Fraktur Background

In the late 1600s, many people from the German lands in Europe immigrated to America and began to put down roots in southeastern Pennsylvania. As they sought to combine their German traditions with their new way of life in the New World, a new aspect of culture emerged that was considered both documentary and artistic in nature. Documents, which came to be known as Fraktur, abounded in Pennsylvania German communities. The most common of these were highly decorated personal papers that chronicled an individual’s life events such as birth, baptism, confirmation, and marriage. Other Fraktur include house blessings, book plates, rewards of merit, hymnals and writing samples.