Pennsylvania German Dish c. 1938

Eugene Shellady made this Pennsylvania German Dish with paint on paper in 1918. The imagery and script are typical of frakturware. This artwork gives us insight into the survival of earlier cultural traditions in twentieth-century America. Pennsylvania Germans, or the Pennsylvania Dutch as they’re sometimes known, were famous for their folk art. The art, often based on calligraphy, was colorful and ornate, and it decorated everyday objects with images and texts relating to family life and religious belief. Shellady’s frakturware revives this tradition. But why at this moment? What does it mean to produce this type of artwork in the late 1910s? Does it speak to an interest in the preservation of a regional history? Does it have something to do with the rise of historicism in museum culture and the art world? These are the questions we might ask ourselves as historians. Research into cultural heritage and museum studies might offer some insight here.