This lecture will focus on the hooked mats of the Grenfell Mission, a medical mission founded in 1892 in Newfoundland and Labrador. At the peak of its production, three thousand mats were being hooked a year using old tattered silk stockings and other silk and rayon undergarments donated to the mission's cause. Featuring historic photographs and images of the mat designs that were being produced, particular attention will be given to the women who did the work and their place in the history of the craft. Author Paula Laverty is a graduate of Syracuse University and has curated exhibitions featuring Grenfell mats at the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, the Shelburne Museum in Vermont and the Textile Museum of Canada. A book signing will take place at the Crosman Hall Desk following the lecture and will also include Mildred Péladeau, guest curator of the exhibition Rug Hooking in Maine and Beyond and author of Rug Hooking in Maine 1838-1940, and Susie Stephenson, author of Designing & Hooking Primitive Rugs.

Location: Farnsworth auditorium

Seating: limited to 70 people

Cost: $5 members; $8 nonmembers