An applique rug with a 'star-studded menagerie' of animal silhouettes
Black wool cut-out shapes embroidered and outlined in white stitches and all on a bright red wool background. Descended in the original family and said to have been made by a Minnie Culbertson (1868-1953) of Shippensburg, Pennsylvania.
This rug comes with a letter from the family and photos of Minnie Culbertson documenting her as the rug maker.
For a similar example see: Joel and Kate Kopp, American Hooked and Sewn Rugs: Folk Art Underfoot (1975), p. 130, fig. 229.
American, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, circa 1880
29" x 46" mounted