Preview
Decorator
John Van Minian (active circa 1805-42)
Accession Number
PAG1998.020
Creation Date
1830
Description
Profile drawing of woman in black dress with sheer neckerchief, holding a tulip, large yellow and red tulips at sides with red diamond and black border.
Dimensions in Inches
9 3/4 x 7 3/4
Dimensions in Centimeters
25 x 20
Materials
Watercolor and ink on wove paper
Technique
Drawn, Hand lettered
Associated Places
Limerick Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania
Category
Birth certificate (Geburtschein)
Motifs
tulips, flowers, women
Associated Names
Jacob Slichter, Rosanna, Esther Slichter
Rights
Please contact the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College for permissions which fall outside of educational fair use.
Source
Ursinus College Library Special Collections and the Philip and Muriel Berman Museum of Art
Provenance
Pennsylvania Folklife Society
Language
English
Transcription
Then said the lord to moses/thou art a getting old I sent to thee/young Joshua for he is fierce and/Bold he shall Convey my Children/over Jordans waving ford into the/land of Jericho according to my/word.
Translation
Esther Slichter daughter of Jacob and/Rosanna, She was born on the 19 day of/November in the year, 1822./Limerick township Montgomery County Pennsylvania
Comment
Little is known about fraktur artist John Van Minian. About twenty pieces of his work, in both English and German, are known. Examples exist for families in Montgomery and Berks Counties, Pennsylvania, in Maryland, New Jersey, and even Vermont. Van Minian made a family register for the Slichter / Gunsinghouser family of Limerick Township, Montgomery County in 1826, most likely related to this Taufschein for Esther Slichter from the same area. An example very similar to this Taufschein is a religious text in the collection of the American Folk Art Museum, which depicts an almost identical woman, wearing a yellow dress instead, flanked by similar large tulips.
Condition
Good
Published
Minardi, Lisa. Roots: Ursinus College and the Pennsylvania Germans (Trappe, Pa.: Historic Trappe, 2019). p. 85, fig. 3.59. Earnest, Russell D., and Corinne P. Earnest.Papers for Birth Dayes: Guide to the Fraktur Artists and Scriveners. Rev. ed. 2 vols. (East Berlin, Pa.: R. D. Earnest Associates, 1997). vol. 2, p.177. Hollander, Stacy C. American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum. (New York: American Folk Art Museum in association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 2001). 219.
File Format
.jpeg
Type
image
Keywords
fraktur, Pennsylvania German, Pennsylvania Dutch, folk art, illuminated manuscript, taufschein
Image Location
Rights Statement
No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-NC/1.0/
This object has been digitized in a public-private partnership. As part of this partnership, the partners have agreed to limit commercial uses of this digital representation of the object by third parties. You can, without permission, copy, modify, distribute, display, or perform the digital object, for non-commercial uses. For any other permissible uses, please review the terms and conditions of the organization that has made the item available.
