Ornamental Separator

Folk Art Underfoot: American Hooked Rugs

Closed July 2021
The exhibition was partially funded through the generosity of Larry and Cynthia Norwood.


For the first time, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum will feature an exhibition on the art of hooking and sewing rugs, featuring about twenty hooked and sewn rugs. The craft of making non-woven rugs has been called "America's one indigenous folk art." It was in Maine that rug-making techniques originated and grew from their 19th-century origins to a national activity. Rug making gave housewives with no academic art training a way to create an everyday household object with decorative interest and beauty. A special component of the exhibition is a video showing the rug hooking technique.

Hooked Rug, New England, probably Maine, 1875-1900. On loan from Joe Caputo.
Hooked Rug attributed to Lucy Trask Barnard, Dixfield, Maine, ca. 1850. On loan from Joe Caputo.