Rug hooking is one of the few forms of needlework that is believed to have originated in America. The tradition may have started on the northeastern coast and then spread to other rural areas, including Pennsylvania, the Midwest, and Canada. While early hooked rugs used a ground of cotton or linen, the craft became especially popular when heavy hemp burlap, an ideal base for hooking, became widely available in the middle of the nineteenth century. The rug maker applied thin strips of woven fabric, usually wool, to the ground fabric by means of a hooked tool. The pile could be left in loops or sheared.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, rug patterns and pre-marked burlap grounds for rugs became readily available, but a strong tradition of homemade patterns continued well into the twentieth century. Rug makers often individualized commercial patterns by changing the suggested designs and supplying their own color choices. This Pot of Flowers Hooked Rug was probably a homemade design, although it may have been adapted from a commercially printed source.

Elizabeth V. Warren, "Pot of Flowers Hooked Rug," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Anthem: Masterworks from the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 359.