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EARLY 1900’S RUG LADY AWES ONTARIO AUDIENCE
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Midland, Ontario- History walked into the annual meeting of the Ontario Rug Crafters Guild on May 2 to the surprise of more than 300 attendees. Guest Keynote speaker Suzanne Conrod had arranged to have an image of an early 1900’s snapshot placed on each seat in the Midland,Ontario convention hall. It pictured an image of a woman completely garbed from head to toe in a hand hooked costume who had been an early marketing feature from the 1892 rug pattern factory of the late John E. Garrett in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia.

After talking about the urgent need to preserve rug hooking history, she told the receptive audience that it was even more exciting to see long lost heritage appear before ones very eyes . To everyone’s amazement the historic Rug Lady suddenly walked into the convention hall. It was a dramatic moment for an art form that is considered to be an seriously endangered heritage. Mrs Conrod and Mrs Yvonne Hennigar , both of the Chester N.S. area had replicated the pattern worn by the model during the past winter. They did so from the original pen and ink designs used a century ago and recently salvaged from the old factory basement. The Rug Lady snapshot came from an old Garrett family album. Even more intriguing was that the model was carrying a sample hooked rug just as she would have in the good old days. That rug was the first to be replicated from another major discovery of 350 tiny paper stencils- each hand cut, which the Hooked Rug Museum of North America project has designated as “The Mystery Patterns” This find is even older than the 550 pieces of original pen and ink art work found by Museum researchers and is currently being researched in an attempt to confirm who created the intricate unknown stencils. They appear to pre-date the 1892 Garrett factory art work and possibly takes rug hooking history back to the very earliest days of commercial rug design in Canada and possibly the United States. The Museum arranged with Canada Post for an exclusive special limited edition commemorative stamp to be issued showing the Rug Lady and it was a quick sell out. A second edition is being purchased as part of an ongoing rug heritage stamp collection being used in raise funds to create the first ever museum, gallery and archives of rug hooking heritage. Four of the eleven heritage stamps have already been printed out of eleven selected designs.

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