I have a degree in Textiles and have visited textile museums in the US and Europe and don't personally think the one in DC is very good at all. It's very small, and they don't have anything on permanent display, so if there isn't a special exhibit you want to see, don't bother going. Actually, I first went there only a year or two ago even though I'd been here for years, and was really surprised at how little was on display. I asked one of the docents or something why they didn't have more on display, didn't they have any permanent things on display? And she told me that would be impossible, the textiles were too fragile, you couldn't have things on display except for special exhibits. I just looked at her and said, have you ever been to any textile museum anywhere else in the world? Well, try going to a good one, like the one in Lyon, France, they have lots of things on regular display that are not temporary special exhibits (for heaven's sake, they have things from Medieval times on display). So I don't think much of their staff if they know so little.

So if they have an exhibit you are interested in, okay, but otherwise I wouldn't bother. And it is just a few rooms in an old townhouse, not like a regular big museum like other ones I"ve been to.

Thanks, Christina -- I've only visited the Textile Museum for special exhibits and have always thought I should get there in between. I can stop feeling guilty! :-)