Lauren Wolfinger
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History 204 Sp 08 | Political Life | Cultural Life | Economic Life | Essays of 1876
Cultural Assimilation in Fraktur and Folk Art
Immigrants have always been an integral part of American society bringing with them their culture and creating new hyphenated American identities. At the centennial, many people of German ancestry lived in Carlisle Pennsylvania and had well established ties to America. Most were not immigrants themselves, but instead were second, third, or even fourth generation Americans.1 Still, the German-American community retained strong ties to their German heritage. German Fraktur, or highly decorative records like baptismal or marriage certificates, was one example of such cultural maintenance. Though Fraktur did change when Germans immigrated, it was also a prime example of culture melding which incorporated both German and American identity. By examining different types of Fraktur in 1876 and the works of Lewis Miller, one of the most famous German-American folk artists who was born and raised in nearby York, one sees the development of Fraktur’s from its traditional German roots and towards a new American identity.
Background: The Origins of Fraktur
First, Fraktur should be more clearly defined. Fraktur refers to the highly decorative, very colorful folk art of the German-American community. There is a broad range of different types of Fraktur, such as broadside prints of religious scenes, baptismal certificates, marriage certificates, folk paintings, school awards, house blessings, and writing examples.2 Fraktur is one of the cultural elements which German immigrants brought with them directly from their German communities. German Fraktur often focuses on religion and religious themes. Many German Fraktur artists use broadsides, a genre of block printing, to produce their Fraktur, and this technique is one of the earliest used in American Fraktur.3 Artists often make use of watercolors to pigment and compliment their printed passages or designs.4
Changes in America
Once German immigrants arrived in America, their Fraktur took on its own specific temperament because of the new class of artist, the new class of Fraktur recipients, and the new environment. In Germany, Fraktur artists focusing on religious themes incorporated massive amounts of detail; on the other hand, American Fraktur tended to be simpler and tended to show a stronger focus on natural iconography. Scholars have many theories as to how these changes came about. Some attributed the simpler, more abstract representations in German-American folk art to the types of people making Fraktur in the new world. American Fraktur was often made by people of the less educated, less refined, peasant classes who made up the majority of the immigrant demographic. Others scholars focus on a different aspect of Fraktur to explain the changes, the sale of Fraktur. Many German-American primary school teachers became Fraktur artists producing Fraktur in the form of writing examples, small scholar awards for their students, or neatly handwritten house blessings to earn extra money. These teachers, or any other skilled artisan, pandered to the demands of their clientele, often mothers, who saw the parrots, tulips, and other natural symbols as icons of harmony or icons of religious significance.5 Together, the less refined artist and less educated recipient along with the commercialization of certain types of Fraktur caused American Fraktur to be primarily decorative rather than substantively religious.
Each example of Fraktur served a different purpose and had different characteristics, characteristics which could even vary within the Pennsylvania German-Americans. Though taufschiens are commonly found and referenced in any discussion of American Fraktur, including this one, a Mennonite immigrant, who did not believe in baptism after birth, would have no use for such types of Fraktur at all.6 Taufschiens in America differed from those found in Germany, which were called taufpatenbriefs and were simpler letters created by the child’s godparents. The new taufschien name reflected the increase of information included on this evolved form of a baptismal blessing.7 The German-American examples of taufschien Fraktur are often created by and created for second, third, or fourth generation German-Americans and included a genealogical record to preserve the links a baptized child had to Germany. Such information has provided an excellent source of information for later American genealogists because the maiden names of mothers, grandmothers, and even great grandmothers were recorded on some of these documents. The child’s baptismal sponsors’ names were often included, along with a later date of confirmation and marriage which was added by hand. At times a much later date of death was post scripted to the original taufschien text. By the end of the nineteenth century, artists printed many more taufschiens solely in English rather than in German, a trend which certainly would have been noticeable during the centennial.8
German-American Fraktur can also lay claim to the absorption of an entire type of document into the overall Fraktur art genre, the Carrier’s Address. These documents, often short blessings wishing good luck upon a family for the upcoming year, are British in nature and were first given to clientele by British tradesmen. The German Fraktur version of a Carrier’s Address develops only after German immigrants had sufficient contact with their British-American neighbors, and appeared in American Fraktur starting in the 1830s. The giving of the Carrier’s Address was a time for the local paper boy to give a card with his address on it, receive a tip for his last year of service, and encourage future patronage in the upcoming year.9
Symbols in Fraktur were essential elements of decoration. Both American and German symbols were present in American Fraktur and were often utilized on the same document. The meanings of common symbols of all types of Fraktur are often contested and some scholars hold that these abstract natural figures have no purpose beyond the ornamental. Nevertheless, most scholars assigning meaning to Fraktur symbols base their interpretations on German religious traditions. Tulips and birds are the most common icons related to American Fraktur. The three petals of the Tulip are a traditional symbol for the trinity, the peacock a symbol of resurrection, the lone turtledove signifying man’s desire to find God, and the Celtic Knot a symbol of eternity.10 These symbols helped give some cohesion to the American Fraktur movement. Artists relied on these symbols to convey their messages in a subtle manner. One example of Fraktur included the lines “surely no hawk will ever seize the bird/ [b]ecause the tulips bend over and protect it.”11 These lines conveying the idea that man finds shelter with the Holy Trinity and would be easily interpreted correctly because of the consistent usage of and familiarity with biblical symbolism within the German-American community.
