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Amsterdam rugs go down in history

By Bob Cudmore

Two articles found on a floor covering news Website, www.rugnews.com, tell stories about commemorative rugs with connections to Amsterdam.

One article describes how Costikyan, a rug and tapestry-cleaning firm founded in 1886, restored the Liberty Rug, woven in Amsterdam’s East End in 1916 by the Shuttleworth Brothers factory.

In 1920, Shuttleworth merged with McCleary, Wallin and Crouse to form Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam. The company reorganized as Mohasco in 1955 when it merged with Alexander Smith carpets of Yonkers. Production and offices ultimately left Amsterdam for Georgia and elsewhere.

The Liberty Rug was one of 20 Axminster carpets woven in Amsterdam to mark the initial floodlighting ceremony at the Statue of Liberty in New York on December 2, 1916. The rug recently restored was presented to President Woodrow Wilson. It originally was installed in President Wilson’s bedroom at the White House. The restored rug is now on display at Woodrow Wilson House, the late President’s library in Washington, D.C.

According to www.rugnews.com, an image of the Statue of Liberty is in the center of the rug, surrounded by depictions of Niagara Falls, the Mayflower, Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Washington Monument, the Capitol, and Native American teepees. Also shown is aviatrix Ruth Law flying over the Statue of Liberty in a biplane during the floodlighting ceremony.

In a separate opinion piece, Lissa Wyman of www.rugnews.com weighs in on commemorative rugs made in the Mohasco days. Wyman reported she was presented a 1776 Rug during the 1976 bicentennial by the Alexander Smith division of Mohasco. Several thousand of these five by eight foot rugs were woven and presented to political leaders and other dignitaries. Wyman at the time was editor of the trade magazine, Floor Covering News.

Wyman wrote that even though she hung the rug for many years in her New York City apartment, she was no fan of the design, calling it “the ugliest piece of textiles it has ever been my misfortune to view.”

But Wyman told her readers that now that her own 1776 Rug has been misplaced, she would like to find an image of it.

The background of the rug was an unfurled American flag, Wyman wrote. Landing on the flag was a really eagle-eyed American Eagle, wings spread and clutching a mean-looking bunch of arrows. It had to be hung, of course. Walking on it risked being charged with Desecration of The Flag.

Thanks to reader and Amsterdam native Larry Baldine for finding these articles.

T. Martin Bennett

Wednesday, December 6, 2023-From the Archives- Episode 139, November 25, 2016-T Martin Bennett, author of “Wounded Tiger”: The story of the Japanese pilot who led the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Wounded Tiger is the true story of the pilot who led the Pearl Harbor Attack, whose life was changed by an American prisoner and by a girl he never met. Three incredibly different people have their paths cross in ways so remarkable as to almost be unbelievable if it weren't so well documented.

Thursday, December 7 2023-From the Archives of Focus on History from the Daily Gazette-Amsterdam and Pearl Harbor

Friday, December 8, 2023-Episode 502-Jack Kelly is author of God Save Benedict Arnold.  Arnold committed treason.  Yet he was more than a turncoat—Kelly argues Arnold’s achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. 

Mohawk Valley Weather, Tuesday, December 5, 2023

36 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 6:08AM