Crafted for the Hearth: Nineteenth-Century Hooked Rugs

Originally made to be placed on the hearth to catch sparks from the fire, hooked rugs quickly became useful in other areas of the house. The earliest floral rugs were made with free hand designs. By the 1840s, hooking rugs was widespread throughout the New England states. Burlap's availability for the backing following the Civil War made hooked rugs much easier to make and extremely popular.

Printed rug patterns were available by the 1850s, but it was Edward Sands Frost (1843-1894), an enterprising tin peddler from Biddeford, Maine who recognized the growing popularity as well as commercial potential of handmade rugs. He was the first to create successful commercial hooked rug designs by making metal stencils and selling printed patterns on burlap in the 1870s.

Rug hooking declined during the late 1800s with the development of industrially manufactured carpets but has never entirely gone away due to several revival periods.