Lewis Miller: A Prime Example of Hyphenated Identity in Art
Celebrated Fraktur artist Lewis Miller was born on December 3, 1795 to John Ludwig Miller, of Nuremberg, Germany, and Catharine Rothenberger, of Heidelberg Germany. He was John Ludwig and Catharine Rothenberger’s tenth child, eighth son, and grew up on South Duke Street in neighboring York, in York County Pennsylvania.12 He was a member of the Christ Lutheran Church and attended the German Lutheran Parochial School where his father taught German and English.13 When he got older, Lewis Miller completed an apprenticeship with his brother and became a carpenter by trade. Miller was also a prolific chronicler of daily life in York.14 His sketches span a long lifetime of important events in American history like the aftermath of the Revolutionary War, various campaigns by national politicians, and the Civil War. Late in his life, Miller moved in with his niece at Christiansburg, Virginia where many of his relatives also lived. He still regularly visited York and his good friend Henry Fisher, who was also Miller’s first biographer.15
Miller’s many folk art sketches over his long lifespan provide insight to the changes which took place in German-American Fraktur over time, such as an increased attention to realism and an increased usage of the English language. His specific type of Fraktur, sketches of buildings or vignettes from daily life accompanied by descriptions, was created with the same types of materials as other Fraktur, German and American. The watercolor he used to color his sketches provided the same simple palette of browns, orange, green, red, blue, and yellow.16 The more realistic, less abstract depictions, characteristic of Miller’s sketches, differ from most Fraktur; however, Miller’s drawings were not nearly as sophisticated as the still life paintings emerging in American art the same time. Miller’s depth portrayal was minimal, and his shading techniques were limited.17
Miller’s sketches also fall within the folk art genre because of their rural, small town subjects. Many of the sketches with accompanying descriptions show a strong attention to the individual characteristics and a strong reflection of Miller’s own personal, sympathetic, opinion concerning his subjects. Specific representations of people are very similar to caricatures including specific quirks of individuals. For example, a sketch of a former Hessian soldier includes the detail of the man holding his beloved snuff box18; thus, these sketches again deviate from American realism with their comic tone. Many of Miller’s depictions are further explained by humorous stories from small town life. For example, one story accompanying his sketch narrates how Anthony Ritz sawed a branch off of a cherry tree while he was sitting on it and subsequently caused his own fall and injury. Another comical drawing depicts a young boy climbing on the wooden structure of a rack of meat hooks. He got caught on one of the hooks and had to be lifted down by a neighbor.19
Only the major national events which intruded into everyday life in York made an appearance in Miller’s body of work, such as the surrender of York to the Confederate Army or the various presidential campaign parades.20 Clearly, Miller’s intent was not to create sophisticated works of art, but to create personal memoirs of his immediate peers and friends; thus, Miller represented a balance between the decorative, less serious German Fraktur art and the realistic, increasingly refined American art movements.21
The language Miller used represents another important cultural assimilation of the German-American immigrants, the change from German language domination to English language domination in private documents. Fisher noted that Miller’s generation is the generation that lives during the shift between the use of German and the use of English by the immigrant community.22 Many of Miller’s sketches were accompanied by very neatly written English descriptions or stories; however, some sketches still had German titles. Miller’s portraits of former Hessian soldiers are titled in German, “Ein Hess,” but the bulk of the accompanying text was in English.23 Many times Miller copied German poems, translating them to English which seems to indicate he knew his surviving relatives, to whom he left his sketches, would not be able to read these poems.24
Even Miller’s version of a taufschien reflected the overlap of two cultures participated in. The taufschien did contain the traditional information such as the birth of the person baptized, the child’s parents, the sponsors, the date of the actual baptism; however, the taufschien also included blessings written in both German and English. Natural iconography displayed in the flower boarder and the dove decorations was at odds with the large, very baroque-style cherub at the center of the document.25
Conclusion
German immigrants represent the old stock of white, Protestant immigrants. They assimilated easily into American society, and, as reflected in their art, still managed to hold on to some of their cultural heritage. By the Centennial, these immigrants were well established in American society and felt very American themselves. Soon, these old stock of well-liked and accepted immigrants would be replaced by new waves of Eastern European and Asian immigrant who would meet heavy discrimination upon arriving. Laws establishing quotas and barring citizenship for certain immigrants created a much different community from the rural York county during 1876 which welcomed the cultural contributions of the Fraktur artists and other German-Americans.
