FROM THE CRADLE TO THE GRAVE

Folklorist Arnold Van Gennep's term "rites of passage" offers a handy way to view an individual's symbolic progression through life, from birth to death, at each step moving ceremonially into a new status within his society. One's natural life stages were marked by the religious rites of baptism, confirmation, matrimony, and the funeral. Our broadsides illustrate each of those transitions.

BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE BY HENRICH DULHEUER. Dulheuer published the first German-language newspaper in Baltimore and the second in that state. He was also the first printer in America to imprint his name on his Taufscheins. This example, printed in 1786, is unusual in that the vital statistics, typically filled in with pen and ink by hand, were printed with type. Although the blank form was intended for Marylanders, Dulheuer modified this certificate for people from Pennsylvania. After his publishing business failed, he became a religious fanatic, roaming the country preaching "universal love and independent liberty," thus earning him the appellation "The Old Traveler."

G. S. PETERS BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE. This Harrisburg print, from the 1830s, was the most popular and widespread Taufschein published for the Pennsylvania Dutch. It appeared in both German and English versions. Its angel and bird woodcut motifs, which Peters himself is credited with making, were often pirated or adapted by other publishers.

VICTORIAN BAPTISMAL CERTIFICATE. Printed by the Trexler firm in Allentown after the Civil War, it reveals changes in symbolism and décor when compared with the Peters example. The angels have put on a bit of weight and, no longer clad in the turn-of-the-century Empire style, wear flowing Victorian printed silks. Unlike the stylized folk-art creatures of the earlier certificates, the specimens illustrated at the top are magnificently plumed birds of paradise.