Canadian Rug Hooking

Canadian Rug Hooking

In the Canadian Museum of Civilization you can visit two virtual exhibitions linked to rug hooking. The first is the Hooked on Rugs exhibition.

Secondly, if you're interested in seeing the Garret's "Bluenose" Hooked Rug, you can visit it in this virtual exhibition called Before E-Commerce, a history of Canadian mail-Order Catalogues.

Bluenose, printed pattern for chair seat designed and printed by Garrett's, late 1940s, 50 x 50.7 cm.


To discover Chéticamp Hooked Rugs in Nova-Scotia, visit Les Trois Pignons featuring the Elizabeth LeFort Gallery.


Elizabeth LeFort . Canadian Centennial Hooked Rug, 1967. Les Trois Pignons Cultural Centre.


We recommend  "Work Through Time, Cape Breton Stories of Land and Sea", a Website dedicated to Cape Breton Cultural Heritage. 

You will find a good section about "The Story of the Hooked Rugs of Chéticamp and their Artisans", by Anselme Chiasson and Annie-Rose Deveau.


A scene at Peggy's Cove. Les Trois Pignons Cultutral Centre.



Follow this link to discover Georges-Edouard Tremblay (1902-1987), a rug hooking artist from Quebec (in French).


Georges-Edouard Tremblay. ca 1940


You can find very interesting information at the Canadian Tapestry Website, which belongs to the Textile Museum of Canada.


To see the Textile Museum of Canada rug's collection,  follow the link and type "hooked rug" in the "Search in the collection" tool.






Grenfell Mission. 1920-40. Silk and rayon on burlap. 81 x 48 cm.Textile Museum of Canada. T01.24.1

Follow this link to discover the silk stocking mats of the Grenfell Mission of Newfoundland and Labrador. Don't miss Paula Loverty’s article in the History page.
Dog Team with Shadows



To discover Prince-Edward Island hooked rugs, we invite you to read Anne Nicholson’s article.


A mat hooked by Helen Johnson's mother. Photo: Anne Nicholson






The Canadian Encyclopedia
We also invite you to visit The Canadian Encyclopedia to read Max Allen's article Rugs and rug making.