American Fraktur: Footnotes
1 “American or European: A Case Study in American Fraktur,” Journal of the Pennsylvania German Society 41, no. 2 (2007): 29.
2 Elmer Lewis Smith and John G. Stewart, The Pennsylvania Germans of the Shenandoah Valley (Allentown: Schechter’s), 166, 175.
3 Smith and Stewart, The Pennsylvania Germans of the Shenandoah Valley, 170.
4 Corinne Earnest and Russell Earnest, Fraktur: Folk Art & Family (Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.), 27.
5 Ibid., 81.
6 Ibid., 35-37.
7 June Burk Lloyd, Faith and Family Pennsylvania German Heritage in York County Area Fraktur (York: York County Heritage Trust), 2.
8 Don Yoder, Pennsylvania German Broadside: A History and Guide (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press), 69-70.
9 Ibid., 70-1.
10 Corinne Earnest and Russell Earnest, Fraktur: Folk Art & Family, 81.
11 John Joseph Stoudt, Pennsyvania German Folk Art: An Interpretation (Allentown: Schlechter’s), 12.
12 H. C. Fisher, “The Pennsylvania Germans,” In A History of York County, by John Gibson, 233-239 (Chicago: F.A. Battey Pub. Co.), 233-34.
13 Donald A. Shelley, “Lewis Miller: An Introduction.” In Sketches and Chronicles, by Lewis Miller, xiii-xxii (York: Historical Society of York County), xvi, H. C. Fisher, “The Pennsylvania Germans,” 234.
14 H. C. Fisher, “The Pennsylvania Germans,” 234., xiii.
15 Donald A. Shelley, “Lewis Miller: An Introduction,” xvii.
16 Ibid., xxi.
17 Observations from sketches by Lewis Miller
18 Lion G. Miles, The Hessians of Lewis Miller (Millville:Percision Printers, Inc.), 2.
19 Lewis Miller, Lewis Miller: Sketches and Chronicles, eds. Robert P. Turner, and Eleanor W. Hipple (York: Historical Society of York
County), 11, 18.
20 Observations from sketches by Lewis Miller
21 Donald A. Shelley, “Lewis Miller: An Introduction,” xxi.
22 H. C. Fisher, “The Pennsylvania Germans,” 234.
23 Lion G. Miles, The Hessians of Lewis Miller, 2.
24 Lewis Miller, Lewis Miller: Sketches and Chronicles, 14, H. C. Fisher, “The Pennsylvania
Germans,” 239.
25 Lewis Miller, Lewis Miller: Sketches and Chronicles, 140.
Bibliography
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Earnest, Corinne, and Russell Earnest. Fraktur: Folk Art & Family. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1999.
Egle, William Henry. Pennsylvania: Genealogies Chiefly Scotch-Irish and German. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1969.
Fisher, H. C. “The Pennsylvania Germans.” In A History of York County, by John Gibson, 233-239. Chicago: F.A. Battey Pub. Co., 1886.
Haag, Earl C, ed. The First One Hundred Years: An Index of Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society (1891-1990). Kutztown: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1998.
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Lloyd, June Burk. Faith and Family: Pennsylvania German Heritage in York County Area Fraktur. York: York County Heritage Trust, 2001.
Miles, Lion G. The Hessians of Lewis Miller. Millville:Percision Printers, Inc., 1983.
Miller, Lewis. Lewis Miller: Sketches and Chronicles. Edited by Robert P. Turner and Eleanor W. Hipple. York: Historical Society of York County, 1966.
Richman, Irwin. Pennsylvania German Arts: More than Hearts, Parrots, and Tulips. Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2001.
Shelley, Donald A. “Lewis Miller: An Introduction.” In Sketches and Chronicles, by Lewis Miller, xiii-xxii. York: Historical Society of York County, 1966
Smith, Elmer Lewis, and John G. Stewart. The Pennsylvania Germans of the Shenandoah Valley. Allentown: Schechter’s, 1964.
Stoudt, John Joseph. Pennsyvania German Folk Art: An Interpretation. Allentown: Schlechter’s, 1966.
Weiser, Frederick S., and Howell J. Heany, eds. The Pennsylvania German Fraktur of the Free Library of Philadelphia. Vol. 10.1, The Publications of the Pennsylvania German Society. Breinigsville: The Pennsylvania German Society, 1976.
Yoder, Don. Pennsylvania German Broadside: A History and Guide. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.
