Pennsylvania Folk Art And Fraktur Manuscripts

Welcome to our book catalog page for Pennsylvania Folk Art And Fraktur books.
The American fraktur tradition began about 1740 in southeast Pennsylvania by the early German, Austrian, and Swiss settlers who brought this art form from their homelands in Europe. This art form quickly spread to other states, and remains popular even today. For centuries, these cherished hand-written and watercolor decorated paper manuscripts have embodied a richness of tradition and culture, blending descriptive text with bright colors and Pennsylvania Dutch (German)design. Having deep roots in medieval European decorated manuscript art, fraktur documents celebrate family events such as births, baptisms, and marriages among some of America's earliest immigrants of German and Swiss heritage.
These books will be of interest to historians, scholars,and everyone who appreciates hidden art treasures that lie at the heart of these fascinating manuscripts.
These German, Swiss, and Austrian settlers of Eastern Pennsylvania were often referred to and called by their English speaking neighbors as "Pennsylvanian Dutch".

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Pennsylvania Folk Art And Fraktur Books

  • Fraktur: Folk Art and Family
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    • -Corrine Earnest, Russell D. Earnest Editors / Hardcover 192 pages / Published April 1999
    The American fraktur tradition began about 1740 in southeast Pennsylvania, but quickly spread to other states, and remains popular even today. Immigrants of German and Swiss settlers to Pennsylvania brought this folk art form with them. These decorated fraktur documents and manuscripts highlight and celebrate family events such as births, baptisms, and marriages among some of Pennsylvania's earliest immigrants from German and Swiss heritage. For centuries, these cherished hand-written and watercolor decorated paper manuscripts, book plates, booklets, and letters have embodied a richness of tradition and culture, blending text with bright colors and Pennsylvania Dutch design. Includes more than 230 photographs with many full pages present exquisite examples of three centuries of American fraktur, interwoven with insightful historical details, information on the making of fraktur, and techniques for preserving these delicate documents.
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  • This Teaching I Present: Fraktur from Mennonite Meetinghouse Schools, 1747-1836
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    • -Mary Jane Lederach Hershey / Hardcover 256 pages / Published November 2003
    This book is one of the most delightful and colorful studies of Pennsylvania German material culture ever to be published. This book provides the reader with a remarkable deep insight into the history and creative expression through fraktur illuminated manuscript writings. Fraktur, that exquisite script formed with ornate letters and highly decorated borders, was a particularly well-developed practice of making quill-lettered mottos, letters, book plates, hymnbooks, certificates, baptismals, wedding announcements and other outstanding works.
    Fraktur was taught and penned for nearly 90 consecutive years (1747-1836) by a series of teachers in the Mennonite schools in communities of Shippack and Salford northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
    The author, a historian and fraktur expert and collector, tells about these Mennonite-run schools, the unusual teachers who oversaw them, and the artistic tradition they carried forward and passed on to their willing students. She explains the techniques used to make fraktur and comments on the work itself, its unique style, what influenced it, its design motifs, and colors.
    Includes rich full-color photographs of more than 100 pieces of fraktur made between 1747 and 1836, complete with English translations of their German texts. Plus maps and diagrams.
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This page last updated June 26, 2007.