The Borneman Pennsylvania German Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia is very fortunate to have a very small manuscript, Borneman Ms. 99, about 4" x 3 "  in size, entitled Zimmerspruch beÿm Aufstecken des Straußes or What to Say While Fastening the Garland to the Gable.  It was most likely put together by a master carpenter for a topping out ceremony.  Whoever it was mentions on the last page that he wrote it in haste on September 10, 1787.

A topping out ceremony is a tradition in the building trade that goes back many hundreds of years, and is still much celebrated in the 21^st century on both sides of the Atlantic.  When the outer structure and roof of a building have been put into place by a group of skilled carpenters, it is time for the building owner, his neighbors and friends, the master builder, and the construction team to celebrate the event... Click here for the whole article.

Photo Collage Credits L to R
^{1    L} Free Library of Philadelphia
^{2 UR} Reit- und Fahrverein Grumbach-Wilsdruff
^{3 LR} Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaft Marienberg

Please be sure to visit our Facebook gallery for more images of Borneman Ms. 99.

Transcriptions/Translations by Del-Louise Moyer

Tags: Pennsylvania German Collection, Rare Book Department, digital collections

Many of the traditions we associate with Easter can be traced back to celebrations that honored Ostara, or Eastre (Old English), an ancient pagan Germanic goddess of spring.  Associated with the radiant dawn and the reawakening of nature, she represented the renewal of life, joys, and blessings.  Such imagery could easily be incorporated into the Christian festival of Christ’s resurrection and the dawning of eternal light and promise.

There were pagan customs that the Christian church reformulated to fit into its rituals, and others that it tolerated.  Among the latter were the so-called Easter games that included the symbolic egg. It was viewed as a mysterious capsule that hid a developing being only to be brought forth when the shell broke.  Eggs were decorated and offered up in the great spring festivals of yore.  The hare also was part of pagan ritual:  As one of the most fecund animals known, it became a symbol of fertility. 

Georg Franck von Frankenau first wrote about the Alsatian tradition of a Hare bringing Easter eggs in his De ovis paschalibus or About Easter Eggs in 1682, but it was the Pennsylvania Dutch who brought the tradition of the Easter Hare or Oschter Haws to Pennsylvania.  Children believed that if they were good,  an Easter hare would lay eggs in the grass for them.

o osterhaas, o osterhaas,          O Easter hare, O Easter hare,
leg dyni eier bald ins gras!         quickly lay your eggs in the grass!¹

Little boys made nests out of their hats, and little girls from their bonnets, which they then put outside in the grass on Easter Eve for the Oschter Haws  to lay his eggs for them.  The eggs they found the next day may have been a dark rusty brown from the onion skins their mothers had used to dye them the preceding Maundy Thursday, but no matter.  A child’s imagination is a place where colors are mixed the hue of the heart. 

Tags: Pennsylvania German Collection, Rare Book Department

Had Daniel Schumacher (1729-1787) been an ordinary man, we probably would never have heard of him.  His bad habits of drinking, swearing, lying, and dancing, amongst others, were not uncommon among the men of his day.  But he was a man of the cloth, or better put:  One day he hoodwinked Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg, founder of the Lutheran church in America, with credentials from the Lutheran pastor of New York city and from the ministerium of Lutheran pastors in Hamburg, Germany.  Their contents indicated he had studied theology in a German university and was now ready to be ordained.  Mühlenberg assigned him “ad interim” to a new Lutheran congregation in Reading, Pennsylvania, and to two neighboring congregations in Alsace and Schwarzwald.  Correspondence traveled slowly, and by the time letters had crossed and re-crossed the Atlantic concerning his status, it mattered little that his credentials were false, and that he harbored many bad habits unbecoming to a Lutheran minister.  In the interim Schumacher had worked his way into the ministry.

