Silk Stocking Mats

SHELBURNE, VT. - Shelburne Museum's "Silk Stocking Mats: Hooked Rugs from the Grenfell Mission," an exhibit inspired by the distinctive Northern images used to illustrate the history of the medical and social mission of Sir Wilfred T. Grenfell, continues through October 20.

The loan exhibit, featuring hooked mats and household accessories produced by the fishing families of Northern Newfoundland and Labrador for the Grenfell Mission, was organized by guest curator Paula Laverty, who began researching the history of the Grenfell Mission mats ten years ago.

The Grenfell Mission was established soon after Grenfell's arrival to Canada's eastern shores in 1892. He discovered a population of hardworking, reserved and hospitable people, who were fighting against disease, hunger, poverty and exploitation. Grenfell's dedication to helping these men and women led to the establishment of a medical mission aimed at offering long-term assistance through the development of a cottage industry producing distinctive handcrafts.

Utilizing the highly skilled rug hooking craft passed on by generations of Newfoundland women to augment the unreliable incomes from the fishing industry, Grenfell organized a cottage matting industry. Wood and flannel strips were originally used to create mat designs featuring themes of local significance: deer driving, reindeer on an ice floe, seals, walrus, sled dog teams, bears on snow, and rabbits. Grenfell urged benefactors to donate new material, stipulating pieces should be over ten inches long. White fabric was most desired because many of the animals portrayed in the mat designs were white in the winter months and most rugs featured snow scenes.

Requests for donations of silk and rayon stockings to be used for hooking Grenfell mat borders began in 1916.

"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.

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.

As the silk supply dwindled after World War II, the beautiful tints that had been an important feature of the Grenfell design could no longer be achieved. Today, the hooked mat industry continues under the independent Grenfell Handicrafts label. The original, copyrighted Grenfell patterns are still hooked today in wool with the same craftsmanship.

Shelburne Museum is open from 10 am to 5 pm daily through October 20, 1996. Admission is $17.50 for adults, $7 for youths age 6 to 14, and free to children under 6 and museum members. Visitors are admitted to a second consecutive day free of charge.