Join us for an introduction to the widely available yet poorly understood objects known since the late 19^th century as Oriental rugs. This broad category includes a wide variety of handwoven pile and flatwoven textiles - some made in the tents of tribal nomadic people and small homes of villagers in the East and others made in city workshops that produce decorative floor coverings and, at the costly upper extreme, large hand-made carpets for court and palatial settings. Jim and Connie Henderson will illustrate the talk with examples they own and several owned by the museum.