The early Pa. Dutch settlers introduced to America a native craftsmanship strongly influenced by their ancestral fatherland. It developed a flavor of its own which has contributed so richly to the historical folk art of the New World. Brings together a representative collection of illustrative material (over 270 photos) as an excellent record of the Pa. Dutch folk art. (144pp. illus. Masthof Press, 1993 reprint of 1946 ed.)
Wentz inrtoduces readers to this distinctive American people and their curious customs and provides insight into their spirituality and the workings of their unique and rapidly vanishing culture. A fascinating and noteworthy book that brings an exploration of folk religion and culture to a wide American readership.
Having roots in medieval European decorated manuscript art, fraktur celebrate Pennsylvania German family events such as births, baptisms, and marriages. 230+ photographs present three centuries of American fraktur interwoven with insightful historical details, information on the making of fraktur, and techniques for their preservation and care. The colorful pages will delight and stimulate curiosity among historians, scholars, and all who appreciate art to explore the hidden treasures at the heart of these charming manuscripts.
A fun display of Halloween folk art. Combining intricate artwork with short poems, this collection captures Halloween themes with poems of spiders, bats, and pumpkins. Each original entry is displayed in the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect with an English translation. The artwork, a traditional style of scissor cutting, is cut from black paper, overlaying an orange background. A brief introduction reveals how this group came to celebrate October 31, and an instructional page includes a pattern for readers to make their own Halloween paper cutting.
For almost three centuries, the "Pennsylvania Dutch"--descended from German immigrants--have practiced white magic, known in their dialect as Braucherei (from the German "brauchen," to use) or Powwowing. The tradition was brought by immigrants from the Rhineland and Switzerland in the 17th and 18th centuries, when they settled in Pennsylvania and in other areas of what is now the eastern United States and Canada. Practitioners draw on folklore and tradition dating to the turn of the 19th century, when healers like Mountain Mary--canonized as a saint for her powers--arrived in the New World. The author, a member of the Pennsylvania Dutch community, describes in detail the practices, culture and history of faith healers and witches.
When visitors travel to Pennsylvania Dutch Country, they are encouraged to consume the local culture by way of "regional specialties" such as cream-filled whoopie pies and deep-fried fritters of every variety. Yet many of the dishes and confections visitors have come to expect from the region did not emerge from Pennsylvania Dutch culture but from expectations fabricated by local-color novels or the tourist industry. At the same time, other less celebrated (and rather more delicious) dishes, such as sauerkraut and stuffed pork stomach, have been enjoyed in Pennsylvania Dutch homes across various localities and economic strata for decades. Celebrated food historian and cookbook writer William Woys Weaver delves deeply into the history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine to sort fact from fiction in the foodlore of this culture. Through interviews with contemporary Pennsylvania Dutch cooks and extensive research into cookbooks and archives, As American as Shoofly Pie offers a comprehensive and counterintuitive cultural history of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine, its roots and regional characteristics, its communities and class divisions, and, above all, its evolution into a uniquely American style of cookery. Weaver traces the origins of Pennsylvania Dutch cuisine as far back as the first German settlements in America and follows them forward as New Dutch Cuisine continues to evolve and respond to contemporary food concerns. His detailed and affectionate chapters present a rich and diverse portrait of a living culinary practice—widely varied among different religious sects and localized communities, rich and poor, rural and urban—that complicates common notions of authenticity. Because there's no better way to understand food culture than to practice it, As American as Shoofly Pie's cultural history is accompanied by dozens of recipes, drawn from exacting research, kitchen-tested, and adapted to modern cooking conventions. From soup to Schnitz, these dishes lay the table with a multitude of regional tastes and stories. Hockt eich hie mit uns, un esst eich satt—Sit down with us and eat yourselves full!
