Abbey Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum. A new museum building is going up at Colonial Williamsburg to display portions of the very extensive folk art collection. Here is hoping that the February, 2007 grand opening features many frakturs on the walls! Until then, check the special exhibits at the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum.
American Folk Art Museum. Look for special exhibits, rather than a permanent display. The former can be terrific, especially if drawn from benefactor Ralph Esmerian's collection, a serendipitous combination of taste and resources. The new building in mid-town Manhattan, New York City, is very cool.
Ephrata Cloister. Visiting the campus of this Protestant monastery in Lancaster County is a moving experience, whether or not you are interested in fraktur. If you are, you will stand, transfixed, in front of surviving wall charts and decorated hymnals as your tour group shuffles past.
The Free Library of Philadelphia (navigate to About the Library/Collections/Rare Books/Pennsylvania German Fraktur...) and the Philadelphia Museum of Art . As with the American Folk Art Museum, you have to await special exhibits, unless you make your own special arrangements to see the richest publicly-held collections. The Museum has a crowded folk art display, squeezed into acres of elite art, with a fraktur or two. The Museum's Center for American Art at least promises new programs around the collections. The Library's Leaves of Gold could be a model for new forms of display. See also Weiser and Heaney's catalog (Pennsylvania German Society, 1976).
Heritage Center of Lancaster County. This strong, active group operates both a textile museum and a cultural history museum in downtown Lancaster. The latter features a handful of well researched examples.
Mennonite Heritage Center. If you are looking for an accessible, permanent display of beautiful fraktur, this is the place. The home of the Mennonite Historians of Eastern Pennsylvania, near Harleysville, PA, has a Fraktur Room managed by their very knowledgeable Librarian and Curator, Joel Alderfer. It begs the question of why more comprehensive institutions with deeper resources could not do the same.
The Metropolitan Art Museum. The quiet, rich ambiance of the American Wing is a favorite destination, though there are only one or two fraktur to be seen in the reconstructed Pennsylvania German Room. Maybe that's just my reaction to wonderfully cacophonic Manhattan. There are some good folk objects in the glass cases of the Luce Center for the Study of American Art .
The Pennsylvania State University, Paterno Library, Special Collections Library. The Rare Books and Manuscripts department displays some 270 images from their holdings, including many fraktur. Look for the "Visitor" link. There is little commentary as yet but the cataloging and organization are exemplary models.
The Reading Public Museum. This is a surprisingly pleasing and informative museum with a well designed Pennsylvania German gallery, featuring two dozen frakturs you can simply walk up to and look at (wonder of wonders!) Nice job, Reading!
The Schwenkfelder Heritage Center. Fraktur-wise, this is another very rich collection that becomes visible only in periodic special exhibits. The upside is that the recent exhibits have been organized to very high standards by excellent staff. You should visit them at their newly expanded building in
Pennsburg, PA.
Winterthur Museum. The fraktur room in this former estate in Delaware is the most comprehensive permanent display of quality pieces. It preserves the collection of a discerning DuPont heir and the pieces are wonderfully selected, conserved, and displayed. Getting in requires some homework, though, so read the Web site carefully.
The York Heritage Trust . OK, Lewis Miller's drawings may be more fraktur-ish than fraktur but who cares? YHT's permanent Miller exhibit (on the mezzanine of their building in downtown York) has got to be one of the more charming museum experiences in Pennsylvania. Insider tip: check out the sauerkraut barrel incident. |
