Plague, Weather, and Wool

Todd Richardson, MD, is a retired Family Medicine physician, havingpracticed for thirty six years in Louisville, Kentucky.He developed a keen interest in oriental rugs and began studying andcollecting them over forty years ago. Dr. Richardson also has had anabiding interest in medical history since obtaining his BA in History atthe University of Louisville. Since that time, he has belonged to textileorganizations, given lectures on oriental rugs and previouly owned hisown oriental rug business.It was while attending a national oriental rug meeting that he noticed theassociation between the fi rst appearance of oriental rugs in Europe andthe beginning of the Bubonic plague, now known as the Black Death.