The story, of course, might have been different had there been enough ordained preachers willing to circuit ride and preach to the Lutheran settlers on the Frontier, but Daniel was intelligent, talented, and strongly felt his calling as he bravely ministered to those on the edges of civilization.  His congregations loved him not only for his bravery, but also for his humanity.  They could relate to him, and knew he would understand their foibles and weaknesses.  When Mühlenberg sought to dismiss him, Schumacher broke away, built his own church, and took most of the congregation with him.  He preached to those who lived among the Blue Mountains in northern Berks and present-day Lehigh Counties, and served approximately 20 congregations in his lifetime.

An artist and poet, Daniel Schumacher is one of the few ministers who is also known for his Fraktur—calligraphy and decorative elements such as birds and flowers used by the Pennsylvania Germans to create baptismal certificates, book plates, school rewards, writing samples, etc.  Schumacher kept very detailed records of all baptisms, and when he hand drew and colored the Taufscheins (baptismal certificates). The baptismal certificate for John Martin Baly,¹ ca. 1755 (Image 1) is but one example of the approximately 1,700 baptisms he performed. 

Daniel also made other types of Fraktur such as confirmation and marriage certificates, bookplates, and poems.  His poems are varied in theme and content.  In August of 1769 a comet appeared in the skies of Pennsylvania, frightening many as a sign of coming destruction. Daniel agreed and created A Call to Judgment (Image 2) to ask sinners not to take chances, and to repent.  Could God also be benevolent?  Yes, indeed, and in his New Year’s greetings of 1782 (Image 3) Schumacher embodies a Pennsylvania German tradition of wishing God's blessings on friends and family during the Christmas season.

Rejoice my heart for a New Year begins.   Sing unto God a joyous hymn for all that which has been good.  Give thanks unto Him for all His blessings that you’ve received in the year just past.  Ask of Him His blessings in the New for all your needs.  For great is His renown, great are His wonders, with which He has dearly preserved you up to now.  Harken to this in all your ways my soul that God might further bless and keep you.  In all that you do, in all things along your way, step by step, will He crown you a thousand times over.  This I take to heart in this New Year, that now within our world another blessing be made to all of Christendom.  That I might do my duty, not tire, nor lessen in my resolve.

To my esteemed Jacob Grimm, my friend, and benefactor:

I wish that heaven may preserve his house, and all within—his wife, children, and kin—their good fortune be under God’s protection.  May their bread basket n’er be empty, with blessings to overflowing, and may the light of their oil lamp never dim.  May it not be for naught, like Peter when he fished so long ago.  No!  May God’s benevolence and goodwill be ever with you. By day and by night be true unto God only.  Peace, joy, health, and happiness be on all your paths.  May God be in your house and upon you so that you may remain happy for the whole year.  May you accept with joy what God has in store for you.  Finally, when you must take leave of the world, may God delight in lifting you up to heaven. 

Herewith I commend myself unto your favor and love.  My heart wishes that you remain my friend.  This I wish to all of them, that is to the esteemed church elder Jacob Grimm, and to his family for the New Year 1782.

Their pastor

Daniel Schumacher

Weisenberg Township [Lehigh County, PA]

m.p.p. (by my own hand).

[Transcription/Translation 2012 : Del-Louise Moyer]

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¹The Free Library of Philadelphia is home to more than 1,000 Pennsylvania German Fraktur – making this one of the largest public collections of Fraktur in existence.  The images that accompany this blog post are part of the FLP collection, available online at http://libwww.freelibrary.org/fraktur/.

Tags: Pennsylvania German Collection, Rare Book Department, digital collections, genealogy

By Edward G. Pettit

The conviviality of the Dickensian world is nowhere more apparent than in Dickens’s Christmas books and stories. From Mr Pickwick celebrating at Dingley Dell to Scrooge offering Bob Cratchit a talk over a bowl of smoking bishop, Dickens knew that Christmas “was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness.” Dickens himself always celebrated the holiday with feasting, games and a brimming bowl of wassail punch. Join us as we ring out the Bicentenary Year of Dickens by toasting the Inimitable Boz at his favorite time of the year at our final Drinking with Dickens event. 

