Mary Collins Barile - Hooked Rugs of the Midwest: A Handcrafted History

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright 2013 by Mary Collins Barile

All rights reserved

Front cover, from top left: Gena Scott, Sally Kallin, Nola Heidbreder, Rhonda Manley, Mary Collins Barile.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.61423.948.2

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.60949.817.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book has been a selfish gift from me, to me. It has allowed my heart and memory to visit with the amazing women I met as a girlmore than a few of them born in the late nineteenth centurywho gossiped and rug hooked and shared with me their stories, lives, humor and craft. And I will never see a hooked rug without remembering my darling mom working late into the night, conjuring roses and birds and horses and sky from burlap backing, a bag of wool and her love.

I always need to remind myself that no matter how hard I try, it is impossible to thank everyone who contributed to a book. Some of these folks you will meet within the pages, while some helped in other ways. Many thanks to Laura Vollmer and Cheryl of Never the Same in Boonville, Missouri; Debbie Entwistle, a queen of quilting; Arlene Hoose and her mom, who loved rugs; the Baa Baa Boonville rug hookersSara Arrandale, Susan Meadows, Gena Scott, Janet Acton, Elinor Barrett, Karen Neely and Lari Anne Crawford; those magnificent librarians at Ellis Library, University of Missouri; Nichole R. Johnston and the Missouri Historic Costume and Textile Collection, University of Missouri; Jon Kay, director of Traditional Arts Indiana; Dan V. Wilson and Howard Wilson; Anne Woodhouse and the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center; Sara Vassmer; Cheryl Conway at Thirteen Threads; Mary Anne Wise and Jody Slocum of Culture Cloth; and Deb Smith and Rug Hooking magazine. As always, Cooper, Bella, Sammy and Jack Rascal have assisted in their own mysterious ways.

Finally, this book is dedicated to the memories of Margaret Collins Barile, Ruth D. Schwartz, Muriel Grancher, Mrs. Elfriede Hanna and all the ladies of the Valley Stream (NY) Memorial Junior High School rug hooking groupthe best class of hookers Ive ever known.

INTRODUCTION

One of the most characteristic arts of America has been that of rug-making, strips of cloth being drawn back and forth between the meshes of a burlap foundation. A design is marked upon the burlap, and the various portions of the design are filled in with cloths of various colors. As the rugs in use became worn, they were relegated to the kitchen, to the pantry, or even to the stable, which accelerated their ruin.

American Hooked Rugs, 1921

Handmade rugs have graced North American homes since the mid-1800s, and the textiles still have the power to evoke times past, when everything was better and everybody knew it. Other than perhaps a spinning wheel, few utilitarian items evoke the nineteenth century as well as a rug and dozy cat resting in front of the hearth, even as the types of rugs varied with the community. In New England and along the Atlantic coast, the rug could be hand-dyed and hooked. Travel through the South, and there were woven rugs from the mountain regions, supple, colorful goods treasured by collectors. The Southwest spun its floor-covering history from Native American looms, conjuring rugs to dazzle the eye and the spirit. And in many states, the truly blessed might stumble across a knitted rug made by the Shakers, a religious group that gave their hands to work and hearts to God, with a simplicity of design that is a wonder in and of itself.

But what of the Midwest? How did the rugmore particularly, the hooked rugarrive in the region? A place of enormous variety both culturally and geographically, the Midwest is shaped by rivers, prairies, weather, music, blues and ragtime, sunflowers, buffalo, the great western trails and millions of threads that weave the immense web of culture around Native Americans, emigrants and immigrants alike. The Midwest is flat and hilly, rural and urban, reserved and ebullient, conservative and wildly experimental. Its colors are the colors of barns and sky, golden wheat, farm ponds, red clay, red brick, steel, glass and fountains. In the nineteenth century, the Midwest was described as being west of the Ohio River and east of the Missouri River, although today it encompasses a huge area, sometimes including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska and even parts of the upper South and Southwest. The Midwest is nearly impossible to define or depict.

Adapted from a Currier and Ives lithograph titled The Happy Family, this rug shows a grouse in its woodland habitat. The artist hand-dyed the wool and used size-three cuts. There are more than one hundred colors in this tapestry. Designed by Joan Moshimer. Hooked by Margaret Collins Barile.

For the textile lover, the Midwest is a place of quilts and baskets, rugs and weavings. And like all good stories, the history of the hooked rug in the Midwest is a colorful ragbag of romance, folklore, myth and common sense. It is the purpose of this book to shake out the dust from the Midwestern hooked rug and place it on the newly polished floor of history. The story may surprise you.

CHAPTER 1

THE FOUNDATION

This is a book about rugshooked rugs of the Midwest to be precise. But being precise presents its own problems. For example, what of the first hooked rug west of the Alleghenies? Who made it? Where? How was that first rug dyed, cut and looped? We may never know, and it does not really matter. What does matter is that a woman (for it must have been a woman) sat down after her chores were done for the day and with a bent nail, a feed sack and rags made something to stand between foot and floor on a dark winters morningsomething practical, utilitarian and comforting for her family, something colorful or whimsical, something we would recognize today as a hooked rug.

That first Midwestern hooked rug would be a fascinating window into the textile past, as it is less well known than its New England cousins. Many contemporary rug hookers in the Midwest date their interest in the craft to the 1970s or later, even though rug hooking has existed in the United States for more than 150 years. This seeming lack of history begs the question, Why didnt anything rug hooky happen in that century-wide gap? As a matter of fact, it did, but the textiles history has been overshadowed by other crafts, arts and interests. Perhaps the answer lies in how rugs were perceived as part of the Midwestern culture and economy.