Understanding the Met's Palestinian Dress Collection: Intangible Heritage, Identity, and Dress
Research Sharing with Wafa Ghnaim, Senior Research Fellow in the Antonio Ratti Textile Center and the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art
Wafa Ghnaim studying a Ramallah thobe in the Met’s collection (MMA 45.113) in December, 2023.
Date: Thursday, July 25, 2024
Time: 1pm
Location: Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall— Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028
Registration: Registration is now closed. The event has reached capacity. You will not be allowed to enter the event without registration.
Cost: This event is free when entering at the 80th Street garage.
Notes:
All visitors must enter through security.
Please do not share this event on social media.
The event will be recorded, and Wafa will be share it at a later time (at her discretion) through The Lecture Archive.
This event will be moderated by Latinx Dress Historian, and Associate Collections Specialist in the Antonio Ratti Textile Center, Michelle McVicker.
Until the mid-twentieth century, the dress of the Palestinian people was descriptive of identity; first by societal segment (city dweller, villager or nomad), and then by the region in which the wearer came. Within each regional style, finer distinctions in women’s dress (thobe) were expressed that shared the maker’s life and the natural world around her. Palestinian women recorded their identity in their thobe with tatreez (embroidery) through a shared illustrative language of embroidered patterns, stitching techniques and thread colors. The thobe records unwritten stories and serves as a visual register of collective and individual identities, documenting a woman’s village, tribe or town, her marital status, her familial lineage, and the material impact of colonialism, occupation, war and exile. While the regional identity of the woman defines the overall governing style of her thobe, evidence of her personal taste through choice of beadwork, coin adornment and stylization of motifs provide further insight into her perspective and sense of humor.
In an early assessment, The Metropolitan Museum of Art held 54 dress-related objects attributed as Palestinian in its collection that have required years of study by Wafa Ghnaim. During her fellowship year (2023-2024), Wafa Ghnaim completed her review with identification of the Palestinian dress collection in collaboration with the Department of Islamic Art. Since, Wafa has uncovered the origination story of the collection, the way in which it formed since the first ensemble was donated in 1939, and why it matters today. Wafa has pursued additional research into the traceable origins of Palestinian headdresses. Bringing her deep knowledge in the study of intangible cultural heritage, and in partnership with the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art and the Department of Scientific Research, she has gathered preliminary findings that connect Palestinian oral history, the ancient world and scientific analysis of material culture.