Rug hooking was a popular hobby in the 19th century for both men and women. Sailors often hooked rugs at sea, to while away the long hours. In fact, it was two men in particular who popularized and modernized the hobby. But we'll get to them a little later.
Rug hooking is the craft of hooking long, narrow strips of wool into a backing material. The rugmaker pokes the strip of wool into the backing with a sharp tool, pulls the wool into a loop, and pokes it back into the backing. These raised loops create the pile of the rug, and creative rug-hookers would make designs by hooking different colors of wool into shapes. (This is not to be confused with latch-hooking, a modern craft that uses yarn).
Rugs were meant to be used, to wipe dirty feet and provide warmth on a cold floor. The wool used for rugs came from old garments or blankets, and the backings might be burlap, feedsack, cotton, linen or canvas.
Another popular source of wool for rugs was old military uniforms. Veterans or their loved ones would transform the uniforms into rugs with a patriotic motif. This was very popular in the decade after the Civil War.
Those two men I mentioned earlier were in fact Civil War veterans - whose fascination with the craft and entrpreneurial skills made this quaint hobby into a money-making industry.
Edward Sands Frost was a Union veteran, of Company E, First Maine Cavalry. Bored at home recuperating from battle wounds, Frost watched his wife hooking rugs and became fascinated with it. A machinist before the war, Frost's first task was to create a better hook than the one he'd seen his wife using.
He added the new hooks to his collection of housewares he'd begun to peddle from town to town in his new post-war career. Then he hit on the idea of selling rug backings, with designs pre-stenciled onto them. He would draw a design on paper, and then transfer it to the backing fabric. Using his machinist skills again, he soon developed a faster method - etching the design onto a copper panel and imprinting it on the fabric.
Like most door-to-door salesman, Frost was friendly and amiable. When he visited housewives to sell his wares, he would admire their rugs and, if they were impressive enough, offer to buy the pattern. But soon enough, Frost was creating his own designs, which became more and more complex, with different flower and animal motifs and shading. Frost's designs won awards from The Mechanics Fair of Boston and the American Institute Fair of New York.
But elaborate designs wouldn't work without varying shades of wool, and this is were Wainwright Cushing, another Union veteran, enters the story. Cushing was a dyer at a mill in Foxcraft, Maine. He began to experiment with chemical dyes at the request of local women, who wanted more vibrant colors of wool. In all, Cushing developed over 100 colors of dyes, which are still available today through the company he founded in 1879, the W. Cushing Company.
Traditional rug hooking has lapsed in popularity these days - the modern latch hooking is easier, and less expensive. But the hobby is enjoying a revival, and that has resulted in all sorts of new products, including precut wool strips, Monk's cloth, prodding tools and frames.
This is a wonderful period-correct hobby that you can enjoy at camp, and the result will be a period correct rug that you can use on future campaigns!
Please see the Rug Hooking category at left for our collection of supplies and finished rugs.
