Navajo Rugs: : A Connection to Mount Gretna
Navajo Rugs: A Connection to Mount Gretna
Tuesday, August 18 | 6:00pm - 7:30pm
Presented by Don "Stone" Kensinger
This is an in-person program, but you may register to access the live stream (link coming soon). The program is free! Please consider a donation to support future programs such as this. 100% of your donation goes to our mission. Thank you.
About the program
When avid Navajo rug collector, Don "Stone" Kensinger and his wife Vicki, moved into an idyllic Mount Gretna cottage in 2012, one of Pennsylvania's historic Chautauqua towns, they were given a mysterious item that had been handed down from owner to owner since the cottage had been built in the late 1800s. Casual conversations with new neighbors led to a multiyear, cross-country adventure as Stone began to uncover the connections between the original owner of the cottage, W. Theodore Wittman; the forested, lake-front town of Mount Gretna; and Stone's continuing passion for the Diné and their weavings.
Eleven hundred miles separate the Navajo Reservation from Mount Gretna, PA. Despite this vast distance, numerous Navajo rugs have migrated to Mount Gretna. The stories associated with these wonderful weavings and their provenance are the topics of this presentation.
Bio
Stone is the author of WEAVING PASSIONS, Journey from the Dinétah to the Little Red Cottage on Brown, Connecting the Threads of Navajo Rugs, Theo Wittman and Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania. Through photographs and thoughtfully written prose, Stone chronicles his research and delves further into his passion, sharing the separate histories of Mount Gretna and the Diné people; the story of Theo Wittman's life; and personal accounts of rugs collected by residents of Mount Gretna.
Stone's presentation or rather “story telling” includes snippets found in his book, WEAVING PASSIONS, which can be purchased following the presentation. HHC members receive 10% discount.
Please make a donation
In order to support our ongoing mission of promoting our local history in light of the costs incurred for public programming, we are asking for a suggested donation of $10 for members, $15 for nonmembers.