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| While the craft of rug hooking has been practiced for centuries it was two Union veterans from Maine who contributed more to its advancement than anyone throughout the ages. These men made it possible for anyone to liven up their homes with a beautiful hooked rug. |
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| The following passage was found in an 1857 Sunday School book which was printed in Pennsylvania. It describes how women in the mid-1800's turned scraps from the rag bag into coverings for both bed and floor which were not only utilitarian but often quite attractive. "The bed-quilt was made of patch-work; little bits of bright calico were sewed into the form of stars and then quilted into white pieces that filled up the space between them. The floor was clean and bare; but in front of the bed lay a large oval rug, made of strips of woollen cloth carefully braided, and then sewed together. Bed-quilt and rug both made of rags, and yet so very nice and pretty!" |
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| Both braiding and hooking of rugs provided a barrier between cold floors. The craft of rug hooking can be traced back to the sixth century when it was practiced by the Copts (ancestors of the ancient Egyptians). An example of a rug from this period is housed in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. |
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| Rug hooking was a popular craft in England, Scotland, Scandanavia, Spain, Northern Ireland, and Wales, and when these people left their ancestral homes and travelled to America they brought the craft with them. Rugs were being hooked in the American colonies very early on. By the 1860's rug hooking was quite popular although its popularity declined somewhat following the War Between the States until the 1930's when it again enjoyed revived interest. |
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| Hooked creations were used centuries ago as bed coverings and eventually found their rightful place on the bare floors of many homes. |
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| Hooked rugs are made by hooking narrow strips of woolen fabric into a backing material. The loops are raised above the backing forming a pile and designs are formed by hooking shades of varying colors of wool. One reason so few original rugs survive today is that the poor quality of backing material used in the early - mid-19th century led to deterioration, and another is that most women saw their rugs strictly as utilitarian pieces and placed no value on saving them. Rugs were made to provide warmth and when they became soiled they were discarded and replaced with a new rug. They didn't launder and even today cleaning one requires a knowledgeable professional skilled in the cleaning of such rugs. |
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| Women in the 18th and 19th centuries lived very simply and conditions were harsh. Floors were sometimes only dirt. Long winters were drab and desolate and many women incorporated patterns into their rugs to remind them of the beauty of nature and the spring and summer. Frequently used patterns included farm animals, houses or cabins, and flowers. Rugs may be classified as traditional or primitive with most of the early rugs falling into the latter category. |
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| Sailors were known to practice the art of rug hooking to pass the lonely hours at sea. These rugs were often presented to wives, mothers, or sweethearts upon their return from the sea. Their designs were generally of a nautical nature. Backings for these sailors' rugs were often cotton cloth or canvas. The sailors' wives were often avid rug hookers as well and whiled away the long months the men were out to sea hooking rugs. |
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| In a primitive rug there is less shading, and patterns are fairly simple. They are not to scale with regard to size in that a flower may be larger than the house it blooms next to. The feature the rug hooker treasured most was usually placed in the center with other designs added around it. |
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| The makers of these early rugs could hardly afford the luxury of using newly spun fabric for rugs, and turned to scraps from the rag bags and discarded clothing for the wool needed to hook rugs. Old capes and blankets which were worn too badly to be serviceable were often over-dyed and cut into strips for rugs. |
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| The dyeing process was usually supervised by an older female member of the family who might have more practice in the art of natural dyeing. She turned to roots, berries, onion skins, leaves, etc. to achieve the colors of nature, which were often quite brilliant and cheerful. |
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| The backing for early rugs in America were often old coffee, sugar, feed, or grain bags. Sometimes burlap was used and because the burlap often deteriorated more quickly than the wool the rugs were hooked with many early rugs did not survive over the decades or centuries. Linen was also a popular backing and Scotch linen is often still used today. |
