The Hancock Historical Society, 11 Captain Bill Rd, Hancock, Maine will be hosting a talk on September 29th, at 7PM. Judith Burger-Gossart will be speaking about fishermen’s wives and the Maine Seacoast Mission Hooked Rug Program In the 1920s.
Burger-Gossart learned about this program quite by chance. In 2008 the Mission was six miles from her home. She had learned that they housed some hooked rugs, her special passion. She went to investigate and discovered that the Mission had many rugs; but equally important they had a wealth of information about those very rugs. So, between 2008-2015 she spent many hours discovering who made the rugs and why they were made.
Finally, she realized she had a story that was worthy of a book: the fishermen’s wives deserved to have their story told. In 2015, Sadie’s Winter Dream, Fisherman’s Wives and Maine Sea Coast Mission Hooked Rugs, 1923-1938, was published. The book was a finalist in the 2016 Maine Literary Awards.
Judith Burger-Gossart, a rug hooker herself, is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College, with a Batchelor of Arts in American Studies. She received a Master’s degree in History from Columbia Teachers College, and a Master’s degree in Social Work from University of Connecticut. After retirement from social work, she became the owner of Sprucewind Antiques, participated in many antique shows, and was a hooked rugs exhibit and folk-art exhibit curator for the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. She has taught at Columbia University School of Social Work and Acadia Senior College. For the past 27 years she has made her home in Salsbury Cove, Maine.
Burger-Gossart’s new book, One Thread in the American Tapestry, A Pennsylvania German Heritage, has recently been published. Currently, it is available from the Southwest Harbor Public Library, Chapter Two Gallery in Corea, Maine, The Weisenberg Historical Society, in Pennsylvania, and from the author. Later this fall it will be available at Sherman’s in Bar Harbor and other book stores in Maine.