Introduction

Domestic Sphere and Role of Women

Hooking Decline and Hooking Revival

Hooking mats – the making of floor coverings or wall hangings by pulling or pushing loops of fabric or yarn through a woven support – has been, in New Brunswick as in most parts of the country, mostly a women’s activity. Mat hooking could contribute to the home economy and help influence women’s role not only in society but also in the world of fine crafts and arts. The history, materials and evolution of mat hooking also open a window into the world of those who hooked mats and hold a meaningful place in New Brunswick’s cultural history.

Artists, homemakers and entrepreneurs, all mainly women, have contributed to the art of hooking mats with their hands, their hearts and their minds. They created mats for their homes, they started businesses to sell mats and they even saved the art of hooking mats from disappearing on more than one occasion.

New Brunswick has a long history of mat hooking. One of the oldest dated mats in Canada was made in this province. It was created by 13-year-old Abigail Smith with the help of her sister Susannah and it was hooked in New Maryland, NB, in 1860. In those days, women had primarily a domestic role. Their responsibilities focused on the home, they raised the children and kept a household budget. In the country, women milked cows, kept chickens, tended gardens and sometimes found other ways to bring in extra money. Finding paid work outside the home wasn’t easy for women, especially in rural areas. When jobs were available, they often required the knowledge and intricate skills of textile production that had been passed down over generations.

Homespun cloth required the processing of much wool. Though they probably didn’t do the shearing, they often washed the wool, picked through it, did the final carding, spinning and dyeing. Afterwards they wove it into bedding and practical cloth and sewed it into garments or knit the yarn into sweaters, socks and mittens for their families, or perhaps to sell. By recycling the clothing and textiles that had come to the end of their usefulness, women also hooked functional and often beautiful mats that they could use to warm and colour their homes or to sell. Some families recount that not a single mat stayed in the home, all of them were sold or exchanged for other necessities.

At the beginning of the 20th century more hookers started to sell mats. Some like Marie à Charles or Ida Boudreau from Memramcook, NB, sold them directly out of their houses, or even displayed them right outside their door. Other makers sold in general stores or started small cottage industries such as Marie-Louise Allard Blanchard in Caraquet, NB, and Grace Helen Mowat in Charlotte County, NB. Any way you look at it, the story of women and hooking mats in New Brunswick is one of resourcefulness, creativity and skill.

As changes started taking place both in society and in the home, they also affected mat hooking. People moving from the country to the city, industrialization and the availability of commercial flooring eliminated the need and the time to hook.

Yet, there have been several periods of revival in the craft.

In the late 1800s, new technological developments—carding and fulling mills—played a part in mat hooking’s history and economy. These small mills multiplied in almost every region of the province (La Hêtrière, Port Elgin, etc.). Women saw their work in processing yarn reduced by half. This reduction in this labour-intensive aspect of mat production absolutely helped the art flourish rather than disappear.

There was also some interest from people who were not embracing modern technology. Like famed English artist and designer William Morris (1834-1896), who made major contributions to the international Arts and Crafts movement, they wanted handmade things with evident craftsmanship. His textile designs have become a resource and inspiration for modern day mat hookers.

In the wake of the First World War, there were vast social changes. On one hand, there was a rejection of all things Victorian in combination with a changing role for women. The cottage industry of mat making in the 1920s was the perfect opportunity to bring in extra income, and rural women hooked mats with renewed purpose. By then, antique dealers and buyers really became interested in hooked mats. This too sparked new life in the art of hooking. Kits, hooks and hooking tools, patterns and yarn became readily available. Even the Eaton’s catalogue sold pre-stamped patterns. In the 1880s, the first catalogue offering mat designs was being offered and in the early 1900s, Eaton’s and other department stores were also advertising patterns for sale. Almost everyone had access to the catalogues and looked forward to the inspiration and possibilities they held.

The devastating impact of the financial calamity of the 1930s meant that self-sufficiency ruled people’s lives. Those who could planted their own gardens, preserved the vegetables they harvested. They also looked back to historic crafts to help weather the crisis. To this end, bare wooden floors needed something to warm them and, not able to afford the imported carpets becoming available on the market, women hooked their own floor coverings.

Prosperity returned after the Great Depression and the Second World War. In the late 1940s and 1950s, incomes increased, consumer goods became much more readily available to the modern woman and fewer people hooked.

By the mid-1960s though, a new generation felt the need to go back to the land, to their roots and to learn to do things from scratch. Many crafts re-emerged, and mat hooking was one of them.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the craft saw another dip. As women were making a place for themselves in the workforce while still managing the home and family, the negative associations with what was considered “women’s work” may have played a role in the decline of the art. All was not lost though. This was also when an awareness of mat hooking’s creative possibilities was widely promoted through the efforts of teachers like Doris Norman in Fredericton, NB, and Gabrielle Robichaud in Grand-Barachois, NB.

No matter how many times mat hooking has seen a decline, people, women mostly, saved it from becoming just a thing of the past. And each time it was revived, the craft evolved.