Grenfell Historic Properties

“Nothing says Grenfell like our World Famous Hooked Rugs”

 Dr. Grenfell was impressed by the quality of clothing handcrafted by housewives in tiny communities along the rugged coast. He was equally impressed with their expertise in mat hooking and embroidery. He recommended that families use these skills as a means to supplement the meager incomes they earned from fishing. To assist in making and marketing their handcrafted parkas, mitts and slippers, he established Grenfell Handicrafts as the industrial division of the Grenfell Mission. It quickly gained a reputation for excellent quality and workmanship.

Its aim was to raise the economic conditions of the people as they were very poor and could not afford clothing, food or medical services. Jessie Luther, who was in charge of a therapeutic workshop in a Boston hospital, stimulated the idea. Grenfell persuaded Jessie to come to the Canadian north to work with the coastal Newfoundland and Labrador people. Together, Wilfred and Jessie depicted the native environment using such images as icebergs, puffins, trees and dog teams. These images were done on pieces of burlap and material gathered from hospitals throughout Canada, the U.S. and England. Grenfell noticed that the nurses’ silk stockings took the natural dyes very well. 

“Save your silk stockings! We need silk stockings and underwear in Unlimited Quantities!” “When Your Stockings Run let them Run to Labrador!” These pleas were sent from the Grenfell Mission to socialites in Canada and the United States in 1928. Sunday school classes were asked to collect silk as well. Donors were asked to cut off the stocking tops and feet to save postage. Soon tons of silk and rayon undergarments arrived, heralding an era of peak production for the cottage industry. The assembled rug kits were given to the native people to hook the familiar Grenfell mats. When they were completed, they would receive either food, clothing or medical services.

By 1914, this was well established and the completed hooked rugs were shipped to the United States to be sold. Grenfell Mission retail shops opened in New York City and Philadelphia in 1930. One year later, the Dog Team Tavern in Ferrisburg, VT., was established to provide another point of product distribution.

Rug hooking was a tradition in the northern Newfoundland and Labrador area before Dr. Grenfell’s arrival. A bent nail, with the head removed and a nick cut into the blunt end, was used to draw strips worn clothing, up to 200 loops per inch, through burlap sacks, or “brin” as it was locally called. The burlap was stretched and nailed onto a four-sided wooden frame.

The materials, mostly woolens, flannel, and fishing nets, were dyed using vegetable dyes, spruce twigs, copperas, lime and powder of various colors. Patterns, many designed by Dr. Grenfell himself, reflecting the lifestyles of the area were stenciled onto discarded x-ray film from the hospital. These patterns were then traced onto the burlap and given to local women to hook in their own homes. Those not fortunate enough to gain access to “preprinted” or “stamped mats” drew patterns on the surface of the brin using a charred stick from the fireplace.

As the beauty and demand for hooked rugs grew, the necessary material s became scarce. Silk stockings became a perfect substitute. Dr. Grenfell’s campaign slogan, “When your stocking begins to run, let it run to Labrador”, brought donations of discarded silk stockings from affluent socialites as far as the southern United States. These stockings were washed, torn into strips and dyed.

Grenfell Labrador Industries was founded in the early part of this century by Sir Wilfred Grenfell, a missionary and doctor, to support the International Grenfell Society’s medical and educational projects in isolated fishing communities along the coasts of Newfoundland and Labrador. Local carvers, weavers, knitters, and rug hookers exchanged their handwork for clothing, food vouchers, or cash, and their products were sold by IGA representatives throughout Canada and the US, and in IGA shops in Ottawa, New York, and Philadelphia. Rug designs with northern themes were hooked into mats – often using donated silk stockings – from 1910 to the mid-1930s. Today these rugs are admired and sought after by collectors, and the rug hookers of Grenfell Handicrafts Ltd. are continuing the tradition by hooking the old designs using yarn. Click on the link to see a small selection of what is available today – Hooked Rugs