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Fraktur, that exquisite script formed with ornate letters and highly decorated borders, was created for nearly 90 consecutive years by a series of teachers in the Mennonite schools in communities northwest of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Because Mennonites were not known for producing paintings and other two-dimensional art, this well-developed practice of making quill-lettered mottos, certificates, and rewards is particularly outstanding. Historian and fraktur expert and collector Mary Jane Lederach Hershey tells about these Mennonite-run schools, the unusual teachers who oversaw them, and the artistic tradition they carried forward and passed on the their willing students. Outstanding among these teachers was Christopher Dock, esteemed for his abilities to teach, to understand and motivate students, and to create highly refined fraktur work. Hershey explores what shaped this respected approach to education and fueled this imaginative productivity. She explains the techniques used to make fraktur and comments on the work itself--its style, what influenced it, its design motifs, and colors. The book includes rich full-color photographs of more that 100 pieces of fraktur made between 1747 and 1836, complete with English translation of their German texts.
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