Years before the Cratchit Family was hip-hip hooraying their Christmas goose and pudding, Dickens had written about the Christmas that Mr Pickwick and his friends celebrated at Dingley Dell. They feasted and danced and told stories and drank many a bowl of punch. From Chapter 28 of The Pickwick Papers:

Tags: Charles Dickens, Rare Book Department, Year of Dickens

Three Moravian Manuscripts in the Pennsylvania German Collection at FLP

The Pennsylvania German Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia contains a  wealth of valuable research materials available to scholars and the general public.  Among these are three Moravian manuscripts:

   •   The Theodor Schulz Diary, 1785-1844

   •   Clavier und Singstücke für Charlotte Sabine Schropp, January 1799

   •   Music Copybook of Sarah Horsfield, July 14, 1803

Thanks to a 2011 grant from the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities  Save America’s Treasures program, all three Moravian manuscripts have been conserved by the Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts in Philadelphia, and the Clavier und Singstücke für Charlotte Sabine Schropp, January 1799 will soon be available online as a fully digitized FLP e-book.


Introduction

Reading Theodor Schulz’s diary, or looking at the music copybooks of Charlotte Sabine Schropp and Sarah Horsfield  is a very personal journey.  Stepping back into time in Part One of If I’m Happy, Then I Must Sing we shall first explore the background common to all Moravians. In Part Two we shall make the acquaintance of Theodor Schulz, and join him as he confides to his diary his interests and observations during a four month stay in Pennsylvania from August to December, 1799.  In Part Three we shall meet Charlotte Sabine Schropp, and shall learn more about her family and music copybook begun in January 1799. In Part Four we shall be introduced to Sarah Horsfield and her family, and see from examples in her music copybook started on July 14, 1803 how musical culture and life were changing both in Europe and America at the turn of the nineteenth century.  In the process we shall also get a glimpse of the Moravian society in which these three individuals lived;  learn how they contributed their talents and skills; and what political and religious  thoughts molded their spirits and minds.  N.B.  All transcriptions of the German script and translations are mine.

Background Common to All Moravians

Moravian culture in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was designed to be part of an international uniform whole.  Moravian settlements and mission outposts were found everywhere across the globe.  No matter in what part of the world, everyone was following the same worship schedule, using the same liturgical materials, and living according to the same set order and communal organization.  The result was that there were no political or geographical boundaries for a Moravian.  He was a citizen of the world, and that world was Moravian no matter where he found himself.

Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, German religious and social reformer and bishop of the Moravian Church, so conceived the Moravian mundane life that every portion of it was in some way associated with God, and music was at its core.  It was part of the church services, especially the Singstunde  (Hour of Song) which was an occasion to worship exclusively in song.  Hymns taught and comforted, and were all pervasive.  One sang them at every occasion, and from memory, and the melodies learned were categorized by association. For example, when the trombone ensemble played from the bell tower, one knew by the melodies if a death were being announced, and to which choir house the deceased had belonged.  There were the love feasts¹, and the individual choir house festivals² where music played a prominent part.  Sacred and secular music were performed both with and without instruments for worship, as well as  for one’s own enjoyment.  The first performances in America of works by European classical composers such as Franz Josef Haydn, Carl Phillip Emmanuel Bach, as well as others, often occurred in Moravian performances at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  Life in a Moravian community offered certain benefits, and most definitely one of the most important was the musical life of the community.

²Choir house festival ~ Moravians lived in the 18^th and 19^th century by the choir system, where members with similar life experiences (age, gender, marital status) worshipped together, and lived together such as the single brothers, single sisters, married couples, widowed men and women, etc.  Most choir houses celebrated their own special festival in which music played a prominent part.

Please be sure to visit our Facebook gallery for more images pertaining to these three Moravian manuscripts ~ Borneman Mss. 117, 142, 143.

For additional related Moravian resources, please visit the  Moravian Archives website.

Preservation of the Free Library of Philadelphia's Pennsylvania German manuscript collection has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this post do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Tags: Pennsylvania German Collection, Rare Book Department, music