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| Like quilting and other 19th century crafts, rug hooking was often enjoyed as a group activity. Hooking bees brought women together not only to aid in the crafting of a rug, but also to enjoy the warmth and friendship of their neighbors and family members. They provided women who often lived in isolated rural areas the opportunity to share information and stories with friends and neighbors while at the same time producing something practical and useful. |
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| For many years woolen uniforms were transformed into hooked treasures when soldiers returned home from war. This may be traced to the Revolutionary war and continued through the World Wars. The following poem was found in a New England attic (author unknown), and was often used by collector, Ralph Burnham, in his lectures in the 1930's. |
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| "The Revolutionary Hooked Rug |
| When Dad came back from Bunker Hill |
| And the Colonies were free, |
| He hung his musket over the shelf |
| And his sword on the saddle tree. |
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| His officer's coat and his soiled buff vest |
| His pants and his mufflings snug |
| He lovingly laid on Granma's lap, |
| With his old red mitts and his woolen cap, |
| To be put in a grand hooked rug. |
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| The rug was hooked on a linen ground, |
| With a border of roses red, |
| And there and here it was splashed with a tear |
| For her boy that had fought and bled. |
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| Lexington, Concord,and Valley Forge, 'till Mon- |
| Mouth's bloody fight, |
| 'Twas there he fell in a fire of hell, |
| When Victory was in sight. |
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| We have cherished that rug for many a year, |
| No foot on its flowers would tread, |
| 'Twas Granma's monument to her boy, |
| Who for liberty fought and bled." |
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| Between 1860 and 1870 red, white, and blue were often hooked into designs to show patriotism. Few designs from this era were without a floral motif of some kind, if not in the design itself, then perhaps as a border. Indigo and madder were used to obtain the blues and reds in these patriotic creations. |
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| Drafting one's own pattern allowed for creativity and the outlines were often drawn on with a charred stick. |
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| Edward Sands Frost revolutionized the art of rug hooking by creating stencils for drawing the designs. This allowed less creative women to hook rugs for their homes by simply filling in the outlines already stenciled on the backings. |
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| Frost was born in Biddeford, Maine on January 1, 1843, and he was a veteran of Co. E, 1st Main Cavalry, USA. While recuperating at home following his discharge from the army he watched his wife hooking a rug and was captivated by the craft. Frost's first contribution to the art of rug hooking was designing a more productive hook than the one he'd seen his wife using. |
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| Frost was a machinist by trade, but upon returning from the army his health was not good and he became a peddler in order to spend more time out in the fresh air. These hooks were carried in the line of goods he sold from his peddler's wagon. In addition he sold all types of household items from calico to tinware. Frost sold his wares throughout Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, including his hooks and stenciled rug backings. |
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| Many n the community predicted Frost would never be successful at selling these rug backings, however, he stated in 1888 that he'd received orders for twenty rugs within three days of first producing a stenciled backing. Frost's first design was drawn onto paper then transferred to fabric, but he soon discovered that by etching the design onto copper panels he could reduce ten hours labor to two and a half. |
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| As he made his rounds from one house to the next selling his wares, the women often invited him in for tea and a bit of food, and he would admire their hooked rugs. After a while he began to make offers to buy some of the nicer patterns, often purchasing several rugs from one source. |
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| He took these rugs back to his shop where he began to carve designs with a hammer and chisel in copper wash boiler plates he'd accumulated over the years. As he grew more skilled in this his designs became more elaborate with each addition stenciled in a different color to indicate shading of various areas. This was accomplished by using multiple plates for each stenciled backing. |
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| Frost's stenciled burlap rug foundations sold for $l.00 or less in 1870, and his patterns continued to utilize flowers and farm animals (horses, lambs, dogs, cats, etc.). By selling these rug foundations Frost's work began to be widely recognized, and one of his designs received a first place award at the Mechanic's Fair in Boston for the best and handsomest patterns manufactured. His designs also won a similar award at the American Institute Fair in New York. By the time his design received the award in Boston, however, Frost had sold his business to the mayor of Biddeford, Mr. James H. Stroud, and had moved to California to try to recover his declining health. |
