Master Weaver: Julia Bah Joe | Co-Weaver: Lillie Joe Hill

In 1932, in Lower Greasewood Arizona on the Navajo Nation, Diné (Navajo) weaver Julia Bah Joe along with her daughter Lillie (Joe) Hill, took on a commission from Lorenzo Hubbell Jr. to create “The World’s Largest Navajo Rug.” With the help of Julia’s husband Sam, her daughters Emma, Mary, and Helen, along with the ladies of the Kin ł ichii’nii (Red House) Clan and the community of Lower Greasewood, Julia and Lillie spent the next five years focused on that goal. What resulted was a masterpiece, not just in size, but in technique, with an evenness of weave, uniformity of color, and complexity of design. Julia and Lillie considered this 21’4’ x 32’7” two-hundred-and-fifty-pound textile to be their finest work.

Diyogí Tsoh—which translates to The Big Rug in Navajo–is the largest known traditionally made Navajo Rug. The rug does not use commercially produced wool, but rather hand-carded, dyed, and spun wool from family sheep. It is on exhibit at Affeldt Mion Museum, thanks to a long-term loan from the Winslow Arts Trust. The rug, originally commissioned by Lorenzo Hubbell Jr and shown in his Winslow Trading Post, returned to Winslow in 2012 thanks to Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion.

The Commission:

During the Great Depression, Lorenzo Hubbell Jr needed an attraction to draw tourists into his Winslow Arizona Trading Post. He came up with an innovative idea to create the “World’s Largest Navajo Rug.” In 1932, he collaborated with Julia Bah Joe, a well-known weaver from Lower Greasewood Arizona, to bring this vision to life.

Creating the “World’s Largest Navajo Rug”

To make a weaving this size, Julia Joe’s husband Sam built a custom metal pipe loom along with a 40’ x 30’ x 10’ addition to their house for the women to work. The community sheared a couple hundred of their sheep to provide the wool, including Lillie’s husband David’s flock.

Julia’s daughters, along with many other community members, spent nearly two years washing, carding, dying, and spinning the wool.

According to family, Julia Joe became ill shortly after the project began, so the much of the weaving fell on the shoulders of her then 36-year-old daughter, Lillie Hill (seen on the right in the image below).

The grandmothers stories were shared, who the community would bring pots of mutton stew and sit around telling stories while preparing the wool. Julia and daughter Lillie sat at the loom from “sunup to midnight” for “three years and three weeks” (according to Hubbell documents), weaving the magnificent textile. In 1937, five years after Lorenzo Hubbell Jr. first commissioned the rug, Julia, Lille, and all who had put heart and soul into this rug, completed the 21’4’ x 32’7” masterpiece.

The Pattern

The weaving uses a natural palette of grays, blacks, whites, and the traditional J.L. Hubbell Ganado Red (aniline dye), and features the universe as the theme, including stars and the milky way. The design also includes horned toads and protective shields. The border pattern is based on Ancestral Puebloan potsherds found near the home by Julia Joe’s son-in-law, Jerome Tshischilly. While viewing the rug, look for the spirit line, or ch’ihónít’I: a single contrasting color that extends through the border to the edge. Navajo weavers believe their spirits become entwined in the wool as they weave. The last stitch they make, the ch’ihónít’I, provides a path for the weaver’s spirit to safely leave and live to make another rug, following in the tradition of Na’ashjéii Asdzáá (Spider Woman), who taught the Navajo to weave. You’ll find Julia and Lillie’s spirit lines in the upper right corner.

The Rug’s Journey

Hubbell used the extraordinary weaving as a marketing tool both in his Winslow Trading Post and beyond. The Big Rug traveled from museums to the U.S. Senate Chambers in Washington D.C.; from the 1939 Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Exhibition to Marshall Field & Company’s Chicago department store in 1943. The rug was shown at the 1948 International Travel Show in New York, and at Hubbell’s own Winslow Motor Company as a backdrop to the new 1946 DeSoto. In April 1948, the Winslow Chamber of Commerce sponsored a float in the Phoenix Junior Chamber Rodeo Parade, where they draped the rug over a cross beam.

After Lorenzo Hubbell Jr’s death in 1942, the business went to brother Roman Hubbell, who went bankrupt in 1949. Businessman Kyle Bales bought the Winslow Trading Post with all the inventory, including the famous rug. Between the 1950s-1970s, the massive weaving continued to travel the country. In 1951, the rug was shown at the Los Angeles County Fair; in 1965, the World’s Fair in New York; in 1966, at the Heard Museum; and in 1969, the Arizona State Fair.

