Flying Leaves and One-Sheets: Pennsylvania German Broadsides, Fraktur and Their Printers

Early American printers amplified messages by setting them in type, adding decorative borders and other ornamental devices, and printing them as single sheets called broadsides. Flying Leaves and One-Sheets explores eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Pennsylvania German broadsides, including examples of fraktur (illuminated sheets). For almost two centuries, German- and English-language broadsides circulated among Pennsylvania Germans and their descendants throughout Pennsylvania, western Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley, Ohio, and beyond. This book provides a sampling of broadsides made for the Pennsylvania German subculture, often referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch."
The 134 illustrations in Flying Leaves and One-Sheets demonstrate the typographical skills of German-language printers in North America from the mid 1750s to 1876. Selected for graphic appeal, range of subject matter, and historic interest, these broadsides show the attitudes and literary appetites of Pennsylvania Germans as expressed in printed matter. Known for their love of color and decoration, Pennsylvania Germans often hand-illuminated broadsides so that many are classified as fraktur. Flying Leaves and One-Sheets will appeal to readers in Pennsylvania German visual arts, culture, and history.

2005