Grenfell Mission Industrial Department
Polar Bear on Ice Floe
1929
Scroll
Grenfell Mission Industrial Department
Polar Bear on Ice Floe
1929
Physical Qualities
Jute burlap ground; wool and rayon or silk jersey pile, 21 1/2 × 31 1/2 in. (54.6 × 80 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Dena S. Katzenberg, Baltimore
Object Number
1996.165
This rug depicting a polar bear on sea ice was made by women working for the Grenfell Mission charity. The Mission helped women in fishing villages along the Atlantic coast earn income through the production and sale of rugs by supplying them with pattern kits and used nylon stockings donated by urban North American and British women. The company slogan, “When your stockings run, let them run to Labrador!,” spurred the public to support their cause. Scenes of local, Arctic imagery captured the area’s natural beauty and appealed to urban consumers. In today’s climate emergency, however, this solitary bear adrift on broken ice serves as a reminder of Arctic wildlife at risk due to rapidly melting glaciers.
Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 1996; Dena Katzenberg, Baltimore, MD
Textiles Recycled/Reimagined
Imagining Home
American Wing Rotations 2025
Jessie A. Turbayne, Hooked Rugs: History and the Continuing Tradition, West Chester, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing Co., 1991, pp. 106-127, especially, p. 114, and p. 127. Joel and Kate Kopp, American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot, New York: E.P. Dutton, Inc., 2nd ed., 1985, pp. 92-93, fig. 149. Judith Reither Weissman and Wendy Lavitt, Labors of Love: America's Textiles and Needlework, 1650-1930, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987, p. 164, illus. Robert Bishop, William Secord and Judith Reiter Weissman; Quilts, Coverlets, Rugs & Samplers, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982, cat. #273. Rita Reif, 'The Doctor Who Gave Silk Stockings a Second Life,' New York Times, Sunday, March 6, 1994, Sec. H, p. 43. Paula Laverty, 'Save Your Old Stockings: The Hooked Mats of the Grenfell Mission, Folk Art: Magazine of the Museum of American Folk Art, (Winter 1993/94), pp. 52-59, especially illus. p. 55.
Inscribed: Woven label in red letters on white ground sewn to reverse side, lower left corner: 'Grenfell Labrador Industries [Script]/HAND MADE IN NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR' [Block letters]