It was also occasionally shown at the still operating trading post. There, Julia Joe was able to see her masterwork again in 1965.

Julia and Lillie traveled with Miss Navajo Genevieve Lee Salt in 1972, where they were again reunited with their incredible weaving.

Julia passed away in 1974 at 99-years-old.

The Big Rug Goes into Storage

When Kyle Bales–owner of the rug–passed away, daughter Patricia donated the former Hubbell Trading Post in Winslow to the Arizona Historical Society in hopes of it becoming a museum. That did not happen, and Julia Joe and Lillie Joe Hill’s masterpiece, the “World’s Largest Navajo Rug,” disappeared into storage where it remained for more than forty years.

The Largest Traditionally Made Navajo Rug Returns to Winslow

By the time Allan Affeldt and Tina Mion moved to Winslow in 1997, the rug had long been forgotten and Hubbell’s Trading Post had been unsympathetically ‘renovated.’ Allan understood the rug’s significance, so he tracked down Patricia Smith-–Kyle Bale’s daughter. Together, Allan and Patricia helped acquire the trading post, which became the Winslow Visitor’s Center. The once-famous rug remained in storage until 2012 when Allan purchased it from Patricia’s sons. Shortly after returning the weaving to Winslow, Allan hosted a blessing ceremony with Julia Joe’s family including 94-year-old Emma (Joe) Lee, Julia’s daughter, who’d helped card the wool seventy-five years earlier. Emma’s family helped her walk the path one last time.

2023 Family Gathering

Before the exhibit opened in September 2023, we again invited descendants to come see and touch the rug before it opened to the public. Read the full report by clicking the button below.

The Big Rug Gallery

To reach a broader audience, Allan and Tina donated this important piece of history to the Winslow Arts Trust. They wanted the rug to be in the town where it was originally displayed, but the dream of an exhibit presented many challenges. A textile of this size and importance needed a large, important, and nuanced space. After years of planning, Allan Affeldt, with help from the City of Winslow, NACOG, and Allan’s crew of dedicated artists, engineers, and workers, completed the rehabilitation and expansion of Mary E.J. Colter’s 1930 depot at La Posada Hotel, including this redesigned baggage room, the new permanent home of Diyogí Tsoh: The Big Rug.

This extraordinary rug, brought to life in the 1930s can now be shared with the world, thanks to modern-day visionaries who value the preservation of our history and encouragement of the arts.

Naming the Rug

For years, the textile created to be the “World’s Largest Navajo Rug” was referred to as just that, but another weaving surpassed it in size in 1977 (see below), so calling it the “World’s Largest” was no long appropriate. After that time, it was often referred to as the Hubbell Rug, named for Lorenzo Hubbell Jr who commissioned and funded the project in 1932. No credit was given to the weavers. Later, the name “Joe” was added to honor master-weaver Julia Joe, but the name “Hubbell-Joe” did not honor Julia’s daughters–Lillie Hill, who did much of the weaving, nor Emma Lee, Helen Clark, or Mary Yazzie who helped card the wool–nor did it honor the Kin ł ichii’nii (Red House) Clan who came together over pots of mutton stew to spin wool. The family has always stressed this was not the work of one weaver, but rather a community effort. 

While Lorenzo Hubbell Jr, played a major role with the initial idea and support, it was the Diné people of Lower Greasewood who brought this masterpiece to life. To honor these origins, Affeldt Mion Museum refers to the weaving as the family does: DIYOGÍ TSOH: The Big Rug.

The Big Sister Rug of Chilchinbeto

While Diyogí Tsoh was created to be the “World’s Largest Rug” in the 1930s, a weaving in 1977 surpassed it in size, created by the community of Chilchinbeto. The Big Sister Rug measures 24’5″ in height and 37’10” feet and consists of five sets of individual designs, so the effect is of twenty-five separate rugs side-by-side. Although it looks like the rugs are sewn together, it is, in fact, one woven piece, made by eleven weavers on a 38′ by 25′ loom using commercially produced yarn. The Big Sister is not currently on display but if you’d like to learn more, take a look at this terrific documentary.

The existence of the Big Sister does not diminish the accomplishments of Julia Joe, Lillie Joe, and the Kin ł ichii’nii clan, though, who not only wove this bordered, single-narrative rug, but also sheared, hand-carded, spun, and dyed the wool for this incredible traditionally made masterwork. We applaud both the Chilchinbeto community and the community of Lower Greasewood Arizona for what they’ve given the world in these two extraordinary weavings.

To read more about the design and building of this exhibit, click the button below.