A Classic First Phase Chief’s Blanket, Ute Style, Navajo, circa 1850,
also known as the Fred Harvey First Phase, and as the Nelson-Atkins First Phase.

A Classic First Phase Chief’s Blanket, Ute Style, Navajo, circa 1850, also known as the Fred Harvey First Phase, and as the Nelson-Atkins First Phase.

The first phase measures 70 inches wide by 51 inches long, as woven.
While its width is typical for a classic first phase, its length is atypically short.

The first phase measures 70 inches wide by 51 inches long, as woven. While its width is typical for a classic first phase, its length is atypically short.

Condition is excellent and original with no restorations. The side selvages, top and bottom edge cords, and three of the corner tassels are original. One corner tassel was replaced in 2008, by the Nelson-Atkins Museum. The first phase qualifies as a condition rarity. There are only two or three other known examples of a classic first phase that survived in original, mint condition.

Ex- Fred Harvey Company Indian Department, Albuquerque. In 1933, the first phase was acquired from the estate of Fred Harvey by the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, in Kansas City. The first phase is in the collection of the Nelson-Atkins, and is on display at the museum. [NAM #33-1430.]

The Nelson Atkins First Phase is Illustrated as Plate 199 in Torrence, Continuum – Native North American Art At The Nelson-Atkins Museum Of Art, NAMA, Kansas City, 2020.

Frederick Henry “Fred” Harvey (1835-1901) was the founder of the Fred Harvey Company, of Kansas City. Between 1875 and 1955, the Harvey Company owned and operated the Harvey House dining cars, hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops located every one hundred miles along the Santa Fe Railway between Kansas City and Los Angeles.

In 1901, Harvey’s son-in-law, J. F. Huckel (1863-1936), founded the Fred Harvey Company’s Indian Department. Between 1901 and 1936, Huckel bought and sold many of the classic Navajo chief’s blankets and bayeta serapes now in museum and private collections, including all of the classic Navajo blankets sold by the Harvey Company to William Randolph Hearst.

In the Nelson Atkins First Phase, there is a short dash of red yarn in the white band directly above the right-hand corner of the first phase’s central panel, as pictured. The red yarn in the dash is raveled bayeta piece-dyed with cochineal. The blue yarns are hand-spun Churro fleece dyed in the yarn with indigo. The brown yarns and the white yarns are un-dyed handspun Churro fleeces.