Burton, Mary Sheppard

Biographical History

Mary Sheppard Burton was born in 1922 in Salisbury, Maryland. Burton, who became a textile artist and teacher, was no stranger to the art as a child since both her great grandmother and grandmother were rug hookers. From 1973 to 1988 Burton taught classes on designing, dyeing, color theory, hook art and traditional hooking techniques at various schools and colleges throughout the United States. Occasionally Burton also taught private classes at her home in Maryland. Her students were diverse, from ninth-grade students to adults as well as the mentally challenged. The individuals who studied under Burton were not only based in the United States but also came from England and Israel. During this period she lectured extensively and exhibited her pieces throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. Burton was instrumental in developing the guidelines and standards for rug hooking and judging hooked rugs at local and international competitions.

In 1981, Burton’s dedication and love for the art led her to research the hand dyeing of textiles and the color retention of dyes by experimenting with vegetable dyes used by earlier generations. She experimented with the different effects that light has upon yarn. Burton used dyeing techniques that were not commonly used by textile artists. Burton studied the historical origins of rug hooking, starting her research at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, continuing at the Textile Museum in Canada in 1996, and in Nova Scotia in 1997.

In 1994, Burton co-founded the International Guild of Hand-hooked Rug Makers (TIGHER) and in 1996 was awarded an antique pewter loving cup for outstanding devotion and service to the organization.

For her outstanding accomplishments in the art, Mary Sheppard Burton has received many awards. She was the first non-Canadian recipient of two of the highest awards given by the Ontario Hooking Craft Guild: Best in Show for Creativity and Craftsmanship and Best in Show for Artistic Presentation of Work and Originality.

In 2002, she co-authored a book on creativity in textile arts, A Passion for the Creative Life: Textiles to Lift the Spirit, with Mary Ellen Cooper. She died on July 1, 2010.

From the guide to the Mary Sheppard Burton Collection, 1993-2006, (Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center Library of Congress http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home)