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| Frost's designs were identified by the stamping of, "E.S. Frost & Co., Biddeford, ME." His designs were characterized by a border made up of simple repeated scrolls. Corner decorations were often used as well. Frost's rugs were of the primitive design which means they are not necessarily true to scale with regard to size and shading was kept to a minimum. |
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| Rug hooking increased in popularity during the 1860's, and continued after the war although in the war-torn South it is very unlikely women would have had the luxury of cutting fabric into strips for hooked rugs. Many Southern homes remained with bare floors twenty years after the war ended because most households cut the carpets from the floors to make blankets for the soldiers and materials were quite simply not available to produce rugs on any large scale. |
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| During the mid-19th century backings were often made of homespun linen or cotton, and scrolls hooked into the rugs were often inspired by clocks and furniture of the period which were highly decorative. |
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| Drafting one's own pattern remained popular with some women, however, Frost's stenciled backings allowed women with less creative imaginations to hook a rug without having to first design and transfer the pattern. |
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| In order to create designs wool was needed in various colors and shadings. This is where Union veteran, Wainwright Cushing, made another important contribution to the art of rug hooking. Following the war Cushing worked as a dyer in a mill in Foxcraft, Maine. His skills as a dyer were widely known and local women began to plead with him to create dyes they could use in their rug hooking projects. After a while he began to experiment with various dyes for this purpose. They were chemical dyes that replaced the time-consuming practice of natural dyeing. His first colors were turkey red and black, and these were soon followed by a wide range of dye colors. Cushing's dyes may still be purchased allowing crafters to easily recreate the colors used by their great grandmothers. |
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| Rug hooking has risen and fallen in popularity over the years since the War Between the States. Today it is a rapidly growing craft and women have formed hooking guilds throughout the U.S. and Canada. Reproduction period frames allow living historians to recreate the art of rug hooking as it was practiced during the mid-1800's and to share this with spectators. It is a craft most have not been exposed to, and it opens the door for a wide range of topics of conversation. |
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| BIBLIOGRAPHY: |
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| You Can Hook Rugs. McGown, Pearl K. 1951. Buck Printing Co., Boston, Mass. |
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| The Hooked Rug: A Record of its Ancient Origins, Modern Development, Methods of Making, Sources of Design, Value as a Handicraft, The Growth of Collections, Probable Future in America and Other Data. Kent, William Winthrop. 1941. Tudor Publishing Co., New York. |
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| Rug Hooking Made Easy. Stratton, Charlotte Kimball. 1955. Harper & Brothers Publishers. New York. |
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| Practical Hooked Rugs. Rex, Stella Hay. 1949. Prentice & Hall Inc., New York. |
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| Rugmaking, A Practical Introduction. Droop, Joan. 1971. London: G. Bell & Sons. Ltd. |
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| Hooked Rug Design. Kent, William Winthrop. 1949. The Pond-Ekberg Co. Publishers, Springfield, Mass. |
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| Rug Hooking and Braiding for Pleasure and Profit. Lawless, Dorothy. 1952. Studio Publications, Inc. (Location not specified) |
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| The Hook Book. Beatty, Alice and Sargent, Mary. 1977. Stackpole Books, Harrisburg, PA. |
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| Color in Hooked Rugs. McGown, Pearl K. 1954. Buck Printing Co., Boston, Mass. |
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| The Rug Hook Book. Boswell, Thom. 1994. Sterling Publishing Co., New York. |
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| The Complete Book of Rug Hooking. Moshimer, Joan. 1989. Dover Publications, New York. |
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| Official Union Military Records, National Archives, Washington, DC |
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| Visit to Derby or Minnie and Her Nurse. A True Story. 1857. American Sunday School Union. Philadelphia, PA. |
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