This photochrome print of women making carpets in Algiers is part of “Views of People and Sites in Algeria” from the catalog of the Detroit Publishing Company (1905). Carpets in Algeria traditionally were made by women, woven or knotted from wool or goat hair, and often formed the most important decorative element in a home. In the late 19th century, traditional female crafts in Algeria, such as weaving, embroidery, and carpet making, suffered from the competition with machine-made imports, but beautiful handmade carpets still found a ready market in Algeria and abroad. The women in the photograph are identified as Moors, a name that refers to the medieval Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula as well as the Maghreb (including Algeria) and western Africa, but that in Europe often was used more generally to refer to anyone of Arab descent. The large house pictured in the print might have been in the Casbah (fortress) area of Algiers.