Plague, Weather, and Wool

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