Join us for the 14th annual Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Memorial Lecture on Ottoman textiles with Amanda Phillips, associate professor at the University of Virginia.

In the Ottoman Empire, the making, exchange, and use of textiles touched every level of society. Lively trade with Italy, Iran, and India was complemented by the huge array of textiles made within the empire’s bounds. In this talk, Amanda Phillips offers a series of object studies, while also considering how different types of textiles interact. It begins with a hanging made for a Sultan around 1400, moves on to velvet-weaving in Bursa, and ends with an 18th-century barber’s apron in the Museums’ collection.

Watch the livestream

About the speaker

Amanda Phillips began teaching at the University of Virginia in 2015, after earning a doctorate at Oxford and completing fellowships in Berlin and Birmingham. Her first book, Everyday Luxuries (2016), explores early modern ceramics, silks, embroideries, carpets, arts of the book, and other objects; her second book, Sea Change (2021), short-listed for the Textile Society of America’s Shep Prize, focuses on Ottoman textiles — from luxury silks to humble cottons. One of her current projects looks at towel-weaving between Istanbul and Manchester, and another considers embroidery in the global 18th century.

This lecture is named in honor of Caroline and H. McCoy Jones (1897–1987), scholar, collector of nomadic tribal rugs, and founder of the International Hajji Baba Society, a nonprofit dedicated to the understanding and appreciation of fine textiles. In 1980, H. McCoy and his wife, Caroline (1917–2006), made the commitment to donate more than 600 Central Asian carpets and textiles to the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, transforming the Museums into one of the greatest repositories of Central Asian textiles in the United States. After H. McCoy’s death in 1987, Caroline expanded her husband’s collection, focusing on Central Asian and South American textiles, and gifted significant collections of Anatolian kilims and global headwear. Their estate was gifted to the Textile Arts department in 2006. Learn more about the Caroline and H. McCoy Jones Collection. 

Ticket info

Free. Seating is limited and unassigned. Tickets for the discussion are distributed in front of the Koret Auditorium an hour before the program begins, first come, first served. This does not include admission to the museum. 

Contact info

Public Programs
publicprograms@famsf.org
415.750.7694