile researcher and curator Margrethe Hald (1897-1982) retired from the National Museum of Denmark. Her retirement and life-work were celebrated with her last exhibition Oldtidsvæve (Ancient Looms), which was shown both at the National Museum in Copenhagen and at the Prehistoric Museum (now Moesgaard Museum) in Aarhus. The exhibition showed the variety as well as the many related types of looms across the world, the high-light being the so-called Tubular Looms, which Hald had collected on several study trips around the world.
Ancient Looms Revisited follows in the footsteps of Margrethe Hald on her travels to the Middle East and South America in her search for the tubular loom through her photos, drawings, and letters that formed the background for her final exhibition in 1967.
Passportphoto of M. Hald. The National Archives of Denmark.
The online exhibition is curated by Ulrikka Mokdad and Morten Grymer-Hansen, Centre for Textile Research, The Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen, and is part of the research project Margrethe Hald: the Life of a Textile Pioneer - new insights and perspectives (Margrethe Hald the Life and Work of a Textile Pioneer: new insights and perspectives – University of Copenhagen (ku.dk))
Thanks to Agnes Geijers Fond för Nordisk Tekstilforskning and Prof. Ludvig Wimmer og Hustrus Legat for funding the project and this exhibition. Also thanks to the project's advisory board and PI Eva Andersson Strand.
The Tubular Loom
Middle East, 1960 & 1961
South America, 1965-1966
Ancient Looms, 1967
Copyright belongs to CTR and the heirs of Margrethe Hald, unless stated otherwise.