Title

Birth and Baptism Certificate for Johannes Huber

Printer

Wilhelm Schopflin (1777-1825)

Preview

Accession Number

PAG1998.176

Creation Date

1814

Description

Printed Taufschein with women in purple and green colored gowns at sides, small angels in upper corners, floral vine in lower center.

Dimensions in Inches

12 3/8 x 14 3/4

Dimensions in Centimeters

31 x 37

Materials

Watercolor and ink on laid paper

Technique

Drawn, Hand lettered

Print Shop Location

Chambersburg, Pennsylvania

Associated Places

Franklin County, Pennsylvania

Category

Birth and baptismal certificate (Geburts-und-Taufschein)

Motifs

angels, flowers, floral

Associated Names

Benjamin Huber, Elisabetha Risser, Johannes

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

Script/Text

Fraktur lettering

Language

German

Transcription

Tauf=Schein.

Wann wir kaum geboren werden,/Ist vom ersten Lebenstritt/Bis ans kühle Grab der Erden,/Nur ein abgemeßner Schritt./Ach, mit jedem Augenblick,/Weichet unsere Kraft zurück;/Und wir sind mit jedem Jahre,/Allzureif zur Todenbahre.

Und wer weiß in welcher Stunde,/Uns die letzte Stimme weckt. Denn Gott hats mit seinem Munde/Keinem Menschen noch entdeckt./Wer sein Haus nun wohl bestellt,/Geht mit Freuden aus der Welt./Da die/Sicherheit hingegen/Ewigs sterben kann erregen.

Dießen beyden Ehegatten, als:/Benjamin Huber und seiner Ehelichen Hausfrau/Elisabetha geborne Risserin ist/ein Kind zur Welt gebohren; im Jahre unseres/Heylandes 1809 den 23 Tag August/Dieße Kind ist gebohren in Franklin Caun=/ty, in dem Staate Pennsylva: in Nord=Amerika;/und ist getauft worden und erhielt den Namen/Johannes den ten Tag im/Jahr unsers HERRN JESU von Hrn/ /Die Tauf=Zeugen waren: /

Ich bin getauft, ich steh im Bunde, Durch meine Tauf mit meinem GOTT!/So sprech ich stets mit frohem Munde, In Kreutz, in Trübsal Angst und Noth,/Ich bin getauft, deß freu’ ich mich,/Die Freude bleibet ewiglich./Ich bin getauft, ob ich gleich sterbe, Was schadet mir das kühle Grab?/Ich weiß mein Vaterland und Erbe,/Das ich bey GOTT im Himmel hab:/Nach meinem Tod ist mir bereit Des Himmels Freud und Feyer=Kleid./Ich bin getauft in deinem Namen, GOTT Vater, Sohn und heiliger Geist./Ich bin gezählt zu Deinem Saamen, Zum Volk, das Dir geheiligt heißt./O! Welch ein Glück, ward dadurch mein; Herr, laß mich deßen würdig seyn.

Translation

Baptismal Certificate

When we are just born…

To both of these spouses, Benjamin Huber and his legal wife Elisabetha born Risser is a child to the world born, in the year of our Savior 1809 the 23rd day of August. This child was born in Franklin County, in the state of Pennsylvania in North America and was baptized and received the name Johannes the day in the year of our Lord Jesus by Mister . The Baptismal sponsors were .

I was baptized, I stand in the union…/I was baptized, if I die immediately…/I was counted among your seed…

Comment

Printer Wilhelm Schöpflin printed several editions of Taufscheine from c. 1813-22 with imagery symbolizing the French Revolution. Earlier versions had a woman on the left carrying a bundle of fasces and a pole with a Phrygian cap on the end. She stood on a pedestal with an image of the American eagle on it. The right-hand woman embodied numerous elements of neo-classicism, from the empire-waist gown she wore, to the column and urn standing by her. Around 1817, Schöpflin began using new images but ones still associated with the French Revolution, including a woman on the left carrying a flaming sword and a woman on the right with the bundle of fasces, carrying a set of scales. Around 1822, Schöpflin gave up propagating the Revolution on Taufscheine and replaced the two female figures with the popular verses “ich bin getauft...” and “wann wir kaum geboren..." Schöpflin also included the earlier politicized imagery on broadsides he printed, complete with a shield-bearing American eagle at the top center.

Condition

Good

Published

Stopp, Klaus. The Printed Birth and Baptismal Certificates of the German Americans. 6 vols. (Mainz, Germany, and East Berlin, Pa.: privately published, 1997–99). vol. 2, pp. 48-59 illustrated.

File Format

.jpeg

Type

image