Art Institute of Chicago

Bed Rug

Hannah Johnson (American, 1770–1848)

Date

1796

Medium

Wool, plain weave; with cut pile formed by wool yarns embroidered in looped running stitches

Culture

Connecticut

Department

Textiles

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

It is not surprising that early American textiles reflect the strong influence of European, especially English, designs and techniques. Materials were scarce and making utilitarian objects such as bedcoverings depended entirely on raw products that could be raised by a family or community. Yet indigenous forms of American needlework did develop, as can be seen in this masterful bed rug. Although the coiling tendrils of its design are reminiscent of motifs that appear in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English textiles, their application to a bedcovering and the technique of looped running stitches embroidered through a wool support fabric are typically American. The term rugge or rugg appears in colonial inventories, where it refers to a woven yardage fabric used to make bedcovers. Such pieces were unique to the Connecticut River Valley. The information provided by the needlework contributes to the rarity of this piece: the initials H. J. refer to its maker, Hannah Johnson, the daughter of Ebenezer and Anna Johnson. It is dated 1796 and carries the number 26, which indicates that Johnson was twenty-six years old when she made it.

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