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Image Gallery - Set Apart: Religious Communities in Pennsylvania

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Fraktur
"Fraktur" are decorated manuscripts or documents...

Ephrata fraktur, circa 1760.
The first fraktur created in North America...

Taufschein
The most popular type of American fraktur...

Art in Lettering
Most fraktur created before 1900 used German...

Symbolism
Some scholars believe the forms and characters...

"Taufschein" or circa 1801 birth and baptismal certificate.
Most early fraktur were created by schoolmasters...

Religious Text
Many types of frakur were created for many...

Decorative Drawing
Fraktur was also created simply for fun....

Penmanship Model
Fraktur was sometimes used by schoolmasters...

Haussegen
Another common type of fraktur was a house...

Story Telling
Relatively rare are fraktur that relate stories....

Personalized
Beginning in the early 19th century, some...