Samuel Gottschall (18001898) was an American

fraktur Fraktur () is a calligraphic hand of the Latin alphabet and any of several blackletter typefaces derived from this hand. The blackletter lines are broken up; that is, their forms contain many angles when compared to the curves of the Antiqu ...

artist. Born into a family of teachers, Gottschall was a resident of the

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...

community of

Franconia Franconia (german: Franken, ; Franconian dialect: ''Franggn'' ; bar, Frankn) is a region of Germany, characterised by its culture and Franconian dialect (German: ''Fränkisch''). The three administrative regions of Lower, Middle and Upper Fr ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. His father, Jacob Gottschall, was a preacher and bishop as well as a sometime teacher; with his students he produced books of musical notation. Three of Samuel's siblings were educators as well; one, Martin, also produced fraktur. Neither of the two signed his work, and it is difficult to tell the two apart; their paintings have become popular among collectors because of the colors and imagery employed in their creation. Neither of the two men married; they worked as millers after the end of their teaching careers, operating a property on

Perkiomen Creek Perkiomen Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Schuylkill River in Berks, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, Pennsylvania.Gertler, Edw ...

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

. Samuel was a weaver as well, and among his surviving documents are his weaver's record book and weather diary, both of which have proven instrumental in identifying his work. Surviving frakturs from Gottschall date to the years 1833 to 1836, and do not appear to postdate his teaching career. Several of his works are in the collection of the Mennonite Heritage Center. Others are owned by the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, the

Free Library of Philadelphia The Free Library of Philadelphia is the public library system that serves Philadelphia. It is the 13th-largest public library system in the United States. The Free Library of Philadelphia is a non-Mayoral agency of the City of Philadelphia gove ...

and the

American Folk Art Museum The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...

. Gottschall's style inspired other artists, including John Derstine Souder.

References

1800 births 1898 deaths American male painters 19th-century American painters Artists from Montgomery County, Pennsylvania Fraktur artists Schoolteachers from Pennsylvania Painters from Pennsylvania 19th-century American educators 19th-century American male artists {{US-painter-stub