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Finnish American Rag Rug Collection

One of the many ethnic communities represented in the MSU Museum's Michigan Traditional Arts Research Collection is Finnish Americans, of which the largest and most concentrated community in the United States lives in the Upper Peninsula. Rag rug weaving is a strong tradition maintained in this community since immigration at the turn of the 20th century.

The collection includes rag rugs, placemats, looms and other weaving equipment, and arvhival materials, including photos, audio tapes of over 100 interviews, field reports, books and articles. The rugs in this collection were made between the 1920s to the present day; the majority were made and collected or donated since the 1970s.

Donors and Fieldworkers

Dr. Yvonne Lockwood, Martha Brownscombe

Exhibitions

"Rags, Rugs and Weavers: A Living Tradition," Michigan State University Museum, 1990. This exhibition has traveled to numerous sites within Michigan, including the Port Huron Museum, Ella Sharpe Museum, Jackson; the Finnish Heritage Center, Hancock; Midland Center for the Arts. This exhibition and research on rag rugs were supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Michigan Humanities Council.

Publications

Yvonne R. Lockwood. 1998. "Rag Rugs in Finnish American Culture." In Michigan Folklife Reader II eds. Yvonne R. Lockwood and C. Kurt Dewhurst. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Yvonne R. Lockwood. 2009. Finnish American Rag Rugs: Art, Tradition & Ethnic Continuity. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press.

Rag rug, Ellen Angman, 1988

Rag rug, Marian Reichardt, Ontonagon, Michigan, 1991