Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

The MOV’s Home Collection rugs depict both recent and ancient Vancouver history you can take home

The Museum of Vancouver and Harvey Burritt’s 2nd Century Rug Company have joined forces to create Vancouver heritage products for your home. Inspired by artifacts from the museum’s archive, the rug company has created large scale area rugs using both contemporary technology and a hand-knotted rug technique. The rugs are part of the MOV’s retail collection created in partnership with Vancouver businesses and sold to benefit the museum’s special exhibitions and school programs.

The process was the rug company’s first venture into large-scale graphic transfer. For its first piece, it took Harvey’s grandfather’s 100-year-old handwritten business title and added a writing sample from Harvey’s father along with Harvey’s signature to create a rug capturing three generations of Burritt history.

All the rugs can be viewed and purchased at Harvey Burritt’s 2nd Century Rug Company.

Harvey Burritt and Keith Donegani of Harvey Burritt’s 2nd Century Rug Company stand on the first rug produced using the large scale graphic transfer technique

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

Not content to use only antique finds from the museum’s archive, Burritt’s Rug Company made a bold rug from one of the public riot boards created after the Stanley Cup riots in 2011

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

A striking souvenir of an ignominious part of Vancouver’s recent history, this rug is also a poignant reminder of how the city came back to reclaim its pride

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

The challenge with this design, Harvey said, was to find an area of the mural without too much profanity!

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

Each of the rugs is individually hand-knotted in Kathmandu, Nepal

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

This one depicts imprints from corporate seals used by Vancouver businesses and organizations from 1990 all the way back to 1890

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

This design was tricky because the imprints had no colour. The seals were photographed at an angle to give them the shadows and depth required for effective reproduction on the rug

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

The map on this rug was published by the Automobile Club of Vancouver in 1935. It pre-dates the Lions Gate Bridge and Highway 1

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History

This rug is based on the bus scroll for the Oakridge streetcar in the 1950s. But where’s the line that reads “Sorry Bus Full?”

Museum of Vancouver Rugs Capture Vancouver History