Hooked on History: The Surprising Collection of Hamilton House Rugs

PieceWork’s Fall 2026 issue—just out now!—highlights the splendors and surprises of needlework and textile collections in museums around the world. The fabulous thing about textiles is that you find them in the most unlikely places, such as a pioneer museum in Colorado, or a wilderness museum in Alberta, Canada.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing additional articles about these unique museums as well as needlework projects inspired by their collections. Today, I wanted to share some of the backstory from author-designer Judith Copeland whose splendid rug-hooking project appears in the Fall issue.

Here’s Judith:

An old dog gone blind kept us on a short tether last summer, so we decided to explore as many of the house museums we could find within a one-hour radius of our home. Since we live in New England, there were quite a number to visit. When we were finally able to make it to the Hamilton House in Berwick, Maine, we expected to see more of what we had seem at several other historic homes, that is, really fine woodwork. Most of these homes were built by timber merchants turned shipbuilders and the staircases, mouldings and mantelpieces are exquisite.

What we did not expect to see in the late Georgian country house that writer Sarah Orne Jewett persuaded some wealthy Boston friends to purchase and restore was such a wide array of hooked rugs—some of them worn and perhaps rather modest to begin with, others more interesting examples of the folk-art genre that gained popularity during the Colonial Revival era.

The Hamilton House in Berwick, Maine. Photo by Judith Copeland.

In her article, Judith reflects on the "whimsical charm" she found in the hooked rugs collection at Hamilton House. "The one that caught my eye," she explains, "was a runner on display in one of the bedrooms, one that I have described as a 'broken-bargello' pattern." That single runner became the spark for Judith's Broken-Bargello Hooked Mat project, included in this Fall issue.

Want to see it up close before you dive in? Check out this video for a closer look at Judith's hooked mat.

Then read the full story behind her discovery in "Colonial Revival Style: Humble Rugs in a Grand Setting," and get the full instructions for this beginner-friendly hooked mat project in our Fall 2026 issue.

Happy day,

Karen