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Holiday Catalog
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Our Story
While
growing up, Cheryl and Dan Mountcastle shared a love for National Geographic
Magazine and all the exotic lands and peoples they could visit through its
pages. It would be later in life that they would meet through their mutual passion
for travel and culture and form Mountcastle International Trading Company,
Ltd.
Cheryl and Dan met in 1983, while on medical assignment in Saudi Arabia,
and later traveled to other countries on several other assignments. Dan, a doctor, and Cheryl, a registered
nurse, worked in Pakistan
on the border of Afghanistan
and in Thailand on the
borders of Cambodia and Laos. It was in Thailand where they discovered
the intricate quilting work of the Hmong, Laotian hill people who were
displaced by the turbulence in their homeland and moved to refugee
camps. The beautiful quality of this
work and the creative use of color prompted Cheryl and Dan to use their
savings to buy numerous Hmong cushion covers and quilts and try to create a
market in the U. S. to help bring more income to the Hmong women. Upon their
return to the US in 1985,
the couple opened a retail store in a Washington
D.C. mall that was a huge
success.
The success of this store, particularly with customers carrying bags from the
Washington
area museums, encouraged them to begin selling wholesale to museum gift
shops. This would provide a much larger market and thus more financial
assistance to the Hmong women.
Since 1988, Mountcastle International has greatly expanded its product line
to include items made of wood, soapstone, iron, birch bark and glass, from
countries including Thailand,
Kenya, Indonesia, Russia,
Peru, Bangladesh, Chile,
Haiti, Botswana, Poland,
Sri Lanka, Guatemala and
more. They wholesale these products to more than 500 museum stores and 500
retail gift boutiques across the country.
Customers range from small beach shops to the most prestigious museums
in the country.
The
Mountcastles and their five children are currently
working overseas. They are based in
St. Pete Beach, Florida, however, and have a local manager,
Irena Bogusiewicz, a warehouse and small retail
store there. If you're in the area,
stop by and visit their store!
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